eTicket Question

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Porter20

Train Attendant
Joined
Mar 29, 2012
Messages
48
Location
Orlando, FL
While I expect this to be a simple question, it's just easier to ask the nice people on here!

Living in Florida, I don't have the chance to use Amtrak as much as I would enjoy. Recently I have been lucky enough to average one or two trips a year. In the past, I would book my trip online & they sent me a page to print out - which had a bar code. I would take this paper to the train station, scan it at the ATM looking maching & my tickets would print.

This time - it sent me a one page document. It doesn't have bar code but more of QR code. I am guessing that this is my boarding pass & other than printing it out; I don't have to do anything else (exchange it, scan it or somehow redeem it for other tickets). My past trips have been out of a small station which has been easy. This one is out of a major city with a much bigger station so the more I know - the more I am going to feel comfortable.

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The printout is all you need. That is your e-ticket. Your conductor will scan the QR code onboard your train(s). Your are required to carry photo ID matching the name on the e-ticket although I have not been required to show it.
 
The document you're describing is indeed your ticket. The QR code is scanned by the conductor and then you're all set for your trip. Keep in mind that you have one hour or one stop to get your ticket scanned. After One Hour or One Stop which ever comes first your ticket will be cancelled and put into an eVoucher. If you get on at PHL, and your ticket isn't scanned by the end of ticket collection at TRE or WIL your ticket is then cancelled.

Hope this makes some sense.
 
Even if you "forget" that paper with the QR code, the conductor can also "scan" your ticket by you giving him/her your name and they can look it up in their scanning device. Or if you have a smartphone, you can just show the QR code on your phone's screen, and that can be scanned.
 
Rusty Spike & Acela150 - Thank you for your responses. It does make sense now. I am leaving out of NYP and just could invision showing up to my train and being told I needed to print out tickets & then I am left running around crazy in this big train station looking for that machine. I know - highly unlikely - but this is the kind of stuff that rolls around in my head.
 
If you are traveling Ina sleeper from NYP to ORL, you are also entitled to utilize the Club Acela (CA) at NYP while waiting for your train to depart. (The CA is located to the left of the ticket windows and opposite track #7.) If you want a ticket you can hold (a paper ticket), they can print you one at the desk in the CA!
 
There have been some active discussions about the types of codes that Amtrak currently uses. This is what I can tell from scanning various tickets using a code scanned on a smart phone.

Interleaved 4/5 bar code format representing a numerical ticket number

all tickets issued at Amtrak ticket windows.

multi-ride tickets (monthly or 10-ride) printed at Amtrak ticket windows or Quik-Trak kiosks. The ones at QT kiosks are noticeably shorter.

QR Code representing the reservation number and date of purchase

e-Tickets sent as email attachments

display in Amtrak phone app.

PDF417 representing the reservation number and date of purchase

iPhone Passbook e-Ticket

e-Tickets printed at Quik-Trak kiosks.

If you really want to have a ticket on Amtrak ticket stock similar to airline boarding passes, you can still request one. You can have this done at any Amtrak ticket window. If you have the credit card used for the reservation, you can slide that into a Quik-Trak kiosk which will look up the reservation and give you the option to print it up.

The bar code page you mentioned is still used for 10-ride or monthly passes reserved online. For those, the current requirement is that the actual ticket must be on Amtrak ticket stock. The 10-rides are supposed to be punched for every use along a line marked 1 to 10.
 
If you really want to have a ticket on Amtrak ticket stock similar to airline boarding passes, you can still request one. You can have this done at any Amtrak ticket window. If you have the credit card used for the reservation, you can slide that into a Quik-Trak kiosk which will look up the reservation and give you the option to print it up.
You DO NOT need the credit card that was used to make the reservation. You just need ANY credit card just to activate the QT. then you can then input the reservation number to obtain the ticket. Of course, if you do have the actual card, it will show all reservations made with that card. You can also activate the QT by using your actual AGR membership card (not the AGR MasterCard).
 
I frequently use my AGR card to use QT's.

As far as tickets printed at a Ticket Agents window, The past two tickets I've turned in for upgrades have had the 3D code and not the 2D barcode. The first one was in May. That was in BOS CA and PHL.
 
I frequently use my AGR card to use QT's.
......The past two tickets I've turned in for upgrades have had the 3D code and not the 2D barcode. .........
You mean the QR Code?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
More likely PDF417 like from the QT kiosks.

496px-PDF417_Example.svg.png
 
I frequently use my AGR card to use QT's.
......The past two tickets I've turned in for upgrades have had the 3D code and not the 2D barcode. .........
You mean the QR Code?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
I meant QT as in Quik Trak. I always use my AGR Card to activate the machine.

But as far as code. When I said 2D I meant the traditional Barcode you find on a box of cereal. As far as 3D the code that is posted in the post above and quoted in this post.

I frequently use my AGR card to use QT's.
......The past two tickets I've turned in for upgrades have had the 3D code and not the 2D barcode. .........
You mean the QR Code?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code
More likely PDF417 like from the QT kiosks.

496px-PDF417_Example.svg.png
Yes this code is printed at QT's and at Ticket Agent's Computers. At least the past two times I've exchanged a ticket.
 
But as far as code. When I said 2D I meant the traditional Barcode you find on a box of cereal. As far as 3D the code that is posted in the post above and quoted in this post.
Just to avoid confusion, a UPC code (like on a box of cereal), is a one dimensional code (1D). It can be scanned in a straight line from one end to the other, with no difference as to whether the laser that's doing the scanning is on the top or the bottom or the middle of the code.

QR or PDF417 (like the QuikTrak) are 2D codes. They operate in two dimensions (there's information encoded both vertically and horizontally). Those codes aren't read by a laser just making one line across the code, they're read with a camera and software that makes sense of where all the pieces are and how to decode them.

A 3D code would have to be some sort of holographic storage.
 
But as far as code. When I said 2D I meant the traditional Barcode you find on a box of cereal. As far as 3D the code that is posted in the post above and quoted in this post.
Just to avoid confusion, a UPC code (like on a box of cereal), is a one dimensional code (1D). It can be scanned in a straight line from one end to the other, with no difference as to whether the laser that's doing the scanning is on the top or the bottom or the middle of the code.

QR or PDF417 (like the QuikTrak) are 2D codes. They operate in two dimensions (there's information encoded both vertically and horizontally). Those codes aren't read by a laser just making one line across the code, they're read with a camera and software that makes sense of where all the pieces are and how to decode them.

A 3D code would have to be some sort of holographic storage.
It is possible for a laser to read a 2D code. It's harder to implement though, which is why cameras are typical.

I was told the laser on the scanners that Amtrak use actually reads barcodes, and serves as a centering marker for the camera with 2D codes.
 
You can also activate the QT by using your actual AGR membership card (not the AGR MasterCard).
If your AGR card is plastic with a magnetic stripe. I lost mine a while back, and eventually called to get a replacement -- what I was sent just a paper "card," not even worth the trouble to put in my wallet (don't need to carry it around just to have my member number handy, since the AGR MasterCard also does that).
 
Traveler - thanks for the reminder about Club Acela. We don't have them in Florida so I completely forgot that we are eligible. Now I will have somewhere to go when the wife has me at the station 2 hours early...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top