Ticketing Station, Staffed Station, Checked Baggage station?

[UserNameRequired]

There was a different thread which was talking about firearms and needing to go to a "ticketing station". It seems locked now and so I am starting a new thread which I don't like to do because I waste moderators time to have to move it.
Is a Ticketing Station (a walk up desk with a person? a kiosk?) always a staffed station?
Is a staffed station always(or almost always) a checked baggage station?
Is a ticketing station is always a checked baggage station?
Are there any un-staffed stations with volunteer station attendants that have checked baggage?

Most curious question though:
Is it common for a baggage station not to be a ticketing station?

Or is it all random and need to be sorted out for each individual station on the Amtrak Station Information page?

 

[jis]

I have no idea whether all those proposed relationships hold, and frankly I as a customer don't care to know whether those relationships hold. I expect to be able to look up that information, and indeed I can....

When I have to figure it out, I expect to and indeed do simply look up the Amtrak station in Google with a search string like:

"Amtrak Shelby Station",

and then pick the item that comes up in amtrak.com. Usually in this case it would look like "Shelby, MT (SBY)"

Just click to that page. It typically tells you whether it is a ticketing station, checked baggage station and baggage storage station.

My vague theory is that firearms can only be handled in station that are "Baggage storage station", though it is possible that there are exceptions. I would be very surprised if checked firearms can be handled in stations that do not have baggage storage. Ideally, Amtrak should add a line specifically addressing handling of checked firearms, since Congress required it to provide facilities for it as widely as practical.

I don't think normal customers should need to know more than what is provided by Amtrak in their customer facing information interface on these matters, to use Amtrak service for anything.

Of course it would help immensely if Amtrak telephone agents actually know at least this much, which apparently is sometimes not the case.

 

[zephyr17]

There are several stations that have a ticketing agent but no checked baggage service.

Centralia, WA (CTL) used to have a QuikTrak kiosk but no agent. It no longer has a kiosk now. While I don't know of a current example of a station with a kiosk and no agent, it is certainly possible.

There's even at least one station, Columbus, WI (CBS), that has trainside checked baggage but no agent.

While probably 90% or more of stations with an agent have checked baggage, and like 98% of stations without an agent don't have checked baggage, they are still independent variables.

If there is a question about a specific station, look it up. It is also frequently a good idea to cross check the list of services with the "Hours" listing for the services.

 

[zephyr17]

My vague theory is that firearms can only be handled in station that are "Baggage storage station", though it is possible that there are exceptions. I would be very surprised if checked firearms can be handled in stations that do not have baggage storage.

Agreed. That is the one published service that Whitefish, which allows firearm checking, has, that Shelby does not. Process of elimination makes that a prime candidate for the cause It also makes sense as that would seem to
indicate Shelby doesn't have a secure baggage room, therefore nowhere to securely store a gun.

Stations that check baggage but cannot store it are pretty rare, though. Shelby's the exception, not the rule.

Of course it would help immensely if Amtrak telephone agents actually know at least this much, which apparently is sometimes not the case.

Amtrak agents' reliable knowledge and skillset is pretty much limited to quoting fares and issuing tickets. Their knowledge of ground truth in the field is limited, to say the least. To compound that, they sometimes seem to make up explanations. An example here is when the computer would not allow the agent to check firearms to Shelby. She told the poster that firearms capacity on his trains was full, completely booked up. Follow up and persistence by the poster finally revealed that firearms were barred from being checked to Shelby. The issue was the station, not that those those particular departures were full. That would make a difference to the poster as if the issue was just that the capacity, he might book to Shelby again and just try to book the firearms early to grab space, and be refused yet again. The agent either made an unwarranted and unsupported assumption, or just made it up.