What happens when you have reservation but no printed ticket?

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So as most of you know by now I am a conductor, based in Oakland. If you board a train at an UNSTAFFED, key word UNSTAFFED station with a reservation, your reservation is honored on the train. If you board the train at a station with a manned ticket office with out a ticket, you will be paying the highest available fare PLUS a 9 dollar surcharge and be getting a lecture from me. If you choose not to buy a ticket at my price you get off the train at the next stop and can talk to the PD about fare evasion. If you already paid, to bad, you will pay again, and it is between you and Amtrak to get your other ticket refunded. A physical ticket is required for travel, plain and simple. I know I sound harsh but Amtrak will fire a conductor that doesn’t sell the tickets correctly, and the policy states that ALL reservations are canceled once the train departs if they have not been printed into actual tickets. Therefore if you board at a manned station with no ticket, you do not have a reservation. This can be found in the back of the National Timetable where all the legal jargon is. Hope that clears up your question.
 
So as most of you know by now I am a conductor, based in Oakland. If you board a train at an UNSTAFFED, key word UNSTAFFED station with a reservation, your reservation is honored on the train. If you board the train at a station with a manned ticket office with out a ticket, you will be paying the highest available fare PLUS a 9 dollar surcharge and be getting a lecture from me. If you choose not to buy a ticket at my price you get off the train at the next stop and can talk to the PD about fare evasion. If you already paid, to bad, you will pay again, and it is between you and Amtrak to get your other ticket refunded. A physical ticket is required for travel, plain and simple. I know I sound harsh but Amtrak will fire a conductor that doesn’t sell the tickets correctly, and the policy states that ALL reservations are canceled once the train departs if they have not been printed into actual tickets. Therefore if you board at a manned station with no ticket, you do not have a reservation. This can be found in the back of the National Timetable where all the legal jargon is. Hope that clears up your question.
That's good to know, since we usually board at unstaffed stations and the machines can never find our reservations. Does that go for coach and accommodation fares on LD routes as well as regular fares on regional lines?
 
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I am considering taking the SWC east to CHI from Vegas (bus to Kingman, AZ). Normal fo me is to pick up my tickets at the station as I depart. An Amtrak Agent has informed me that I can not do this using the Van from the Airport location. The Agent informed me that I must book a minimum of 11 days in advance as all tickets to Vegas residents must be mailed. (her statement). I suspect that this does not apply to a potential trip starting in the LA area, in July.
The issue in this case is the van -- the van driver can't issue the tickets, and there's no Amtrak ticketing facility in Vegas. You can't pick up the ticket on arrival in Kingman because it's unstaffed.

If you are going to be at a staffed Amtrak location or QuikTrak before your trip, you can also pick up the tickets there.
 
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I live in Richmond, VA and I often depart from Main Street Station, which is unstaffed but has a QuikTrak. I normally print out my tickets from the QT, but on occasion I have made a reservations and paid cash to the conductor on the train. Last time I did it was on train 94, with a reservation connecting in WAS to train 29. I paid the full fare on train 94, and took the receipt to the ticket counter in WAS to get the ticket issued for train 29.

Another time I paid cash on train 94 going from Richmond to Washington. The fare was $23, which was the lowest bucket a few years ago. The conductor (or assistant conductor) didn't believe me, as he thought that fare was kind of low. But, he was able to look it up/call it in and confirm it while the train was en route.

And, several years ago, I boarded the Cardinal in South Portsmouth, KY, which is an unstaffed/non-QuikTrak stop (Amshack? Amshed?) on the side the tracks. I had my reservation number and paid cash. (This was when the Cardinal was still Superliner.)
 
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