Report: travelling with an unboxed bike on Amtrak Pacific Surfliner/Thruway Bus combo

[Yogy Namara]

Following the workers ride of the San Jose to Oxnard point-to-point 600k brevet from San Luis Obispo Randonneurs, I took Amtrak back with my bike, unboxed. I wrote a short pictorial report of my experience:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152809389333339.1073741842.654153338&type=1&l=90ceb94205

YMMV, but I found the experience pleasant. If there's anything to complaint about is that the free but mandatory bike reservation doesn't work online, and you must call and talk to a live agent to set it up. You can make the bike a lot more secure if you use straps/bungee cords (bring your own), or even just putting the parking brake on (squeeze the brake lever somehow, or just adjust the brake pads to close it up), but I didn't do any of those and my bike went through it just fine (for some definition of "fine", my bike is obviously not showroom quality to begin with).

Bike capacity with the bus is low, and clearance is pretty tight. I didn't care to look and read the fine print, but usually there's no guarantee with these kinds of things even with reservations. Doing this for one or two riders is probably no big deal, but for a larger organized event it may be problematic, and it may be a good idea to be wary of their reservation system and preemptively spread out over multiple buses.

Yogy

[Ann Klein]

Thanks for the tips, Yogy. 

Several of us have reserved boxes for the end of the SLO 600, but I can't see how they would fit on that bus. 

I will also make a reservation for the bike.

If it turns out that the boxes don't work, I am considering wrapping jackets around my precious Gunnar frame. Or perhaps buying some beach towels to do the same.

Thanks for being our advance team!

Ann

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[Yogy Namara]

Hmmm my guess is that if you are boxing the bike anyway, then you might as well take Coast Starlight. It'll cost extra for luggage handling, but tired and grumpy handlers aside, I think they'll have plenty capacity for it. It'll also be a nicer ride; if the one and only time I rode Coast Starlight following 3CR is any indication, iit's a much nicer train, a double decker with huge clear viewing windows, swivelling chairs, even a bar that serves alcohol if I remember correctly.

The Pacific Surfliner I took was much more subdued by comparison, and the window next to my seat has a yellowish tint to it, if you care about that sort of details. I didn't explore the rest of the train, sorry, I only went as far as the restroom, but I think I did overhear an announcement about food serving of some sort.

The bus is also somewhat of a bouncy ride (although that could be in large part due to my pounding headache). Supposedly there's a pro-tip here somewhere regarding finding a more comfortable seat relative to where the wheels are or something like that, but I just sat where I was because it was a 4-seater conference table with only one other person in it.

I chose Pacific Surfliner-Thruway bus combo instead of Coast Starlight because (and I could be wrong on some of these, actually):

(i) it's cheaper ($55 no extra fees)
(ii) it's faster (7h44m)
(iii) it's the earliest option (9:21am - 5:05pm)
(iv) it does NOT require boxing the bike

Yogy

[Ann Klein]

My bad. We ARE taking the Coast Starlight.  I somehow imagined it was the same as the Pacific Surfliner.  Probably hired the same branding agency :-)

Thanks for the tips. Can't wait!

Ann

[Drew Carlson]

Biking and AMTRAK is usually okay, but there are always a lot to policies and occasional quirks to consider when bringing the bike.  For instance, Tuesday and I took Coast Starlight from SLO - Salinas last year.  I know SLO has boxes, so, when we showed up to board, they had SLO station under construction (maybe fumigation?) and didn't have boxes.  Fortunately, we talked AMTRAK into putting unboxed bikes into baggage car, arguing that AMTRAK's website/app didn't indicate any issue with bike boxes at SLO.  

On another occasion I learned just in time that you can't show up at any AMTRAK station with a boxed bike and expect to get it on the train.  You can only do this at stations that accept baggage.  

My takeaway is this:  Unless it's a regular commute route for you, always call ahead to the departure location/time/train to make sure you can do what you expect with a bike.  It's best not to be in a hurry, either.  

FWIW, AMTRAK is experimenting with a no-bike box policy on some longer routes at the moment, but I don't think any of them are on West coast.  Sure hope this gets easier at some point.....

Drew

[Denise Primrose]

The Coast Starlight takes luggage and bike boxes have been requested for this station so they are expecting us. 

Yogi, we paid $51 and don't have to ride any busses. The "luggage" fee for my bike is totally worth it. Our train is leaving at 11:45, only an hour 15 later and we will have food, booze and each other for company. In my book, a great deal!!

Denise 

Sent from my iPhone

[Robert Sexton]

I took the Coast starlight last year home from LA, and it was a nice day.   The lounge car is great.

Re: Boxes - I tried this last year when I did the Reno-Mendocino ride.   Amtrak has special wedge-shaped boxes.   You will need to remove your pedals and remove or turn the bars, and it will just roll backwards into the box.   I'll be bringing a pedal wrench.

One caveat - you need to allow plenty of time for baggage handling with Amtrak.   In the end, an hour before departure just wasn't enough.    The buses work pretty well for bikes, if they are not too packed.

- Robert

 

Robert Sexton

[Benjamin Goldenberg]

As Robert alludes to, make sure you have plenty of time to box up your bike! And make sure your pedals will come off easily. I had a stressful experience a couple years getting to the station late, wrestling with a stuck pedal, all while being scolded by an Amtrak employee. Of course, the train was then 2 hours late and we had plenty of time :)

I'd loosen the pedals at home the night before, and gently tighten for the ride over to the station. Other than that, it's a breeze. The boxes are much larger than typical bike shipping boxes and easy to pack.

Someday soon, we'll supposedly be able to wheel bikes straight on and off all the long distance routes. It was supposed to be done end of 2014, and it's not done yet, so we'll see what actually happens.... Think of the flèche, dart and permanent opportunities it'll open up!

http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/06/new-baggage-cars/

http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/12/amtrakforward/

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/06/24/amtrak-to-begin-welcoming-bikes-on-long-distance-routes/

Have fun,

Ben

[Roland Bevan]

This video might be helpful for people who haven't boxed for Amtrak before. As mentioned, the boxes are huge. If you loosen your stem/headset bolts to turn your bars make sure you know how to re-adjust and properly tighten the bolts to avoid damaging your headset bearings. A sharpie or a couple of small pieces of tape are also handy here to mark the position of your bars/stem before loosening so you can easily restore that position later.

Crank Brothers pedal users - the pedals have no wrench flats so make sure you have a big enough hex wrench to loosen those pedals. I spent an enjoyable hour walking in the rain in Canada to buy a bigger hex wrench when my little multi-tool didn't provide enough leverage.

  -Roland

[Denise Primrose]

Thanks, Roland. Tape!! I'm bringing tape! And if others are nice I'll share... :-)

Denise Primrose

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Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 19:51:28 -0700
Subject: Re: [SFRandon] Report: travelling with an unboxed bike on Amtrak Pacific Surfliner/Thruway Bus combo
From: r...@alouysius.net
To: bgold...@gmail.com
CC: rob...@kudra.com; denisep...@hotmail.com; w.drew....@gmail.com; annk...@gmail.com; yogy....@gmail.com; sfra...@googlegroups.com