So I need to travel next weekend, and since Amtrak offers reasonably convenient service (assuming it runs more or less on time) I decided to give it a try. I made reservations on their website, which was tolerably user friendly.
But because I did this less than 10 days ahead, they assess a $15 “express ticket delivery charge.” Apparently because I will be embarking at an “unattended” station, I must have a pre-printed ticket, which they can’t be sure will reach me in time without using some sort of express service and charging me for this. They also note that I must be home to sign for the delivery - though they of course don’t know just when this will be attempted. I hope it all works.
My question is, why? It seems to me that they could easily give me the option of printing my own ticket, or could have the ticket (or an electronic record of it) available on the train when I board. Instead, they are using what looks like an antiquated system that adds extra hassle and cost (in this case about 35%).
It looks like you answered your own question… Amtrak has an antiquated ticketing system, and the most advanced way of delivering tickets that they currently have is a self-serve kiosk, which can be installed in stations where they don’t have a proper ticketing office. Any chance you can get to one of those before next weekend? Obviously it’s up to you whether going out of your way to get to said kiosk is worth saving $15
Amtrak doesn’t use electronic tickets, which the airlines have mostly switched to years ago. All the things you asked about only come with electronic tickets.
Before electronic tickets, airline tickets had the same issues.
If by “electronic tickets” you mean “wave a barcode at the thingy in the station and it prints a ticket” then Amtrak has those. I used it last weekend. You can also retrieve your tickets by sticking your credit card in the machine, too. Works just like self-serve kiosks in airports.
But if they don’t have one of those machines at the station you are departing from, you may be boned.
It’s going to be annoying if I learn that the surcharge applies only to an advanced purchase, and I could have avoided it simply by walking on the train with cash.
I’m unclear on what is the advantage (either to me or to Amtrak) of receiving a ticket in the mail vs. printing it at home.
They don’t check tickets until after the train leaves the station so if you don’t have a ticket I guess either you buy one or they kick you off at the next stop.
No, the actual ticket is the paper item the machine printed. That’s not the same as an electronic ticket. One difference is that if you were to lose the paper ticket you just printed, you’d be out of luck – the ticket itself is what has value, not the information in the computer.
According to this page on the California Department of Transportation site, there is no service fee if you purchase a ticket from a conductor when boarding at an unattended station (don’t know if Amtrak California policies are different than other areas).
That said, I don’t know if the price paid on board is the same as the pre-purchase price online.
Last time I took Amtrak in 2001, Chicago to NYC, that’s how I got my tickets. I went to Union Station in Chicago, I stuck in my credit card and got my tickets. Of course that was before all the added security.
Amtrak doesn’t allow you to purchase tickets on board. That went away shortly after 9-11, IIRC.
The whole Amtrak system of tickets and reservations, ARROW, is antiquated. One interesting example that causes new riders a lot of confusion is that the system cannot understand ‘through’ cars–cars that begin on one train and are switched to another train to continue on. The Texas Eagle will take you from Chicago to San Antonio, and tri-weekly, there is a coach and a sleeper that connect to the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to Los Angeles. But through the ARROW system, a ticket on one of the through cars will show as train 421, rather than the Eagle’s number, 21. The system is set up as though there were two distinct trains, when that’s not the case.
This leads to some interesting fares. Because Amtrak uses a bucket system similar to airlines, the more seats sold on a train, the more expensive the remaining seats become. So say the Texas Eagle, train 21, is mostly empty–you could get a good, cheap fare. But if for some reason its through cars are mostly full, your fare could be twice as expensive or more, for a seat/sleeper on the exact same train.
Anyway, my understanding is that even at flag stops, you’re required to have purchased a ticket ahead of time.
To avoid the delivery charge, you could buy the ticket at a staffed station, or purchase it via phone or internet and pick it up at a staffed station. Another option would be to call the next staffed stop after you get on board and arrange for that ticket agent to print the ticket and have it ready for the conductor. I have done that before, but a) I’m a known person to the crews and agents, and b) this isn’t a terribly busy part of the country.
A perfect example would be our OP, if travel was desired for tomorrow. They’d call Amtrak, get told no ticket could be delivered on time, and to see the conductor when the train arrives.
Well how about this. So we bought two tickets on the Acela from NYC to Boston a few months ago. We were just there for a few days. The day we were to return my boyfriend finished his meeting early. So I called Amtrak on the phone and asked if it was possible to change to the earlier train. They noted it in the system, told me it would be a $60 change fee and that I could reprint the tickets at the station. We arrived at the station and there was a line out the door for a live person. I went to the machine. It recognized my reservation and re-printed the tickets. No amount came up, nothing at all that said it was charging my credit card, nothing asking me to approve any charge or changes.
We boarded the train and came home. THEN we realized on our AMEX that Amtrak charged us for BOTH tickets. We were charged an extra $300+. We called and they said that that is what happens when you go to the booth. They said “it is to prevent you people from booking twice to make sure you get a seat”. We mentioned that we have been on the train several times without a seat so they cannot be too concerned about the comfort of their customers.
They said that they would send us a form that we could complete for a refund. Six weeks later no form, but we were sent a customer survey about our experiences. I thought it was a sick joke.
Amtrak has a monopoly and they still cannot make a profit. Perhaps they need to update their antiquated systems. The ticket machines are meant for convenience. They are clearly trying to con customers out of money since most people are used to the ticket machines at airports which are meant to make things easier.
Bottom line … we are now taking the shuttle between NYC and Boston and will never take Acela again. We also have AMEX trying to work with Amtrak to get the tickets refunded.
Weird though… we recently travelled to New York (from Washington DC) and when I bought the tix online, I had to print out a bar-coded form. Which I then scanned at a ticketing machine at the train station. You’d think they’d have those nearly everywhere.
That makes sense in the Northeast corridor, but Amtrak has an awful lot of stations. I’m not sure how you’d service ticketing machines at stations across North Dakota or New Mexico.
And it would be a real problem to go to an unstaffed station and find the Quiktrak machine was broken.
Regardless of where you are boarding, do you ever pass by an AMTRAK station? You can pick it up anywhere AMTRAK has a station.
My problem with AMTRAK online is that will not accept a US debit card if your address is not in the US. The reason is that my address does not have a US ZTP code and the bank rejects it automatically. (The bank says, “Tough.”) So I have to use a Canadian credit card and pay the outrageous exchange rate (around 3%, I think). But AMTRAK does have a rep in Montreal and I can actually get the tickets there.
Back the last time I used Amtrack (which would have been in '99 or so), it was still possible to use the same ticket for any train traveling that route, so if you missed your train and had to take the next one, or showed up early enough to catch the previous one, you just used the same ticket with no fuss. Is this no longer the case?
Amtrak is one of the pointed problems I point to about government solutions. It is an antiquated, horrible excuse for a transportation solution.
Google Maps knows about 3x more about where I live than Amtrak does. I can’t just enter departure and arrival zip codes and get possible train rides: I have to enter EXACTLY the names of the cities, which are listed in alphabetical order instead of by region.
Also, even with government subsidies, its rides costs almost the same to my driving myself. I could go to sleep on the train, admittedly, but I can also depart at any time I want in my car.
Wow, I wonder why Amtrak doesn’t actually make money? Of course, part of their problem is that the USA is so spread out compared to something like Europe. But still, I’ve taken them twice ever.