Expanding travel possibilities with bikes on trains

As someone who enjoys train travel as well as exploring places without a car, I am excited about Amtrak and commuter/regional railroads’ expansion of the number of routes and stations on which passengers may bring unboxed bicycles. Bikes on trains has long been popular on the West Coast and in other countries, but it has taken a while for East Coast train services to catch up. The delivery of Amtrak’s “Viewliner II” fleet of baggage cars from CAF USA late last year has enabled the secure storage of unboxed bikes on several Eastern medium- and long-distance routes that are now fully equipped with them. I would anticipate the service to expand as more routes see Heritage baggage cars completely replaced with Viewliner IIs.

In order to experience this new service first-hand, I brought my bicycle along for a single-day round-trip yesterday from Washington, DC to Richmond, VA (Staples Mill Road station) on the Palmetto. Overall, my experience was positive. All the Amtrak staff I interacted with were friendly, and both trains 89 and 90 were close to on-time. However, there was some disjointedness in the way different employees handled the walk-on bicycle, which seemed to indicate lack of training or experience with the service. 

I arrived at Washington Union Station 45 minutes before train 89’s departure and went to the baggage counter, where after showing my eTicket document that indicated I had paid the $20 per leg fee for bike carriage, I was told to head straight to the gate with my bike. I took the elevator to the platform at boarding time and walked my bike all the way to the baggage car at the rear of the train, and waited for the conductor to finish boarding passengers. But before the conductor could get to me, a baggage handler appeared inside the car, took my bike (which I handed up to him), and secured it in the baggage rack. He was surprised that the baggage desk hadn’t given me a claim check for the bike, and asked me to find him at Richmond to retrieve my bike (he was traveling there too). 

Upon arrival, the Richmond baggage handler retrieved my bike when asked (mine was the only bike on the train) without claim check. I then spent the afternoon winding through Richmond’s historic neighborhoods and on a bike trail along the James River, pedaling a total of just over 20 miles round-trip from Staples Mill Road Station. On the return trip, the Richmond ticket agent (after a moment of confusion and indecision) gave me a claim tag to place around my bike’s handlebar and stapled the attached passenger claim check to my eTicket document. The baggage handler at Washington inspected and tore off the claim tag before handing my bike to me from the baggage car.

On the Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Crescent and Carolinian, walk-on bicycles are accommodated in the baggage car, which is inaccessible to passengers. This means that — for now — bikes can only be carried between staffed stations and it is up to a conductor or baggage handler to take the bike from the passenger and secure it in the baggage car. On all other Amtrak routes with bike carriage, the passenger is responsible for securing his or her own bike in the appropriate place, which generally means that bikes are also accepted at unstaffed stations. The only long-distance train so far to handle bikes this way is the Capitol Limited, where eight vertically mounted bike racks have been installed in the previously unused lower-level baggage compartment of one of the Superliner coaches, which is accessible to passengers to load and unload their own bikes. The only other Eastern route that accepts bikes at unstaffed stations is North Carolina’s state-supported Piedmonts, which have unique state-owned baggage-lounge cars with bicycle racks in the baggage area. Bicycle reservations, generally with a fee, are required on all bike-carrying routes except the California corridor services, on which bike racks are unreserved and first-come, first-served.

As Amtrak’s equipment pool expands and awareness and use of the current bike-plus-train services on the East Coast increases, the point should be reached where Eastern and Midwestern trains operate the same way West Coast ones do when it comes to bikes. There should be space on just about every train for passengers to carry on and secure their bikes at any station, and space should be ample enough that no charge is necessary to ration its use. This is already the case, at least on certain trains (generally excluding rush-hour trains in the peak direction of travel), on all of the Northeast’s commuter and regional railroads

The most glaring absence of bike-on-train service is along the Northeast Corridor. Overnight Northeast Regional trains 65, 66 and 67 already have Viewliner II baggage cars, so they should be next to host bikes, at least at staffed stations. Then perhaps any remaining Viewliner II baggage cars not used on trains that already offer checked baggage (or those replaced by Viewliner II bag-dorm cars as those come into service) can be added to other select Northeast Regional trains. Perhaps a section of these cars could be roped off to allow passenger access for loading and unloading of bikes at stations without checked baggage service — made easier by the fact that most NEC stations have high platforms that are level with baggage cars’ doors. Then should come the Vermonter, the upstate New York routes, and the Downeaster. I am aware that there have been bike trials on the Vermonter, Adirondack and Ethan Allen Express, involving the replacement of two cafe car tables with horizontally-mounted bicycle securing devices.

The ability to bring a personal bicycle on board a train greatly expands the number of destinations accessible without a car and broadens the potential for bicycle-based tourism. Like on-board food service and other standard amenities, it should be seen as part of the basic package that broadens the appeal of passenger trains and makes them more marketable. A train is a more versatile vehicle than a bus, plane, car or van in terms of what can be done with its interior and what it can carry. Greatly expanding bicycle carriage is one great way of taking advantage of that versatility.