Amtrak finally comes around to bikes on long distance trains

Featured in Streetsblog -- The nation’s intercity passenger rail service just got a lot bike-friendlier.

Amtrak announced last week that it is installing new baggage cars - equipped for bike storage - in all trains on its long-distance routes by year’s end. The change will allow Amtrak riders to “roll on” their bikes, rather than disassembling them and transporting them in boxes. The new baggage car equipment is being tested in Chicago, New Orleans, Miami, and the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak officials said in a blog post.

Amtrak officials hinted the more convenient bike transport was in response to demand from consumers. Campaigns aimed at securing assembled bike storage aboard Amtrak routes have been waged in New York and other states. Only a handful of Amtrak routes currently allow a limited number of fully assembled bikes. [Full story ...]

Poster's note:  Wally Hertler's Annual June Tour (with WCBC) regularly uses Amtrak when going one-way. But with bicycles not allowed on trains, other arrangements have to be made. Usually, this involves loading them on a one-way rented box truck driven by willing volunteers. Maybe things are about to become a whole lot easier?

Participants in Wally's 2007 Tour of Vermont and New Hampshire exit Amtrak's Vermonter at its terminus in St Albans.

In 2010, Wally captures some much needed sleep aboard the Vermonter, en-route to Saint Albans. That year, the Tour headed west and south through the Adirondacks and Catskills before entering NJ and PA and ending in Delaware.

Using checked baggage in 2011, Tour participants unbox and re-assemble their bikes after the long train ride to Greenville, SC. This was an epic Tour that followed the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.

A box truck waits at the Wilmington, DE train station as participants load up their bikes and some belongings (2007 Tour) before boarding the train.