# ND Trip on Empire Builder - pictures!



## lathamary (Nov 29, 2004)

Here is a little info and some pictures of our trip:

http://grantandlatha.hopto.org/Latha/traintrip.html


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## AlanB (Nov 29, 2004)

Glad you had a good time and thanks for the report.


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## EmpireBuilderFan (Nov 29, 2004)

Sounds like you had a great trip. I'm sure the hard part was getting to the Fargo station at way-too-early in the morning and returning home at even-earlier in the morning, especially with such a young child. It sure looks like he enjoyed the trip a lot more than he would have in a car.


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## gswager (Nov 29, 2004)

Glad that you had a wonderful trip!

As with baggages, a lot of stations don't do checked baggage. I agree with you that they're way too much to carry!


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## saxman (Nov 30, 2004)

Ah, looks like another North Dakotan on the site. The train proves to be very convenient for people here, especially with monopoly airline service (via MSP only) and very limited bus.

But yes, bags can be a problem. Many of the smaller stations don't have checked bag service, so they must be carried on board. Cities like Devils Lake, Rugby, Stanley, and many other small towns aren't big enough to have a staffed station with that service. So thats why many ppl carried on.

Chris


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## lathamary (Dec 1, 2004)

saxman66 said:


> Many of the smaller stations don't have checked bag service, so they must be carried on board. Cities like Devils Lake, Rugby, Stanley, and many other small towns aren't big enough to have a staffed station with that service. So thats why many ppl carried on.


I didn't know that about the stations not having baggage check. Thanks for the info  That explains a lot!

Over 100 people got on at Minot, though, on the way back and that is where the train got overfull. Many of those people came on with big bags, and I would think that Minot had baggage check.


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## AlanB (Dec 1, 2004)

lathamary said:


> saxman66 said:
> 
> 
> > Many of the smaller stations don't have checked bag service, so they must be carried on board. Cities like Devils Lake, Rugby, Stanley, and many other small towns aren't big enough to have a staffed station with that service. So thats why many ppl carried on.
> ...


Minot does have checked baggage, but just like airplanes, most people hate to check their bags. Especially since they don't want to have to wait for them, once they reach their destination.


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## saxman (Dec 1, 2004)

And to add to Alans comment, even though Minot has checked bags, both your departing city AND arriving city has to offer checked bags. Someone has to be at the station to put the bags on the train as well as take them off. So they could be going from Minot to Devils Lake, and they would not be able to check bags.

However there are some rather large cities that still don't offer checked bags. Austin, TX is a good example of this. Not sure how Amtrak determines which cities get the service or not.

Chris


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## battalion51 (Dec 1, 2004)

Demand. Tallahassee for example. Fairly large city, usually has pretty good numbers, but the demand for an Agent, much less baggage service isnt there. If there is checked baggage someone has to be there, not the case if the agent is only selling tickets. That's why 97 used to not accept Checked bags for SBG, and 89 and 90 didn't at WTH. Someone was usually there at WTH, but Checked Baggage forces someone to be there.


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## lathamary (Dec 2, 2004)

saxman66 said:


> And to add to Alans comment, even though Minot has checked bags, both your departing city AND arriving city has to offer checked bags.


Ahhhhh! Didn't think of that either


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