Amtrak Cascades Service discussion
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I've been inspected for contraband food while driving across the border into Montana at backwater crossings. I suspect it gave the agents something to do. I had read the rules, so had no problem.Betcha you didn't declare the leftovers
I am a frequent border crosser myself, both on the Cascades and in my own car. The inspection process on the Cascades is much more similar to an airport inspection than crossing in a car and can be more intrusive/intense than the officer at the booth at a highway crossing generally is. If you are carrying a bag of take out, you will be told to toss it.
Personally, I don't push the food rules at all (which are the same for any mode). The details are quite complex should you want to get into them (avocados are apparently okay, oranges are not), but a simple rule of thumb is packaged products are okay except meat, not commercially packaged, no.
I am a NEXUS member, and NEXUS members are expected to know and abide by ALL the rules without being asked or prompted. That is the "trust" part of "trusted traveler". I am anxious to protect my NEXUS card, it is just too damned handy. There are few quicker ways to have a NEXUS membership revoked than to violate the food/ag rules.
When in doubt, declare.
IIRC, USAF transports have rear-facing seats for this reason.
Also, so do most airlines for their Flight Attendant seats…
west point
Engineer
So, here we have a shortage of Coaches. Yet Amtrak is trying to fill coaches on the NEC with very low fares. The logic does not compute.
I've been checking and it looks as though the additional cars mentioned above have been added, because coach space is available on some trains each day. Some trains are even going for fares less than the top bucket. Business Class still is squeezed.
Septa9739
Lead Service Attendant
I think it’s a matter of equipment position. Certain NEC runs leave WAS or NYP at inconvenient times to balance equipment and better serve peak runs. To me it makes a lot of sense to sell cheaper fares on some of these runs as some of the trains are effectively deadheads anyway. I can tell you anecdotally the NEC has been very busy lately given the time of year. It’s like SEPTA offering off peak fares to try and lure people onto runs that support the big rush hour traffic.
Noob to the boards here, but grew up in Central Illinois & frequently took Amtrak to Chicago - are the Horizon cars on the Cascades the same we had in the midwest for years and years? I ask because when we had large school groups, the conductor (or car attendant) would let us flip the seats around in pairs of 4, wasn't sure if these Horizon cars are like that or not. Was sorta hoping to be on a Talgo train - booked on 517 in May to Portland from Van, figured it would make a scenic day instead of sitting in traffic enroute to SeaTac on FlixBus, then dealing with the airport.
I also assume Nexus doesn't do anything special for us in Van on departure, either?
Fare to Portland was QUITE cheap - only $51. Was expecting it to be a lot more. If we are in the older Horizon cars, then I'm definitely glad I didn't splurge on 'business class'.
I also assume Nexus doesn't do anything special for us in Van on departure, either?
Fare to Portland was QUITE cheap - only $51. Was expecting it to be a lot more. If we are in the older Horizon cars, then I'm definitely glad I didn't splurge on 'business class'.
This is likely to lead to a thread split, but...
Amtrak is also trying to drive up ridership, I suspect. There was one train ride I was on last year from...I forget if it was WAS-BAL or BWI-WAS (I think it was the former)...where Amtrak's fares were lower than MARC. I've seen the same thing on the Virginia trains a few weeks out, and VA has an explicit goal of pushing up ridership.
Also, though Amtrak didn't explicitly say it, this special coincides with the addition of an additional off-hour round-trip WAS-NYP: Northbound, 180 has been moved about an hour later (from 0430 to 0525) and 170 added at 0405; while southbound, 177 was added at 2205 (this latter bit was a glaring schedule issue - previously, the last SB Regional was 175, at 1940). They also seem to have slipped another Acela or two into the mix (last I checked I didn't think that Acelas were running after 175, but one might have; but 2175 (2105 out of NYP) and 2150 (0500 out of WAS) are also both back. There are still a few Regionals missing, but I don't have the energy to figure out what's still "missing" vs 2019/2020.
They're still down three Acelas (plus the non-stop, of course) vs the late 2019/early 2020 schedule:
-NB, the 1000/1100 trains have been replaced by a 1030; 1300 is completely gone; and the 1700/1800 trains have been replaced by one at 1730.
-SB, they're running an 0530 out of NYP (the previous earliest SB Acela was [generally] 0600) and there's a "missing number" here; 0800 is missing, as are 1200 and 1900.
1. Yep, same cars.
2. Seats are turnable (most Amtrak seats are, which the NTSB is not entirely happy about). They usually require a crew member to operate them, though, and conductors usually frown on people trying it DIY. Usually they are set up in push-pull service, like the Cascades, with half one direction, half the other and the crew doesn't turn them at terminals.
3. The remaining ODOT Talgo(s) are on the 500/505 pair last I looked. Doubt they'll show up on either the 516-519 or 517-518 Vancouver trains, ever.
4. NEXUS doesn't do anything for you in Vancouver, except not having to drag out your passport. I recall someone saying somewhere, they'll let you use the shorter BC check in/US inspection line with it, but I've never tried it.
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zeph, thanks! A friend that drives UP trains along this sector said the same, and the scenery isn't all that south of Seattle (could be because he works that section?). Was hoping for checked luggage, but I guess these consists don't have a bag car (unless cafe/baggage horizons still exist). Happy to throw some money at Amtrak and enjoy the ride!
They do have checked baggage service. At Vancouver, BC, baggage check is done trainside by the Amtrak crew after clearing US Immigration inspection.
Confirmed sighting of a Talgo set running on 505 today. So still running on the 500/505 pair.
Saw it near Kalama driving back from Winterail.
Saw it near Kalama driving back from Winterail.
On Tuesday night at 2215 PDT, almost everything on PDX>SEA for next Sunday, March 26th is sold out. The only openings from PDX to SEA are $206 roomettes on Train 14 and the highest buckets coach and business class on clean-up Train 508. SEA to PDX still has openings in coach on all trains, but business class is sold out on all trains.
I looked at a trip on the Zephyr from BRL to GSC on Tuesday, and it was around $700 for my granddaughter and myself. Wednesday morning, it was $903! What happened? I had looked at several dates on Tuesday, and they'd all been the same. When I looked at the jump on Wednesday, I checked all the dates again, and they were all $903. What happened?
"Supply and Demand!"
Somebody bought the last roomette that last roomette remaining in the lower bucket's inventory, so it rolled up to the next higher bucket with open inventory. Possibly Amtrak's yield managers reallocated inventory among the buckets. The first is somewhat more likely, but the second is possible, especially since it appeared to happen to multiple dates simultaneously.
In any case, bucket jumps are routine. Just goes to show if you see a price you like, grab it. It may well disappear at any moment, as you have seen.
Septa9739
Lead Service Attendant
Coach has now sold out PDX-SEA on the AT 1505 and has only one seat left on the AT 1200. AT 820 has move to the $59 bucket and AT 1925 has moved to $66.
Coach capacity still doesn't seem to be adequate either.
Coach capacity still doesn't seem to be adequate either.
I wonder if Amtrak can send more Horizon cars out west, now that the Venture cars are rolling out in the Midwest.
The $4 one way rail/bus fare in 1968 would be $35 in today's money so comparable to today's bus fare but the Amtrak fares are much higher, Interesting.
Note those are pretty much last minute fares, this coming Sunday, in high travel season and therefore higher bucket.
If booked a little further out fares are much lower. For Saturday 8/5 there are $27 Amtrak fares available. That's the lowest Saver bucket.
True. I'm mainly concerned about Sold Out issues on corridor routes. Customers need some flexibility and the top bucket fare on Wednesday may mean a train that is sold out by Saturday. In studying this, I've found that it sometimes goes the other way, for example when Train 7/27 fails to appear, space opens up on the Cascades and lower fares are offered.
I wonder what the precise capacity difference is between the 4 car Horizon sets and the Talgos. Wikipedia says Horizon coach capacity is 68-72. Using 68 to be conservative, that's 204 coach, plus, say, 16 BC. Unfortunately, I don't know the capacity of the Talgo sets. My guess, and it's only a guess, is it was more, like around 300 coach. I am virtually certain they had more in BC.
Septa9739
Lead Service Attendant
I agree capacity is again a major issue on the Cascades. Friday is totally sold out PDX-SEA; Saturday and Sunday are much the same. Per Wikipedia the new Venture sets will handle about 300 passengers, while the 12 car Talgos can fit 304, so the current difference is probably 75-100, or just about a whole coach. Maybe they will find a need to exercise options on their Venture order.
trimetbusfan
OBS Chief
Conductor on the cascades once told me the Talgos seat about 280 people total.
Also, talgo buisness class cars hold around 18-20 people each, and there are 2 on each train, so there is like 36-40 business class seats.
Horizon BC has like 15 seats, so is less than half that.
