Checking in for the train to Montreal

[MrJake]

Hi all - first time poster, long time lurker.

I'll be taking the train from NYP to Montreal in a few days, and someone mentioned that I might have to check in early if I'm crossing the border. Amtrak won't respond to my emails, so I'm fact-checking that here. Do I have to do anything special for my international train?

Thanks!

 

[Anderson]

I know you'll need your passport (this wasn't the case a decade ago, but it's now required to go into Canada), but other than that I don't know about anything special.

 

[Heading North]

I've never done this going to Montreal, but I did need to do it for a trip on the Maple Leaf many years ago (2000) and I've been in Penn Station enough early mornings to see this happen.

At some point before boarding (I think it starts around 6:45-7 am for either/both trains), a booth will be set up near the Amtrak Police stand, next to the waiting area, and all passengers traveling to Canada will be asked to check in. When I did it, I just had to present the ticket and travel documents (passport and/or other ID), and my ticket was stamped. My impression is that it's mostly to verify that your name is correct and that you have reasonable ID to potentially cross the border, as opposed to getting to the border and finding out you have no papers whatsoever.

Anyone who's done it more recently, please feel free to chime in.

 

[MrJake]

Thanks guys, now I know to get there a little earlier. Hope our train isn't massively delayed at the border...

 

[Bob Dylan]

Hi all - first time poster, long time lurker.

I'll be taking the train from NYP to Montreal in a few days, and someone mentioned that I might have to check in early if I'm crossing the border. Amtrak won't respond to my emails, so I'm fact-checking that here. Do I have to do anything special for my international train?

Thanks!

You will also be given Special Luggage Tags to fill out and Must Carry On your Luggage, there is No Checked Luggage on Cross Border Trains!

 

[Long Train Runnin']

When you arrive into NYP there will be a table set up in the main Amtrak concourse with a sign saying something along the lines of Canadian Check In and IIRC it was more toward tracks 1-4. From there an Amtrak employee will look at your ticket and your passport stamp them, and give you special luggage tags that you place on each carry on item.

 

[NYC_Writer]

Last time I took the train from New York to Montreal (and back) I used my New York enhanced drivers license instead of a passport. Saves carrying around an extra item. The enhanced license is sufficient documentation for land travel between US and Canada, but not air travel.

 

[MrJake]

I'm glad someone bumped this thread, because I have another question. Is there any way of knowing whether we'll have one of the Park Service guides on our train? Is this just for the months that the Adirondack has the dome car?

Trip is tomorrow! I'm really excited.

 

[Trogdor]

You will also be given Special Luggage Tags to fill out and Must Carry On your Luggage, there is No Checked Luggage on Cross Border Trains!

There is no checked luggage on any short-distance trains to/from NYP, except for 66/67. Being cross-border isn't what causes the Adirondack to not have checked baggage (in fact, it used to not only have checked baggage, but also its own specially painted baggage cars about 10 years ago).

The Cascades service to/from Vancouver, BC, does offer checked baggage service.

 

[nferr]

The last time I took the Adirondack, probably twelve years back, they had the early line-up at Penn. At that time I had my drivers licence and current voter registration card. They tried to turn me away saying i had no proof I was a citizen. I told them you had to be a citizen to vote and everything verified to my drivers licence to prove it was me. Anyway they tried to tell me I would be refused entry into Canada and would be on my own at the border crossing. I told them fine - I'll take the risk. After a bit of an argument I just walked onto the train and they gave up. When we got to the border crossing the Canadian agent looked at my licence, looked at my voter reg card, told me to have a nice time in Canada and that was that. After getting to Montreal I continued on to Halifax on the Via Ocean in a roomette round trip and had no problem taking the Adirondack back either.

Today of course I would take my passport.

 

[MrEd]

Could be changes are coming for the process.

"Commissioner Alan Bersin referred to the potential changes at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing chaired by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer has voiced frustration with current customs procedures for the Adirondack, which has the train stop at the U.S.-Canada border for up to two hours. (On a trip last October, Railway Age Managing Editor Douglas John Bowen recorded waiting times of 49 minutes northbound, clearing Canadian customs, and 1 hour 45 minutes southbound, clearing U.S. customs, on a New York-to-Montreal round trip.)

Bersin said his agency is exploring the possibility of opening an inspection facility in Montreal that would serve Amtrak passengers traveling to New York. Customs and Border Protection operates in such a matter in Vancouver, British Columbia, served by Amtrak’s Cascades Service trains.

During the hearing, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) urged Customs and Border Protection officials to work with Vermont state officials to help restore New York-Montreal Amtrak service routed through Vermont, which could offer potential economies of scale to any new Customs inspection plan for Amtrak Montreal service. Amtrak’s Montrealer was discontinued in 1995."

http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/customs-revamp-eyed-for-amtrak-adirondack-3151.html