Group travel?

[Chicago1990]

Hello, has anyone ever encountered large groups such as a school field trip or a church youth group traveling on Amtrak? If so does Amtrak make special arrangements such allowing the group to travel in a car to themselves? I have seen this done on Metra with school trips. Thanks

 

[OBS]

In order to officially have your own car, you need to purchase a minimum number of tickets, and will also depend upon origin/destination.

The group department can give you more details.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Hello, has anyone ever encountered large groups such as a school field trip or a church youth group traveling on Amtrak? If so does Amtrak make special arrangements such allowing the group to travel in a car to themselves? I have seen this done on Metra with school trips. Thanks

Besides the Safety Patrol Train from Florida to Washington DC( with the Whole Train Reserved for Youngsters and their Adult Chaparones),the Southwest Chief usually has a Coach Reserved for Boy Scouts and their Leaders attending the Philmont Ranch Scout Camp in Northern New Mexico during the Summer.

The Texas Eagle( before the Pandemic) used to have a Coach Reserved for School Kids to ride the Train between Austin and Taylor during Spring/End of School Activities.

 

[Chicago1990]

So has anyone on here ever seen large groups travel via Amtrak?

 

[jis]

So has anyone on here ever seen large groups travel via Amtrak?

I have seen large Boy Scout groups get on and off the Southwest Chief at Raton NM. It is actually not unusual at all, and has been a regular fixture of that train.

 

[JC7648]

I have seen a tour group utilize the Zephyr to go from Chicago to Salt Lake City for some sort of national parks trip. Also there's the standard groups of Amish & Mennonites that appear on the Zephyr & Chief, not nearly large enough for their own car though.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

TrainJam pre-pandemic start off with just renting cars for there group usage. Then when to renting the full train out.

 

[Bob Dylan]

While not actually a Group per se, @ the St Louis Gathering our Founder arranged for us to have our own Car( a Coach but a few members had Biz Class Tickets so we were able to visit there also) when we took an AU Group Day Trip from St Louis to Kansas City. ( unfortunately no longer possible due to "Political Meddling" by the Missouri Lege)

Also,a couple ot times AUers riding the Coast Starlight filled up the Pacific Parlor Car ( RIP) for Dinner since slots were limited for Meals.

 

[Maglev]

The prep school I attended in Concord, NH, would reserve a coach from Boston to New York for school vacations. In more opulent times, there was be a special train from Concord to New York.



From August Hecksher, St. Paul's: The Life of a New England School, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980, p. 169.

 

[hmy1]

Over the years I have encountered school field trips on the Pacific Surfliner several times. In all of the cases, the conductor was aware of the group and kept the last car closed until the group boarded mid-line.

There have also been point-to-point cycling events down the coastline that used the Surfliner to get back to the starting point. Given the size of these events, I'm sure they made arrangements with Amtrak, especially since the normal Surfliner trainset only carries less than ten bikes each.

 

[MARC Rider]

The summer camp I attended when I was 8, 9 and 10 participated in a "camp train" that ran from GCT up the Housatonic River Line to the Berkshires (presumably to Pittsfield, though we got off in Great Barrington.) This was in the early 1960s and the New Haven ran the train. I seem to recall the cars were pretty beat up, but it was a fun ride, anyway, kind of like a New Yorky version of the Hogwarts Express. They passed out cartons of milk at Danbury, that was all the food we got. The other cool thing about this was that I got to ride the PRR from Philly to New York and spend a night in Manhattan in order to catch this train.

When I was 14, in 1968, our Scout trip to Philmont involved riding the CB&Q Denver Zephyr, and we not only had a car to ourselves, we also had our own dining car that served food that I'm sure wasn't as good as the stuff served to the regular passengers. It was still a fun ride. They let us go visit the rest of the train, ride in the dome car, and I bought a pizza in the "Chuckwagon" car to supplement the inadequate fare we got in the diner.

More recently, on Amtrak, I saw what looked like a school group on a class trip get on the Cardinal at Prince, WV, and get off at White Sulfur Springs. I was in a sleeper, and I don't know whether they had a car to themselves. Amtrak also runs charter trains. In fact in 2018, they ran a charter train taking Congressional Republicans to the Greenbrier at While Sulfur Springs that hit a garbage truck at a grade crossing in Crozet, VA..

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/train-carrying-gop-lawmakers-retreat-hits-trash-truck-n843311