Im pretty sure the new kiosks are capable hardware wise of doing a video connection with an agent. Not sure the feature has actually been implemented but I believe with the machines they put in it’s supported. They are at most large major stations and intermediate medium sized stations on the NEC have them too. Some state corridors have them at more stops than just the big ones - they’re typically at stations that see a few trains a day or more. I saw them the other day at Chicago. My home station (Springfield MA) has one and I know I saw a few at Moynihan the last time I was there and I know New Haven has one. I was in LA back in November and I’m pretty sure I saw one or two of them there.
Is Quick Trak still around to print tickets?
- Thread starter adamj023
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BCL
Engineer
I remember when Multi-Ride was one. I had the weirdest issue with one where I had it printed out by a Quik-Trak kiosk and the machine just stopped printing about 3/4 of the way through and then said it was out of order. I saw the ticket stock and pulled out the ticket where most of the bar code was missing. However, it had a reservation number and a ticket number, as well as all the punch out spots. I was able to use it, but every time I rode with it, the conductor had to look up the reservation number since it didn't have a functional bar code to scan.
I could buy a multi-ride ticket online, but the most I would get was a receipt with a bar code that could be scanned at Quik-Trak or at a ticket window to print on the spot. And back then it couldn't be reprinted as a "live" ticket.
I think the last holdout is California Rail Pass tickets. Not sure how they handle it since the Amtrak ticket stock no longer has any perforations. And I remember those perforation were way too easy to tear off where I had to tape the stub to my multi-ride passes.
You must obtain hard-copy tickets for all travel. Your pass is not valid without a corresponding ticket. A ticket is required for each travel segment and must be obtained prior to boarding. Please bring identification and be prepared to present it.
BCL
Engineer
There are quite a few stations where it's staffed but there's no Amtrak kiosk. Mostly seems to be at stations where there might be one or two employees working and it's just one train per day. Like Salinas, California.
Quik-Trak used to be pretty common at unstaffed stations, but usually where there was at least some sort of shelter. GAC had one, where part of the station was under an overpass. Same in Berkeley, where the station is directly below University Ave. I asked a conductor about OAC (Oakland Coliseum) before and why it didn't have one, and he said that there was one that got vandalized and they decided to remove it rather than repair.
Not sure how it works, but they say that California Rail Pass still requires "hard-copy tickets". And I may have some experience with printing extra copies of e-Tickets as souvenirs.
Back when I made an emergency Amtrak reservation for EMY-LAX after the Southwest Airlines Christmas 2022 meltdown, I made sure to print up the official receipt on Amtrak stock. It's an option when printing e-Tickets at a kiosk. Looked way more official than the print at home receipt, and I was on the road for a week where finding a place to print it might have been difficult with just an iPad and iPhone. Made it easy to submit (to Southwest) my receipts for alternate travel. I did that on the road by just taking a photo of my receipt, Amtrak e-Ticket, and Southwest boarding pass. But once my ticket was used up, I wouldn't have been able to print a receipt any more on Amtrak stock, although I'm not sure if I could have asked for one at a ticket window.
If you go to the separate train pages on Amtrak, (https://www.amtrak.com/empire-builder-train for example), and click schedule, Amtrak's PDF schedule will show if a station has an Amtrak Kiosk at it, which I assume are the new machines. Looks like not many stations have them.
