Is Quick Trak still around to print tickets?

[Tom C]

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.

 

[BCL]

AFAIK, the last holdouts on paper value tickets were Open Sleeper and USA Rail Pass and both have been cut over to etickets.

I think Group Sales might still be issued as paper value tickets, but you wouldn't have been getting those from a kiosk anyway.

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.

https://www.amtrak.com/california-rail-pass​

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]

Okay. Once upon a time I used the kiosks at FLG and TUS but they appear to be gone now,

The Quik-Trak kiosks were able to print paper tickets on the security paper ticket stock, so it was a way to receive tickets purchased online or by phone in the days before e-ticketing.

I assume the new kiosks can only print e-receipts. As far as I know, Amtrak has gotten rid of all paper tickets.

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.

 

[Cal]

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.

 

[BCL]

It's been a while, but I've used the new kiosks to get an "official" e-ticket on Amtrak ticket stock, even when I already had another form. As far as I know, these new kiosks can read any of the code formats (QR, PDF417, and maybe still some 1D barcodes?) that Amtrak uses and bring up the reservation information as well as print up a receipt (regardless of how the ticket was paid for). I bought a ticket through the Amtrak app but was able to print up the receipt as an option during ticket printing at a kiosk.

The trick I had was with a multi-segment ticket. I could go to a kiosk after using up a segment, scan the code (from any ticket form), and then print up an e-ticket that only showed the remaining segments. As long as the entire ticket wasn't used up, it would allow for a reprinting of the receipt. Once I asked a station employee at a ticket window for a paper format of my ticket from my virtual Apple Wallet ticket and I was given one. But once I tried doing that at another station and the Amtrak employee (who had seen me before) said he wouldn't do it. Something to the effect of "Save a tree!"

 

[JLChicago]

If you have a smartphone, they can email a ticket to you and the conductors can scan your phone or you can print it at home Southwest style.

I always use my printer to print out tix as a backup. You never know when your phone decides to die.

 

[alanh]

The e-receipts aren't "tickets" in the classic sense. They're just receipts that make it easier for the conductor to bring up your reservation on their iPhone. That's the real "ticket". You can still check in with just your name and an id.

Amtrak was using actual paper tickets long after airlines had switched to e-ticketing so it was hard to get people to realize that the paper ticket itself was the reservation and could not be reprinted. The point of paper tickets was that they did not need online validation, they'd be accepted directly. This was important for Amtrak because of the large number of unstaffed stations.

Because paper tickets were proof of the reservation, the tickets and the ticket stock had to be protected like cash. Otherwise you'd have issues with counterfeits that wouldn't be detected until after the conductor turned in the tickets at the end of the route. (And keeping this on the Quik Trak topic, it meant they had to have a vault like an ATM for the ticket stock.)

Reprinting or forged e-receipts don't work because they're validated online immediately. If someone has already checked in or the reservation doesn't exist the conductor will catch it right away.

I haven't seen one of the new terminals yet, but I assume they print on plain paper like an airline kiosk.

 

[BCL]

I always use my printer to print out tix as a backup. You never know when your phone decides to die.

I might, but sometimes I bought a ticket a few minutes before the train arrived and it wasn't an option. I think I've only purchased a ticket onboard once. And it was odd because the conductor first accused me of wasting his time since I clearly had a smart phone with the Amtrak app, but once he was doing it he was extremely chatty about all the little details on the ticket form.

I prefer the Amtrak e-tickets from the kiosks or a station agent. It just seems more "real" even thought it's still just a virtual e-ticket. I've had some weird results printing from the PDF that was emailed to me. Sometimes the text spacing is all weird, but the QR code is just an image in the PDF so it's always been fine. But here's someone's video about buying tickets with the new kiosks. I think I've used this one as the background looks familiar. I think it's at LA Union Station.

 

[BCL]

The e-receipts aren't "tickets" in the classic sense. They're just receipts that make it easier for the conductor to bring up your reservation on their iPhone. That's the real "ticket". You can still check in with just your name and an id.

Amtrak was using actual paper tickets long after airlines had switched to e-ticketing so it was hard to get people to realize that the paper ticket itself was the reservation and could not be reprinted. The point of paper tickets was that they did not need online validation, they'd be accepted directly. This was important for Amtrak because of the large number of unstaffed stations.

Because paper tickets were proof of the reservation, the tickets and the ticket stock had to be protected like cash. Otherwise you'd have issues with counterfeits that wouldn't be detected until after the conductor turned in the tickets at the end of the route. (And keeping this on the Quik Trak topic, it meant they had to have a vault like an ATM for the ticket stock.)

Reprinting or forged e-receipts don't work because they're validated online immediately. If someone has already checked in or the reservation doesn't exist the conductor will catch it right away.

I haven't seen one of the new terminals yet, but I assume they print on plain paper like an airline kiosk.

The ticket stock has an Amtrak-specific background and is used for any e-ticket or purchase receipt. This photo was actually for my Southwest Airlines alternate transportation reimbursement request from the Christmas 2022 meltdown, including my Southwest boarding pass (flight was cancelled), my Amtrak e-ticket and Amtrak purchase receipt from a kiosk. I've removed my personal info or anything that might be traceable somehow (maybe more than I have to), but I don't care about the route information. The Southwest Airlines boarding pass was printed on mostly blank ticket stock other than some stuff in the margins that can tear off. The Amtrak ticket stock is not blank.



Back when Amtrak had moved to mostly e-tickets, they were still using bearer instruments for multi-ride/monthly passes that had to be printed on official Amtrak ticket stock, complete with perforations and spots where conductors would punch through for each ride used. Conductors still scanned them (like event tickets with bar codes), so faking them wouldn't have been enough. There was no particular reason why they couldn't have moved to virtual eTicketing, which happened starting maybe 2014?