Pacific NW locations reached by train

[Matthew H Fish]

The thing I'm thinking of regarding pricing is what I rode the most often, which was Capitol Corridor. And it could get really odd too with the pricing. I remember when I booked a Coast Starlight trip from Richmond (since discontinued as a CS stop) or Emeryville to San Jose with my kid, and adult fare was maybe $12. Capitol Corridor was a fixed $20 fare, although sometimes with discounts. But nothing that low unless it was a 50% off special.

The other odd thing was the California Rail Pass. I never bought it, but I remember sitting next to someone who commuted to the GAC station (worked in food prep at Levi's Stadium) and was looking to save money on transportation. It included a bunch of restrictions that tried to keep it from being used by commuters, including how many bookings for the same exact route. And it required live tickets that couldn't be replaced if lost, even as Amtrak moved to primarily eTickets other than multi-ride. She figured it could be cheaper than 10-rides, which she was using at the time. It did include the Coast Starlight within California. However, I'm thinking that there might be limitations on reservations.

Apparently that's still being used and possibly one of the last categories of "hard tickets" issued by Amtrak.

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

It is often a minor thing, or seems like it, but I believe that even slight variations in fare, and different fare tiers, discourage new riders. Flat fares are a great way to make new riders feel more comfortable and self-confident.
Part of this is that Amtrak is doing a lot of things, because there are people who are taking long distance luxury vacations on Amtrak, and also people who use Amtrak as part of a daily (or at least weekly) commute. And this is something that for the most part, airlines don't have to worry about. A lot of Amtrak offers are meant for what they think of as their target market-- intermediate or long distance leisure travellers, so they put a lot of these rules in.
This is especially relevant to the Amtrak Cascades, which has four trips between Seattle and Portland a day, and is going to have six trips a day by the end of the year...so the ability to commute not just up and down the corridor, but off of the corridor, will increase. I think it would be interesting to have some type of Day or Week Pass for the Amtrak Cascades so someone could just hop on and hop off and see all these places. Right now, that isn't quite possible, but with six trips a day, something like "I am going to start off in Seattle in the morning, go and see the Bonneville Dam in the afternoon, and be home by evening" becomes much more feasible.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

(I just checked: it is currently possible to start from Seattle early in the morning (7:22 AM) and go to Vancouver on the Cascades, walk downtown, take a C-Tran bus to Fisher's Landing, get a Skamania County bus to North Bonneville, spend four hours there, then repeat the process backwards, getting to Seattle at...10:50 PM. Would be quite a busy day)

 

[BCL]

It is often a minor thing, or seems like it, but I believe that even slight variations in fare, and different fare tiers, discourage new riders. Flat fares are a great way to make new riders feel more comfortable and self-confident.
Part of this is that Amtrak is doing a lot of things, because there are people who are taking long distance luxury vacations on Amtrak, and also people who use Amtrak as part of a daily (or at least weekly) commute. And this is something that for the most part, airlines don't have to worry about. A lot of Amtrak offers are meant for what they think of as their target market-- intermediate or long distance leisure travellers, so they put a lot of these rules in.
This is especially relevant to the Amtrak Cascades, which has four trips between Seattle and Portland a day, and is going to have six trips a day by the end of the year...so the ability to commute not just up and down the corridor, but off of the corridor, will increase. I think it would be interesting to have some type of Day or Week Pass for the Amtrak Cascades so someone could just hop on and hop off and see all these places. Right now, that isn't quite possible, but with six trips a day, something like "I am going to start off in Seattle in the morning, go and see the Bonneville Dam in the afternoon, and be home by evening" becomes much more feasible.

So what happened? I looked it up and they used to have multi-rides and monthlies. Don't see it as an option any more. This says it was updated in 2016.

https://www.amtrakcascades.com/multi-ride-tickets
I haven't bought multi-ride ticket since maybe 2014. I'm looking at a RIC-SJC multi-ride, and it's $347 for a monthly, $132 for a 10-ride, and $90 for a 6-ride (requires a student ID). I used to play around with the Amtrak website and remember there were a lot of routes with "reserved" trains where one could still get a multi-ride. It used to be possible to share the ticket as long as the ticketed passenger was there - so a group of 5 might be able to use a 10-ride for a complete round trip. Or where people have literally bought multi-ride tickets because a train was otherwise sold out but multi-rides always get accommodated.

 

[Matthew H Fish]

So what happened? I looked it up and they used to have multi-rides and monthlies. Don't see it as an option any more. This says it was updated in 2016.

https://www.amtrakcascades.com/multi-ride-tickets
I haven't bought multi-ride ticket since maybe 2014. I'm looking at a RIC-SJC multi-ride, and it's $347 for a monthly, $132 for a 10-ride, and $90 for a 6-ride (requires a student ID). I used to play around with the Amtrak website and remember there were a lot of routes with "reserved" trains where one could still get a multi-ride. It used to be possible to share the ticket as long as the ticketed passenger was there - so a group of 5 might be able to use a 10-ride for a complete round trip. Or where people have literally bought multi-ride tickets because a train was otherwise sold out but multi-rides always get accommodated.

I actually had no idea that the Cascades has, or had, multiride tickets. The Cascades doesn't really promote itself much. And if I, a person who has ridden the Cascades dozens of times and visited many of its main stations, doesn't know this...what are the chances that someone else does?

 

[BCL]

I actually had no idea that the Cascades has, or had, multiride tickets. The Cascades doesn't really promote itself much. And if I, a person who has ridden the Cascades dozens of times and visited many of its main stations, doesn't know this...what are the chances that someone else does?

It was interesting when they had "hard" tickets. They could be purchased directly from a manned ticket window or a Quik-Trak kiosk; both could also add the AGR account. It was also possible to purchase online, get a barcode, then use that to collect a ticket at Quik-Trak or a ticket window. I'd only gotten 10-rides and there was a row of numbers from 1 to 10 to punch, and one of the last reasons why conductors used hole punchers. However, I only started riding Amtrak after the eTicket era and they still had to check the barcode on the ticket to see if the ticket was valid. And once the entire ticket was used up, the conductor tore off the stub and handed it to the customer, where it got processed (and had to be for AGR points to accrue). I had one ticket that was partially printed. It actually got stuck in a Quik-Trak machine and I had to pull it out. It had the ticket/reservation number but no barcode. When I showed it to a conductor, they looked at it funny but manually entered the reservation number and it worked. But those days ended when they went to eTickets for multi-rides.

I'm thinking maybe the joint authority didn't want to deal with it since theoretically one doesn't need a reservation with a multi-ride ticket. If a train is full, then they'll need to crowd whatever multi-ride passengers want to ride.

 

[Willbridge]

It was interesting when they had "hard" tickets. They could be purchased directly from a manned ticket window or a Quik-Trak kiosk; both could also add the AGR account. It was also possible to purchase online, get a barcode, then use that to collect a ticket at Quik-Trak or a ticket window. I'd only gotten 10-rides and there was a row of numbers from 1 to 10 to punch, and one of the last reasons why conductors used hole punchers. However, I only started riding Amtrak after the eTicket era and they still had to check the barcode on the ticket to see if the ticket was valid. And once the entire ticket was used up, the conductor tore off the stub and handed it to the customer, where it got processed (and had to be for AGR points to accrue). I had one ticket that was partially printed. It actually got stuck in a Quik-Trak machine and I had to pull it out. It had the ticket/reservation number but no barcode. When I showed it to a conductor, they looked at it funny but manually entered the reservation number and it worked. But those days ended when they went to eTickets for multi-rides.

I'm thinking maybe the joint authority didn't want to deal with it since theoretically one doesn't need a reservation with a multi-ride ticket. If a train is full, then they'll need to crowd whatever multi-ride passengers want to ride.

In 1971 I commuted between Portland and Salem on Greyhound with multi-ride tickets. And in 1975 while working on the Intercity Bus Study we found a lady who commuted between North Bend and Coos Bay with Greyhound multi-ride tickets. They were 22-ride cardstock. They had to be torn off in front of the driver.