Salinas [SNS] is closed on the weekends. No checked baggage.

[justinslot]

Does this mean:

--I will not be allowed to check a bag there if my arrival is a Saturday or Sunday

Or:

--I will be allowed to check a bag there but I won't be able to access it until they open on Monday

Curious if anyone has any experience with this station. It's, ummm, not great for the only station in the Monterey area to be closed on the weekends!

 

[zephyr17]

Door Number One.

There will not be staff at the station to unload and and store your bags in the baggage room if SNS is unstaffed.

 

[daybeers]

Ugh why do they make it so hard???

 

[justinslot]

Door Number One.

There will not be staff at the station to unload and and store your bags in the baggage room if SNS is unstaffed.

Thank you.

This is harshing an otherwise issue-free trip I'm planning--PDX to SNS after my conference ends on a Friday, but I will be travelling with checked luggage. What a pain in the tuchus. I'll have to disembark in San Jose (only an hour away) and find a car for the rest of the way.

I do not understand a signficant stop on the Coast Starlight being closed two days a week.

 

[OBS]

Door Number One.

There will not be staff at the station to unload and and store your bags in the baggage room if SNS is unstaffed.

Although if you check with the conductor, and the bag is on the train, you may still be able to get it.

 

[joelkfla]

Although if you check with the conductor, and the bag is on the train, you may still be able to get it.

Big difference between "may" and "will".

 

[daybeers]

Although if you check with the conductor, and the bag is on the train, you may still be able to get it.

Really not that hard to do this all the time; no need for station staff. I've never understood that.

 

[justinslot]

Big difference between "may" and "will".

Yeah I need something a little more definite than "maybe I can talk an Amtrak employee into letting me get my expensive folding bike out of the baggage car."

(Folding bike in its specialized case, for the record. I thought about "well maybe I can go without checked luggage" but it is so much easier to check the bike.)

 

[GAT]

Are you traveling sleeper or coach? If the former and you're traveling solo, can you fit it on the upper bunk? I can certainly see why you would not want to leave it unattended on the vestibule luggage rack downstairs.

 

[justinslot]

Sleeper. Oh it would be fine in the downstairs rack, but carrying the bike around means checking something else, unless I can pack light for the first time in my life.

 

[justinslot]

I should add, if anyone stumbles across this thread in a search for Amtrak and folding bikes, that I have successfully stored a folding bike in the top bunk of a Viewliner, but I don't think it will fit in a Superliner top bunk since they fold up at an angle, unlike the Viewliner upper bunk which is just a raised platform.

 

[GAT]

Do you mean the Superliner bunk is not wide enough, when lowered, to hold your bike safely without it falling down on your head?

 

[justinslot]

I think it's wide enough to sit it there but the bike would be too big to safely latch the top bunk. But like I said I don't think there's much danger in keeping it in the luggage space downstairs.

 

[west point]

probably lack of personnel. Vagly rememerjob posting(s) for SNS a while back. Maybe preson or person(s) would not work 7 days a week or were not offered same?

 

[desertflyer]

I just had a friend book Salinas to Oakland this last Saturday with a bike. They were super surprised to find no one at the station or even any written instructions on what to do with their bike. When the train arrived, the conductor tried to say bikes aren't allowed on weekends to/from Salinas. To quote my friend:

they took our bikes but the conductor said they didn't check bags in Salinas on weekends generally and he was only taking them because he personally was going all the way to Oakland. and if we were going farther he wouldn't have taken them

I said we had tickets and that it doesn't say that policy anywhere and he was like "yeah " and I think there was some room for negotiation if they didn't take them initially

but still that's not great..

Pretty awful to think someone might book a bike from Salinas only to be denied boarding when the train arrives. And paying the +$20 bike fee for the privilege.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think it's wide enough to sit it there but the bike would be too big to safely latch the top bunk. But like I said I don't think there's much danger in keeping it in the luggage space downstairs.

According to my memory the top bunk of a Superliner has more than one "latch" so to speak. So it can be raised enough to be locked at an angle but also not fully closed. I believe this is true of upper berths on both Superliner fleets but if I'm wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

I just had a friend book Salinas to Oakland this last Saturday with a bike. They were super surprised to find no one at the station or even any written instructions on what to do with their bike. When the train arrived, the conductor tried to say bikes aren't allowed on weekends to/from Salinas. To quote my friend: [...] Pretty awful to think someone might book a bike from Salinas only to be denied boarding when the train arrives. And paying the +$20 bike fee for the privilege.

I'm glad everything worked out well but this really shows how important it is that a carrier communicate potential problems before you're stuck with leaving your bags or abandoning your trip. To me the increasing scarcity of checked baggage is just another layer to the perpetual weakening of the long distance network as shorter trains, reduced amenities, and higher costs continue to take their toll.

 

[justinslot]

According to my memory the top bunk of a Superliner has more than one "latch" so to speak. So it can be raised enough to be locked at an angle but also not fully closed. I believe this is true of upper berths on both Superliner fleets but if I'm wrong hopefully someone will correct me.

My experience is the upper bunk on the Superliners only latches at the fully closed or open positions. There is a middle position between fully closed and fully extended but it does not latch there, it just rests there; if you leave it there the bunk bangs up and down over your head every time the train hits a bump. There could be a way to latch it there but I am not aware of it.

 

[user 14106]

Most likely Salinas had someone leave or retire and they’re still trying to find a replacement.

 

[user 14106]

Most likely Salinas had someone leave or retire and they’re still trying to find a replacement.

 

[desertflyer]

That would make sense that it's a staffing issue. In the meantime, Amtrak should stop selling bike space to/from Salinas on days when the station is unstaffed, or they should let conductors know that they'll need to accommodate bikes and/or luggage. If someone is turned away, they don't have many other options for travel.

 

[BCL]

OK - I'll comment on this since I have been to Salinas a few times and talked to the station agents during some down time. They often get bored since there's not a lot to do until someone shows up to buy a ticket. And if there's only one station, each agent has to do everything, including stuff that's shared at busier staffed stations. I think the only station I've seen like that was the old SFC station next to the San Francisco Ferry Building, and that was bus only.

One told me that she worked five days a week and shared the station with another agent. Their schedules overlapped and that gave them more flexibility for breaks on days they shared without needing to close down everything. But obviously they don't have two now, so that kind of messes things up. I'm thinking that they can't voluntarily work 6 days a week because of union rules. But I remember before the train showed up, she closed the ticket window and had to handle all the baggage. With another trip, or train was delayed 3 hours because of a collision in LA delaying pretty much everything coming out of Union Station going north. The agent said that he was getting time and a half overtime, but it still sucked because he'd rather be at home. There was also a bus driver sticking around, and he said he was getting overtime but it was boring as heck.

 

[Bob Dylan]

OK - I'll comment on this since I have been to Salinas a few times and talked to the station agents during some down time. They often get bored since there's not a lot to do until someone shows up to buy a ticket. And if there's only one station, each agent has to do everything, including stuff that's shared at busier staffed stations. I think the only station I've seen like that was the old SFC station next to the San Francisco Ferry Building, and that was bus only.

One told me that she worked five days a week and shared the station with another agent. Their schedules overlapped and that gave them more flexibility for breaks on days they shared without needing to close down everything. But obviously they don't have two now, so that kind of messes things up. I'm thinking that they can't voluntarily work 6 days a week because of union rules. But I remember before the train showed up, she closed the ticket window and had to handle all the baggage. With another trip, or train was delayed 3 hours because of a collision in LA delaying pretty much everything coming out of Union Station going north. The agent said that he was getting time and a half overtime, but it still sucked because he'd rather be at home. There was also a bus driver sticking around, and he said he was getting overtime but it was boring as heck.

Lots of Stations like that on the Texas Eaglete Route, due to only 2 Trains a day and Poor OTP thanks to Freight Trains and
Dispatching.

 

[BCL]

Lots of Stations like that on the Texas Eaglete Route, due to only 2 Trains a day and Poor OTP thanks to Freight Trains and
Dispatching.

Salinas might be a little bit busier than most stations with just one train per day. When we missed our train to Salinas, I ended up cancelling and rebooking, but where one Coast Starlight leg was replaced by a train-bus combo. Apparently they get six buses per day that don't specifically connect to a train at SNS. I was on the bus this morning and it's kind of hard to sleep on an overnight bus when the driver wakes up the passengers to make sure they don't miss their stops. But Salinas was at about 3:30 AM, so the schedule probably didn't consider the station being open.

 

[Willbridge]

Raton had this problem when it was staffed for the summer. ABQ needed more staff, so they just closed up Raton when they needed someone in ABQ. This had a negative effect on the RAT<>DEN Thruway bus connection.

I've enjoyed visits to Monterey, but as they would now be with heavy baggage I'd hate the solution that Amtrak has to this problem: getting rid of the agent.

 

[BCL]

Raton had this problem when it was staffed for the summer. ABQ needed more staff, so they just closed up Raton when they needed someone in ABQ. This had a negative effect on the RAT<>DEN Thruway bus connection.

I've enjoyed visits to Monterey, but as they would now be with heavy baggage I'd hate the solution that Amtrak has to this problem: getting rid of the agent.

There's still the issue connecting to the bus where the passenger still needs to move it.

I do remember talking to the station agent on a Sunday in 2016. One woman doing that all day including baggage. She did have equipment though to help, including carts and other aids.