Wow. I guess writing letters does work!
2010-07-12 15:45:47
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Amtrak to offer roll on bike service...
got this from a listserve:
"Yesterday at a meeting in Harrisburg, Amtrak officials announced that they would begin offering roll-on/roll-off bicycle service on the Capitol Limited by the end of June 2011!
This means that cyclists boarding at Pittsburgh, Connellsville, Cumberland, Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, Rockville, or Washington, DC will be able to roll their bikes onto the train(reservations will be required; spaces will be limited at first), put them in a rack, and get off at any of these stops. Amtrak will be retrofitting several cars and needs to work out operational issues before the service can begin."
2010-07-12 15:27:59
Well that opens up a whole lot of possibilities.
2010-07-12 15:48:57
With this, and the PGH <-> DC trail, it will be a huge draw for cyclists. In California, where they have roll on service all over, we would incorporate this into our group rides. Hop on the train in the morning, visit some attraction, then ride home. The local bike club would even cover our train tickets in most cases.
2010-07-12 15:55:09
Anyone have a link to anything official-like, or even a news piece from someone there?
2010-07-12 16:00:23
no, I just have that message from the president of the ATA (Allegheny Trail Alliance)
2010-07-12 16:05:39
I totally thought this was going to be an April Fool's, 3+ months late. This is such great news!
2010-07-12 16:45:50
OK, now that we have their attention, how about Pgh-Philly? Or maybe invite some Amtrak officials to join a future Crush The Commonwealth ride, and suggest maybe rolling a bike onto a train would be maybe a tad easier, and they could make a couple bucks more selling us PBJs.
2010-07-12 16:53:20
There goes another one of my excuses not to ride CTC
2010-07-12 17:47:01
Tallbike on CTC == I buy you a beer.
2010-07-12 19:20:37
This is great news! They seemed pretty open to exploring the issue according to the letter I received from them, but it seemed as though they had decided to stick with the status quo. I'm so happy that we all won this campaign. Nice job everyone!
2010-07-12 19:29:35
nick- still got to get to philly
2010-07-12 21:02:11
this is great.
2010-07-12 23:21:41
I might have to a dc to pittsburgh trip on the gap/c+o next year.
2010-07-13 00:35:36
Correct me if I am wrong:
I want to go to DC from here, I just wheel my bike on and I am done. I used to have to put it in a box.
I want to go to philly from here. Cant do it.
I used to not be able to do it.
no?
2010-07-13 01:54:18
i think that's correct. there were a whole lot of double negatives in there.
2010-07-13 03:45:57
now if only they could have more than one train a day... But that's a fish fry of another sort.
This is awesome, and means I will no longer have to spend the year convincing my cousins to drive our bikes to their house so we can ride the GAP back.
If you're really philly w/bike bound, couldn't you just roll on to DC, then roll on a DC/Philly train? (or do those not have roll on - I thought we (PGH) were the last losers)
2010-07-13 12:20:18
Philly? Well. Why. But this Amtrak route is the Capitol Limited, which connects to Chicago.
2010-07-13 13:48:43
fantastic, now I need to turn my letter to Amtrak into a thank you letter, and letting them know I will certainly use the service at least once a year! (which from 0 is pretty good)
2010-07-13 17:50:51
so this is still not available on routes heading west? or am I reading it wrong?
I'd love to take my bike home with me when I go to Cleveland, and a roll-on service would definitely give me incentive to take amtrak over greyhound.
2010-07-13 19:12:56
I assume it'll be available on the entire Capitol Limited route: Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and all stops in between.
Only a few Amtrak routes have roll-on roll-off bike service. But for those, you can use any station on each route.
2010-07-13 19:50:46
2010-07-15 17:59:44
amtrak is also seriously thinking of resuming service to rockwood, pa. this is where route S leaves the trail and heads to philly while the trail continues to dc. this is also about 100 miles from pittsburgh. this could help jump start a ride to philly, or be a easy way to quit a ride back to pittsburgh.
2010-07-17 22:07:22
The confusion is my fault. I thought it was the route from Pgh to Philly.
2010-07-18 20:52:58