September 4, 2007
Taking Amtrak to Portland? Don't Plan on Checking Luggage
Some of Seattlest's favorite family members are taking Amtrak to Portland this weekend. Yesterday, they heard through the friend-of-a-friend grapevine that Amtrak wasn't allowing people to check any baggage.
Today, Mrs. Seattlest talked to Amtrak directly and confirmed it for herself. She sent us an email: "Why no checked baggage, you ask? Apparently the Cascades trains are being serviced so the substitute trains don't have baggage room."
There's more info on the Amtrak Cascades site. Basically, they're performing maintenance on the Talgo cars, which means they've "suspended or adjusted" several services. In addition to checked baggage, the maintenance impacts traveling with bicycles, business class, on-board movies (the horror!), and Café Car service.
So -- if you're planning to go by rail to Eugene or Vancouver or PDX, you'll have to make do with two carry-on bags. Very exciting . . . as a luggage problem.
Happily, Little Miss Seattlest gets her own two carry-ons. We suspect they'll be 90% full of stuff for her mother...
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Actually I've been pleasantly surprised a couple of times by the movies on the Cascades trains.
Once I watched my row-mate's pirated version of one of the Harry Potter movies, so there's that too.
It's the Cafe car that's worthless, with their $5 bagels, sugar-free yogurt, and only Pepsi products. It's Amtrak's version of Hell's barbecue.
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The maintenance they're performing (and have been for a little while now) on the Talgo cars was prompted due finding cracks in the frames of the passenger cars. So it's a very good thing they are fixing them. Does anyone know of the superlines (which it seems they've thrown in to replace the talgo cars) have TV screens?
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I'm pro-maintenance, but when you don't take Amtrak all that often stuff like "no baggage check" comes as a surprise.
That info could be a little more prominent on their website and other publicity material -- my wife had bought her tickets without hearing about it, and only thought to check because of the foaf grapevine.
They're still our favorite way to get to PDX, though.