spinnaker

I booked a ride on the Starlight out of Eugene. When I booked, the train had a bike symbol and I was charged $20 for the privilege. I thought the if there was a bike symbol it is RORO.

But after reading Oregon.gov on Willamette Valley, it says the Starlight requires that you box the bike.

https://www.oregon.gov/oprd/BIKE/Pages/WVSB_main.aspx

I am assuming that is out of date because the Amtrak site has it listed as curbside check in and well as the Zephyr .

https://www.amtrak.com/bring-your-bicycle-onboard

derail3

Some Long distance trains have six bike hooks in the bag car for bikes, others do not. If the bag car does have hooks you can choose to reserve one of the six hooks (bike space) for $20 per bike per train. Other wise you will need to box it and check it in as luggage and pay the oversized fee $10. Bring your own box or buy from amtrak $15.

Sounds like you bought roll up bike space on the Starlight and will not have to box it. Simply stop by the counter day of departure and get a tag for the bike. When the train arrives take the bike up to the bag car and lift it up to the crew member. They will hang it on a hook. At your destination remember to claim your bike at the bag car.

Check you tickets or reservation for the words “bike space” remember if you are using roll up service every train must have a bike space reservation and you are responsible for transferring the bike between trains.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xQilYFAts-Y

spinnaker

Thanks. That is what I figured. I have a reserved spot.

The Capital Limited has hooks but we never had to get a tag. We had to hang the bikes ourselves.

Note to self: Have flashlight ready. It is dark in the bike car.

Yeah and I have to remember to get eh bike from the Zephyr.

B. Carfree

The hooks on the Coast Starlight are a fairly recent addition. Prior to last year you had to box it, and the stations sometimes didn't have boxes. (One very nice agent in Eugene told me how upset he was that management no longer allowed him to save used bike boxes for reuse. Naturally, he was the only employee who rode his bike to work and also the only one who was fit.)

One thing I really like about the hooks is that it's now easy to bring my tandem. Technically, no tandems are allowed and there's no formal provision for tandems that have couplers. In practice, I used to just put the halves in separate boxes. However, that meant building a support to protect the ends of the tubes, which is a nuisance at the other end even when I'm catching a return train from my destination. With the hooks, I just put pipe insulation over the exposed couplers and hand the half-tandems to the baggage guy. Half a tandem is very light, so the baggage guy is happy and my bike is less likely to suffer damage so I'm happy.

It's a win all around except when the bike slots are sold out weeks in advance (happens sometimes). Even that is a positive thing because it means people are taking the train to go somewhere to ride.

CliffordK

A Bike Friday + Trailer Kit, of course, travels FREE as ordinary carry-on luggage.

I've had my bike on the train between Eugene and Portland, and never had an issue with sold-out capacity, but it has only been a few trips. Amtrak also runs buses, and if you do get a bus, the bike will be laying down in the luggage compartments below the bus.

spinnaker

Wow that is good news. And I sure picked the right year to do this. A year before and it would have been a pain.

There really should be tons of slots on bicycle routes like the Starlight and Empire Builder that run along popular bike routes. I think the one on the Katy is fairly limited too. The Empire Builder had tons of free space in the car. It would have not been a problem to add a couple of bike racks or even rings where you could simply secure a bike to the wall.

When I was on the Empire Builder, there was a family that got on in Seattle that was going to East Glacier to ride. They had a 5 place bicycle that had couplers. He was able to break the 5 place down to a single. We hung that and carried the tubes on board. I asked if they were that family that travels the world and he said no. They were very inexperienced in fact. I asked if they were planning on riding the Going to the Sun Road and he said no they would be riding around East Glacier. Not exactly sure where he would go as there don't seem to be all that many options there without going on the main roads.

fietsbob

Years ago , I had to get a box to use the coast starlight, Emeryville to Eugene, but I sometimes got a discarded box in Eugene* to go the other way.

Eugene to Seattle, there are additional commuter trains that you don't have to box up your bike..


* Left outside the station,



...

B. Carfree

I agree that it would be nice to have more bike accommodations, but at least the situation appears to be improving. The Capitals in NorCal has so many places to put bikes I don't see how they ever fill up (some of them convert to seating). I wish they could put a couple of those cars on the Coast Starlight in the nicer weather months.