Summer rail travel tips and challenges
Amtrak has a problem and it’s too much travel demand for the equipment assigned on its long distance-routes. This translates to a difficult summer for U.S. travelers seeking to ride the rails.
In addition, since the company utilizes inventory “yield management” — in which fares rise as seats or sleeping car space fills up — prices charged where capacity is challenged remain high with little relief in sight, even into fall.
But knowing where the sellout, or “choke” point, usually occurs on a route can sometimes help alleviate the pricing and availability pain that travelers encounter when attempting to book a trip on amtrak.com. And many regional corridors with frequent service are often more accommodating to tight travel budgets.
Trains operating on these state-supported routes and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor are good candidates for Amtrak’s “kids ride free” promotion. That begins June 20 for Monday-through-Thursday travel between June 30 and Sept. 30, 2023.
Cross-country logjam: the East
Amtrak has three overnight routes from the East Coast to Chicago, but all have constricted capacity.
To and from New York City there are two choices: the daily Lake Shore Limited via upstate New York and Cleveland, and the Cardinal, which runs only three times per week. The latter’s roundabout journey also serves Washington, D.C., rural West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. The Capitol Limited to and from Washington operates daily on a more direct path through Pittsburgh.
Unfortunately, all three of these trains are usually sold out of coach or sleeping car space for at least one segment of each route as of early spring. This is because Amtrak never refurbished enough idle coaches and sleeping cars after it sidelined them in 2020 following the Covid-19 pandemic [see “Amtrak continues to provide mobility in an uneven fashion: Special Report,” News Wire June 1, 2023].
Which segments? Since the Lake Shore’s “Achilles heel” in coaches is usually the New York-Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., portion, and the Cardinal’s choke point is Washington-Charlottesville, Va., it’s possible to book an earlier train westbound and later train eastbound between those points to bypass the sellout. The Lake Shore’s Boston-section offers additional capacity between Albany and Chicago, but there is no remedy for getting aboard the Capitol unless Amtrak manages to find a second Superliner coach in addition to the one now operated.
Western strategies
The same workaround, riding a different state-supported regional train over a sold-out segment, applies to the Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle, whose three coaches are often completely occupied between Chicago and Bloomington-Normal, Ill. For travelers attempting this less-than-optimal solution, restaurants and an interesting Children’s Discovery Museum provide worthwhile layover activities steps from Normal’s modern downtown station.
The Eagle offers a triweekly connection to and from Los Angeles with a through coach and sleeping car on the Sunset Limited. It may be the only West Coast option out of Chicago if the Empire Builder (to Seattle and Portland, Ore); California Zephyr (to Emeryville, Calif., across from San Francisco); and Southwest Chief (to Los Angeles) have no through space.
A summer snapshot of inventory obtained by Trains News Wire shows westbound California Zephyr bedrooms to Emeryville sold out on 40 of 43 dates (June 12 through July 24) and through roomettes only available on 14 of those days. Space on the Empire Builder and Southwest Chief is also spotty.
But most departures of each of these cross-country trains might have availability on either side of popular mid-route destinations. The Zephyr often sells out between Denver and Glenwood Springs, Colo. Albuquerque, N.M. and Flagstaff, Ariz., see many Southwest Chief passengers boarding and getting off, as do St. Paul, Minn., and Glacier Park, Montana, on the Empire Builder.
Consider utilizing one of these changeover points to split up a longer trip or overcoming a sold-out segment to switch between a coach seat and a sleeping car room.
Doing this yourself on amtrak.com of course, requires knowledge of all the intermediate stations. Although Amtrak no longer publishes timetables and its electronic substitute is cumbersome to use, the Rail Passengers Association offers printable downloadable versions here.
An Amtrak agent at 800-USA-RAIL may also be of assistance, but long wait or call-back times of 20 minutes or more are often the rule, rather than the exception.
Regional bargains
Depending on the demand for a particular trip and how far in advance a ticket is purchased, the Chicago-Emeryville, Calif. coach seat price range for one adult through early September is $99 to $390, roomettes average $1,455 and bedrooms $2,706 to $3,196. Fares may drop from these levels close to departure if space isn’t selling, otherwise the business philosophy is simple: why lower the price if space will sell out anyway?
Yet on many routes where state sponsors and Amtrak offer many daily frequencies, uniform pricing on all trains or deep discounts on some trains are prevalent.
The following corridors offer flat rates that only vary by the length of the trip, not percentage of coach seats sold. From west to east:
- California’s Capitol Corridor: San Jose-Sacramento and Auburn
- California’s San Joaquins: Oakland-Bakersfield
- California’s Pacific Surfliner: San Luis Obispo-San Diego (schedules available here; they have been changing frequently because of landslide issues in the San Clemente, Calif., area)
- Hiawatha: Chicago-Milwaukee
- North Carolina’s Piedmont: Raleigh-Charlotte
- Pennsylvania’s Keystone: Harrisburg-Philadelphia portion
- Hartford Line-Valley Flyer: New Haven, Conn., to Springfield and Greenfield, Mass.
- Downeaster: Brunswick, Maine, to Boston’s North Station
Prices vary with a given train’s sellout percentage on the Eugene, Ore. to Vancouver, B.C, Cascades and Midwest corridors out of Chicago to downstate Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan.
But perhaps the greatest fare fluctuation of all occurs on the heavily-traveled route with the most daily departures, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Northeast Regional fares between Boston and beyond Washington, D.C. to Roanoke, Richmond, Newport News, and Norfolk, Virginia, vary widely.
Priced in mid-June, the New York-Washington coach fare for departures booked two weeks in advance ranged from $40 (for a train leaving New York at 3:20 a.m.) to $161. Not surprisingly, that $40 nocturnal bargain disappeared if the same trip were taken the next day, when the range was $82 to $206.
Kids ride free
Until June 20, Amtrak announced that it is altering its discount policy for children ages 2 to 12. Normally, kids in that age group pay 50% of the adult fare (children under age 2 always ride free). During the limited promotion, good for travel June 30 through Sept. 30, 2023, there is no limit on the number of youngsters that can accompany at least one adult.
Amtrak has created a special landing page to book tickets for this promotion, https://www.amtrak.com/summer-sale?cmp=wsp-summer-travel-flash-sale-deals or the C618 code can be input on the amtrak.com booking page or the Amtrak app in the “promotional code” field.
Some notable limitations are lurking in the “terms and conditions,” however. The promotion is only offered in coach or Acela business class trains departing Monday through Thursday; it’s not good on California’s Pacific Surfliners; and “seating is limited and may not be available on all trains.” As noted, that caveat certainly rules out most long-distance routes, where finding even one seat for an adult continues to be a challenge
Trains News Wire will continue to report on summer rail travel developments as they occur.
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