Dear Amtrak . . .
a plea for bicycle service on more routes. . . please continue rolling out this bike-to-train program to more of your lines. The plan is good for people and it is good for the towns and businesses along the rail lines that cater to cycling tours. Allowing bicycles onto trains without having to box them up gives your riders greater flexibility of travel at their destination and will garner new riders who wish to take a cycling tour, but may need a one-way ride home at the end of the tour.
Amtrak, I know you are busy trying to figure out how to obtain federal funding for HSR projects, create corridors reaching a mind-blowing 90 mph and not get laughed at by all the other first-world countries, but it would be really great if you could take a look at the following segment of Amtrak:
Map of Amtrak's Missouri River Runner (blue) and Katy Trail State Park (red)
The Missouri River Runner which connects Kansas City to St. Louis and eight towns in between is achieving 90% on-time rates thanks to recent upgrades. Bravo! Not surprisingly, the Katy Trail (a rails-to-trails state park) has a trailhead within a mile or two of six of the stops along the River Runner! In fact, both ends of the nearly-200 mile Katy Trail can be reached on Amtrak for the cyclist willing to make the 29 mile trek from Clinton to Warrensburg at the west end. But what’s even more astonishing is that Amtrak has been offering bicycle service along this and other select routes for years!
The bike-to-train program gives Amtrak an amenity airlines can’t provide and it gives commuters and touring cyclists a great reason to choose rail. Please continue to make bicycle rack storage standard along all the routes where there is demand (and see about increasing the number of bicycles that you can accept).
Sincerely,
Dean
3 Comments
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The one time I tried to take Amtrak from Ftw to Austin, they screwed me. They kept delaying the trains for hours and eventually I had someone pick me up from the train station so I could just drive it.
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Sorry to hear that Simeon. I’ve taken the Texas Eagle from Dallas to Austin (which stops at Fort Worth) 5 times or so and it’s always been a pleasure to ride. That line has a glass ceiling in the leisure car where you can roll through Texas countryside with the sun overhead. I’ve only had to change my plans once when our train’s engine malfunctioned as it was coming into the station. Luckily, the greyhound terminal in Dallas is two blocks away. It’s a faster but much less pleasant ride. I encourage you to give Amtrak another try!
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I would like to know thoughts on an Amtrak route that would take bicyclist
to the historic Natchez Trace that runs from Natchez MS to Nashville TN. The Natchez Trace is approx.440 miles in length. Bicyclist currently ride the Trace but there is a bicycle/pedestrian path being constructed adjacent to the NTP currently. It is a very popular bicycle route for the area and could get more use from those from other areas. Thanks