Shawn G is right. I have Amtrak'ed to Whitefish with a bike, and it is as he has described. My train was about 6 hours late into WFH, though, which meant getting to my hotel a block from the station at 3am.
On Wednesday, September 18, 2013 1:42:08 PM UTC-5, Shawn Granton wrote: > > George (and everyone)- > > I'm no expert, but I've taken my bike on Amtrak scads of time over the > past decade. But first a good thing to check out if you are interested in > taking a bike on Amtrak is check their official page: > http://www.amtrak.com/bring-your-bicycle-onboard > > And in brief: "Roll-on" bike service is only currently available on select > regional lines, like the Cascades up here in the NW. With any other line, > the bike HAS to be boxed and transported as checked baggage (where > available.) True folding bikes like Bromptons can be brought on board any > train. > > On Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 9:47 AM, George Schick <bhi...@gmail.com<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> A question I've had is how well the station at Whitefish services bikes >> - that is, does it stop long enough for a passenger to get the bike out of >> baggage (some stops in small, rural areas are very brief)? >> > > It's not a question of how long a train stops at a station, it's whether > or not the station has checked baggage service. Whitefish has checked > baggage, so you can bring a boxed bike along. Most (but not all) > long-distance lines offer checked baggage. You have to make sure that your > departure station AND arrival station have checked baggage service. If you > are doing Chicago to Whitefish, you are okay. There are two ways to find > out if a line has checked baggage AND your departure and arrival stations > have checked baggage service. Either check the stations page on the Amtrak > site: http://www.amtrak.com/find-train-bus-stations > Or, if you know the train you'll take, check the timetable. The timetable > will indicate whether the train provides checked baggage service or not, > and if it does, each station that offers baggage service will be indicated > with the checked baggage "suitcase" icon. For example, here's the Empire > Builder's current schedule: > http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/731/811/Empire-Builder-Schedule-042813.pdf > > I assume the bike needs to be boxed with at least the pedals removed and >> bars turned. >> > > Yep. The bike boxes provided by Amtrak are larger than bike shop bike > boxes, so this should be all you need to do. (Of course, if you have rather > large handlebars, you might have to remove them.) > > >> Does the Whitefish station facilitate this, i.e., store boxes so you can >> get one when you're ready to leave again? >> > > As far as I know, Amtrak's official policy is they do not hold bike boxes. > Of course, each station is different, and some stations will do this if you > ask nicely and you're going to come back relatively soon. (One station even > volunteered to hold my box!) There is also the chance that the station may > have some used bike boxes lying around that you can snag for free, it > doesn't hurt to ask. (Otherwise, it's $15 for a new bike box.) Smaller > stations tend to be better with the holding boxes and giving free used > boxes. > > >> And what about the hours; if the train comes through there late at night >> the station might be closed (unstaffed), which could mean difficulty >> storing the box, etc.? >> > > Again, check the stations page, which will list station hours for any > STAFFED station: > http://www.amtrak.com/find-train-bus-stations<http://www.amtrak.com/find-train-bus-stations> > Generally, the station will be open when the train comes through > regardless of what hour it comes through, as it wouldn't make sense for it > to be closed when it's most needed. If a station is unstaffed, that's going > to mean that it won't have baggage service, which means you can't bring a > boxed bike. (If a train provides roll-on service, you should be able to get > it on/off at unstaffed stations.) > > yours, > Shawn > > > -- > http://urbanadventureleague.blogspot.com/ > http://groups.google.com/group/urban-adventure-league-portland > http://societyofthreespeeds.wordpress.com/ > http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanadventureleaguepdx/ > P O Box 14185, Portland OR 97293-0185 > You've read this far, congratulations! You are part of an elite club. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
