Category: Amtrak

my Amtrak rail pass and contra dance trip

Dan AllisonLeave a comment

The main reason that posts here have been absent for the last month is that I was gone on a 30-day trip with an Amtrak Rail Pass. I went to Los Angeles, New Orleans, Charlotte, Greensboro, Asheville and Carrboro/Chapel Hill (not on Amtrak), Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, and home. Almost half of my trip was in North Carolina, where I’d never been before, with contra dances four evenings and a weekend. And visited friends in North Carolina, and my cousin in Denver.

There are a millions things I could comment on about Amtrak trains, about transportation and transit in the places I visited, and about livability of different cities and neighborhoods. I suppose I could have posted while on the trip, but I was too busy! Whether I’ll post now that I’m home, time will tell.

There should be more posts upcoming, at least until my summer backpacking season starts. Crossing the Sierra Nevada on the California Zephyr through Truckee, I saw that it will be a while before the passes are clear enough for may backpacking, though lower elevation areas are already clear or patchy.

Amtrak lost and never found

Dan AllisonLeave a comment

As readers may know, I travel a lot by train and throughway bus, especially on the Capitol Corridor (Sacramento to San Jose), the San Joaquins (Sacramento or Oakland to Bakersfield and bus to Las Vegas or LA), and the Amtrak long distance trains.

Over the years I have lost a few items on the trains and buses, perhaps 15. Not a lot, but mostly things that were important to me. Back in the old days, lost and found was handled through the end point stations, or which Sacramento was one. In the new days, it is handled through a reporting system that contracts with ChargerBack for lost and found tracking.

I have never gotten back a lot item. Not once. Never. My most recent loss was on a bus from Las Vegas to Bakersfield, connecting to the San Joaquins back home to Sacramento. Though the bus is operated under contract, and serves Amtrak, Flixbus and Greyhound tickets, Alvand Transportation said they do not handle lost & found, it is handled by Amtrak. It took a long while to find the contact info for lost & found, on the Capitol Corridor website, not on the Amtrak website, and here it is: https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy/reporting-lost-items.html.

I have to assume my experience is typical. What happens to the items? Are they just discarded, or do they go home with Amtrak employees or contractors? I don’t know. What I do know is that they are not ‘found’.

So if you travel on Amtrak services, which includes state funded routes such as Capitol Corridor, San Joaquins, Pacific Surfliner, or Amtrak national long distrance trains, or connecting bus service, double-check, triple-check, before you get off to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Sometimes the conductors will remind passengers to check around their seats, in the overhead bins, or specifically, for phone chargers, which seem to be frequently left behind. Take it to heart.