Amtrak's Rail Pass

I've seen a lot of sites out there that advise travelers on the best way to use EURail passes or Japan Rail Passes, but very few are focussed on Amtrak's USA Rail Pass. In planning for this trip, I've accumulated a lot of information that wasn't easily obtained- close reading of the web site, System Timetable, and a few calls to friendly Amtrak agents straightened it all out. In that vein, I hope to share some of this information with the wider Internet community, making it that much easier to get your hands on.

This got to be a long piece, so I've broken it down into sections:
Segments
Pricing
Purchasing
Where Can I Go?
Tips When Planning Your Trip

Segments

First of all, key to understand is that the USA Rail Pass is not like an EURail pass or a local bus pass- that is, you are not buying unlimited travel within a specified time period. Rather, it's more like a multi-trip discount: you're buying a specified number of trips within a certain time period. Amtrak calls these "segments."

A segment is used any time you board a vehicle of any sort. You could, for example, take the Coast Starlight from LA to Sacramento, using one segment of your pass, or you could opt for the quicker connection via the San Joaquins- bus to Bakersfield, followed by train to Stockton and a bus to Sacramento. Each boarding on the trip up the valley costs a segment- so the Starlight trip takes one, while the San Joaquins with a bus on both ends takes three! When planning your trip, do keep the number of segments you're using in mind. Sometimes it's better to actually pay for short, connecting segments rather than reserving them via the Rail Pass. (Note, however, that because of California's policy of requiring a rail journey in order to take a bus journey, you may be unable to do so for most California Thruway services. The California Rail Pass doesn't operate on a segment-based model, and for journeys within the state is probably the better choice.)

Pricing

So, what do you get, and how much does it cost? Here's the breakdown:

Duration	# of Segments	Adult Price (Feb. 2011)	Child Price (Feb. 2011)
15 Days	8	$389	$194
30 Days	12	$579	$289
45 Days	18	$749	$374

Purchasing

The pass can be ordered online direct from Amtrak, on the telephone (1-800-USA-RAIL or 215-856-7953 for international callers), or at any staffed station. Once purchased, you must contact Amtrak either via telephone or at a staffed station to make reservations for each train, and reservations are required. You cannot simply board any train you like within the duration of your pass. The pass covers coach travel only, but you may upgrade to business class or sleeping accommodations for an additional fee (specifically, the fee you would normally pay to upgrade from coach.) Note that Amtrak sleeping car fares include all meals, so on some trains it may be quite a bargain to upgrade.

You can make your reservations under the pass up to 6 months in advance of the last day of your travels, and it is recommended that you do so early. The pass only covers a certain price for coach travel- if the price for that train rises above that set fare, you will have to pay the difference between them. Also, popular long-distance trains (such as the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight) have a tendency to sell out entirely. You are permitted to make reservations up to the same day you wish to depart, but you are unlikely to get seats on most long-distance routes.

In order to board a train, you need to actually pick up your tickets- printouts of your reservation won't work. What's more is that your tickets cannot be mailed to you, nor printed at any automated machine (Quik-Trak or Metrolink TVM). You must go to a staffed ticket window in order to obtain your Rail Pass tickets. For travelers entering the country through a major international airport, you will generally have no problem picking up your tickets at your departure city. For others, especially those in suburban and rural America, good luck. I myself have a bus ride to Anaheim ahead of me in order to pick up my tickets.

Note that, unlike other nations' rail passes, there are no residency restrictions to buy the USA Rail Pass. It doesn't matter if you're from Paris, TX or Paris, France.

Where Can I Go?

Despite the "USA Rail Pass" name (and misleading bullet points on Amtrak's web site), the pass allows travel outside of the USA, and travel on non-rail vehicles. The pass is not valid on 7000-series Thruway motorcoaches or the VIA-operated portion of Amtrak-VIA joint trains. Here's what they are leaving out:

• 
  The 7000-series Thruway connections are a tiny slice of the overall Thruway network. Most of them are bus connections between NYC airports and Penn Station. You might also run into them in Florida, Virginia, New Mexico and North Carolina. (For the New Mexico connection [Lamy-Santa Fe], a much nicer substitute is to de-train at Albuquerque and ride the New Mexico Rail Runner commuter rail to Santa Fe.) The 7000 series also includes through-ticketing on Caltrain and New Jersey Transit, but each of these commuter rail providers are relatively inexpensive and tickets can be purchased same-day. Another 7000-series is through ticketing on the Victoria Clipper between Seattle and Victoria, and if you want to ride that you will have to buy tickets directly. (I did.)
  
• There is only one jointly-operated Amtrak-VIA train, the Maple Leaf between Toronto and New York. All other Canada-serving trains and buses, including service entirely within Canada (such as Vancouver-Victoria bus connections), are A-OK under the rail pass! So feel free to take the Cascades to Vancouver or the Adirondack to Montreal, but know that if you want to go to Toronto you'll either have to pay for it or disembark at Niagara Falls, NY and arrange for alternative transportation. (Go Transit and Greyhound both serve the route with buses, and the former runs a limited-service train as well.)

They're not lying when they tell you it's not valid for the Auto Train or Acela Express. As for the former, if you were driving on this trip why buy a Rail Pass? For the latter, no, it's not valid. Not even for a discount. If you want to ride the closest North American thing to high-speed rail, you've gotta pay.

Of course, it goes without saying that every regular Amtrak service within the States is open to you with the pass. Just remember the segment limitation.

Tips & Tricks

Of the folks who I've seen post online about their USA Rail Pass experiences, the majority don't use the full extent of their pass. They either don't use up all their allowed segments or don't travel for the full amount of time they're entitled to. My reservations use precisely 12 segments and actually go 31 days- so if you're like me and want to get the most out of your Amtrak dollar, read on.

First, you'll notice that the pass regulates boardings rather than distance. Therefore, it is best if used for long segments. A journey of 20 minutes and a journey of 2 days are equivalent in terms of segments used. Knowing this principle, there are many corollaries that make themselves immediately apparent.

First, obviously, is that you should pay for short trips directly. If you are making a relatively short journey, and the trip you're planning is running out of segments, consider simply paying for those tickets outright. Amtrak will most certainly be happy to take your money. That said, try to keep this to a relative minimum- $570 / 12 = $47 per segment, so for most journeys of any size you're still saving money by using one of your rail pass segments- and you don't get any refund for using only 11.

Second is that you can use local public transport to your advantage. Rather than taking Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor, take one of the plentiful commuter trains. Between DC and New London, CT you can find near-continuous commuter rail along the Corridor (with the caveat that northbound service from New York serves Grand Central Terminal rather than Penn Station). Similarly, Metrolink duplicates portions of the Surfliner and Southwest Chief routes in southern California, and Coaster also duplicates the Surfliner. You can also find commuter rail duplication of Amtrak service in Seattle, Chicago, and probably other places around the system.

In that vein, I can say something almost categorically: If you are travelling on a Rail Pass, don't book tickets all the way to San Francisco. It would be silly to waste 2 segments on the bus that brings you across the Bay. All Amtrak services stop at Emeryville. During the day, you can take the AC Transit F Transbay directly to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal. It picks up at Powell & Shellmound, two blocks southeast from the station. Between midnight and 6am, walk 8 blocks east and 1 block south to San Pablo & Stanford, where you can catch the 802 All-Nighter. Connect with the 800 in Oakland for a quick ride to Market Street. Fare for either trip is $4, paid on the first bus. Late night, ask for a transfer. If you're riding any of the California Corridor (San Joaquins or Capitol Corridor) services, you can also transfer at Richmond to BART between roughly 5am and midnight for a ride into The City. Fare is $4.85. Transfers are also available at San Jose to Caltrain, though that ride will cost you a bit more.

Third, you will note that there is little incentive to quickly change trains under the USA Rail Pass. If you're exploring the country by rail, you will have to change trains. When you do, you'll undoubtedly be in one of our nation's great cities- transfer points include Boston, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle. There's no reason for you to leave on the next train, and no penalty against taking time to see the sights besides the time. When you change trains, take the opportunity to spend a day in the city you land in. It costs the same number of segments as leaving on the next train. As a corollary to this, plan your trip so that you change trains in the cities you want to see.

This last tip is about time constraints, rather than segment constraints. Remember that the pass is based on days, not hours- so if you leave at 10pm, that still counts as a full day. Similarly if you arrive home at an early hour- and 2am arrivals are not uncommon on Amtrak. The day rolls over at midnight, so it may well be advantageous to use your rail pass to the closest station to midnight, then buy passage from your starting/ending point to there. For example, the upcoming trip ends in Ontario, CA at a little after 6 in the morning. Rather than waste that day on my rail pass, I used my pass for travel to Maricopa, AZ and bought tickets on the same train from Maricopa to Ontario. For a bit under $100, we gained another valuable day on our trip.

So there you have it, folks. Amtrak's USA Rail Pass, and how you, too, can plan and execute a budget exploration of America.