Traveling by Amtrak

[jonthelam]

Has anybody in the US travel with their EUC on the Amtrak? Did you have to check it in? Can it come onboard with you?

I have been daydreaming about possibly traveling from city to city with my wheel and a backpack and thought the best way to do it is by train. Just curious if anybody has tried this.

[Cranium]

Good question.  Amtrak has a strict 50 lb weight limit.  If you are traveling with an EUC that is <50 lbs, there is no problem.  It can be a carry-on item.   There are no restrictions for lithium batteries.  

If your EUC is >50 lbs (Kingsong 16x is over), you will not be able to carry it on or check it in.  But you could work around that if they do give you a hard time about <2 lbs over (more with mods).  You could remove the battery pack and carry the pack in your backpack to get it under 50 lbs.  A bit of a pain to do but it would be possible.  Your best bet is to hope they don't give you a hard time about being over weight just a little though since they won't have to handle the wheel at all.  

There is one other possibility but would require a lot more effort.  That would be get your EUC declared as a medical device.  That would eliminate the weight restrictions but you would have to purchase a mobility impaired fare.

I got the information from here:  https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy.html

Edited July 22, 2020 by Cranium

[jonthelam]

1 hour ago, Cranium said:

Good question.  Amtrak has a strict 50 lb weight limit.  If you are traveling with an EUC that is <50 lbs, there is no problem.  It can be a carry-on item.   There are no restrictions for lithium batteries.  

If your EUC is >50 lbs (Kingsong 16x is over), you will not be able to carry it on or check it in.  But you could work around that if they do give you a hard time about <2 lbs over (more with mods).  You could remove the battery pack and carry the pack in your backpack to get it under 50 lbs.  A bit of a pain to do but it would be possible.  Your best bet is to hope they don't give you a hard time about being over weight just a little though since they won't have to handle the wheel at all.  

There is one other possibility but would require a lot more effort.  That would be get your EUC declared as a medical device.  That would eliminate the weight restrictions but you would have to purchase a mobility impaired fare.

I got the information from here:  https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/baggage-policy.html

My other option is to find a suitcase and pad it appropriately and check it in.

The medical device exemption seems more trouble than it's worth.

Edited July 22, 2020 by jonthelam

[Cranium]

18 hours ago, jonthelam said:

My other option is to find a suitcase and pad it appropriately and check it in.

Even with check-in, you still have the 50 lb weight limit. 

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[jonthelam]

9 hours ago, Cranium said:

Even with check-in, you still have the 50 lb weight limit. 

You just have to pay an overweight fee. There's a Pelican case that would work nicely for this purpose.

Excess/Oversize Baggage Fees

Effective October 1, 2015, a $20 excess baggage fee will be charged for each carry-on and personal item above the quantity and size allowances. The fee will be collected at the station or, if unstaffed, onboard the train.

21 minutes ago, /Dev/Null said:

  Hm, this sounds to me maybe I could take my V10, but not my nik+?  Yet another reason to keep more than 1 wheel handy..
Edit:  WHat is the biggest battery wheel that can cruise @ 30km/h that you can bring on Amtrak?  Teslav2 maybe?

Maybe the MCM5?

[Cranium]

1 hour ago, jonthelam said:

You just have to pay an overweight fee. There's a Pelican case that would work nicely for this purpose.

Excess/Oversize Baggage Fees

Effective October 1, 2015, a $20 excess baggage fee will be charged for each carry-on and personal item above the quantity and size allowances. The fee will be collected at the station or, if unstaffed, onboard the train.

 

Maybe the MCM5?

The oversize baggage fee only addresses bags that are too large or too many bags.  There is nothing I saw that allows bags too heavy.  In fact they state that if a bag is too heavy, you have to redistribute the contents to other bags to get it below 50 lbs.  Best to call to be sure though.  

I look forward to seeing some trip photos in the forum. 

 

[PLEASE_DELETE]

Deleted.

Edited March 18 by PLEASE_DELETE

[jonthelam]

On 7/23/2020 at 8:25 PM, Cranium said:

The oversize baggage fee only addresses bags that are too large or too many bags.  There is nothing I saw that allows bags too heavy.  In fact they state that if a bag is too heavy, you have to redistribute the contents to other bags to get it below 50 lbs.  Best to call to be sure though.  

I look forward to seeing some trip photos in the forum. 

 

Just went back and read the overweight notice on the link and you're right. If I do end up trying this, I'll definitely post it up here.

[jonthelam]

On 7/23/2020 at 10:40 PM, /Dev/Null said:

I think MCM5 is 800wh and Tesla v2 is a little > 1kwh...?

I don't know if I want to get another wheel for this purpose. That would probably be a worse-case scenario type of thing.

[Lockwood]

Amtrak recently updated their Special Items section. Under the new E-Bike and Scooter subsection, EUCs now seem to be part of the prohibited list....

[GothamMike]

I cannot find that page. Unusual wording, are they allowed on trains? I could see people not being allowed to ride in stations.

[Lockwood]

Here's the link to the page: Special Items in Baggage | Amtrak

It's an entire section about non-luggage items on their trainsets.

Back in April, Amtrak updated this policy to include Ebikes and Scooters (with some restrictions). However, when it first rolled out, the only thing mentioned as prohibited were Hoverboards. I'm not sure when exactly it changed, but it now seems they've added OneWheels, EUCS, and Self-Balancing Scooters to that list...

Its still unclear how well known that subsection is among actual Amtrak Staff. I just thought I'd point out the recent change

Edited September 26 by Lockwood

[Mrd777]

i rode Amtrak last year and took my EUC for a three hour ride.  The ticket / conductor guy gave me a real hard time telling me they were not allowed.  I kept moving around the train and even put it in a cymbal bag, and he threatened me that I might have to get off before my stop.. basically the guy was a prick. 

On my way return trip no one bothered me.

[GothamMike]

Anyone want to make our case to Amtrak bigwigs? They are HQ'd near Union Sation in DC. 

We need to politely state how safe the battery packs in EUCs are compared to cheap "dumb-charger" bikes available online. 

 

[Lockwood]

I honestly think they did zero research and just assumed all self-balancing PEVs were just as "dangerous" as hoverboards... Completely neglecting the fact that they caught fire due to extremely cheap manufacturing and questionable battery packs. A trait solely related to hoverboards, and ironically, some budget e-bike and e-scooters.

One could argue that EUCs are probably the safest PEV to allow on the train right now, as it doesn't have any of those knockoff companies where fire safety becomes a concern. 

[GothamMike]

On 9/27/2024 at 7:54 AM, Lockwood said:

I honestly think they did zero research and just assumed all self-balancing PEVs were just as "dangerous" as hoverboards... Completely neglecting the fact that they caught fire due to extremely cheap manufacturing and questionable battery packs. A trait solely related to hoverboards, and ironically, some budget e-bike and e-scooters.

One could argue that EUCs are probably the safest PEV to allow on the train right now, as it doesn't have any of those knockoff companies where fire safety becomes a concern. 

I concur. We need facts. Has any EUC fire led to mortality?

e-bikes and scooters have, many if not all occurred while charging.

[Lockwood]

Taken from Reddit. It seems the new section was correct, and Amtrak staff are being informed of the recent change... a very sad day for EUC travel

[onewheelkoregro]

I was just about to say that I have traveled from NM to LA multiple times with my EUC and from GLP to ABQ many times as well. But they just made a new policy that prohibits EUC. But you can put it in a bag with wheels and just wheel it on. You are allowed 2 carry ons and I have yet for them to ever weigh my bags prior to boarding, even at Union Station in LA

[DuckDuckDucky]

My buddy and I have ridden on Amtrak on the west coast of a commuter-ish line for years. I have my 16x and he's got a Patton but I've also brought along an extreme and et max. I've never had issues but I think there's some guidelines to follow.

- Always carry on and don't check in. They will weigh your EUC and reject it if checking in.

Be as conspicuous and matter of fact as possible: 

- Be able to lift your wheel quickly and move it around efficiently. Do NOT delay the train by struggling with the wheel, timetables are crucial and you might just not be allowed on wheel or not. Always give way to other passengers and be kind and courteous.

- Use luggage racks if available and try to minimize the wheel footprint (so lay it up, vs flat). If over 50lbs, try and place it in the bottom area. If luggage racks are semi full just bring it with you or stay near the luggage rack. The whole point is not to bring attention to it so if the luggage rack is getting full and someone can't place their under 50lbs suitcase when the conductor comes around they will try to move stuff around and will scrutinize your wheel.

- If bringing to your seat, try and squeeze to one side of the seat especially if the train is getting full. People get called out for spreading to two seats anyways when it starts to get full. This is especially important when conductor comes around for ticket check. If you make yourself as small as possible they won't care. When they leave you can spread out a bit more. 

-If the train is getting full, just stay standing. Yes it sucks but it's only happened a handful of times and again the conductors won't care about the standing person with a wheel vs the seated person who's kinda taking more space than needed on a full train. Even with the slim profile 16x it's really hard not to have to spread to 2 sears to be more comfortable. 

- if someone asks you about it, the conversation should probably go like this: "hey these aren't allowed here" "oh I can put it in the luggage rack or the bike area" "no I mean those type of one wheels" "I had no idea, I've been doing this for years. I don't have a car it's the only way I can get from home to work. Can I just stand by the doors with it next to me instead? I only have a few stops" "yes but you can't bring it anymore" "ok I'll call Amtrak to see if I can get an ebike instead". If the conductor asks you things it means they're on a power trip (they usually just don't care) so make yourself look dumb, naive and poor. Then just keep taking Amtrak since you won't run into him again for a while. Also you'll help build an idea of EUC riders being harmless people going to work helping minimize these kind of interactions. 

 

Your experience may vary since I'm on the West Coast and our Amtrak trains are filled with scooters, e bikes and the conductors are mostly concerned with people not folding them up and crowding areas. In 4 years between my friend and I we've only had one interaction with a conductor. 

 

[DuckDuckDucky]

Oh and worst case just buy a storage tote with handles for $25 and put your wheel in there and lug it up. I used to carry one as a backup in case I got crap with the new policy but never had to use it. 

[Maverick]

On 7/22/2020 at 1:23 PM, jonthelam said:

Has anybody in the US travel with their EUC on the Amtrak? Did you have to check it in? Can it come onboard with you?

I have been daydreaming about possibly traveling from city to city with my wheel and a backpack and thought the best way to do it is by train. Just curious if anybody has tried this.

As of October 2024, I don't think Amtrak allows EUCs, but I assure you a 52 pound Falcon, without power pads fits nicely into a suitcase.  Hehehe.

[Hellkitten]

1 hour ago, Maverick said:

As of October 2024, I don't think Amtrak allows EUCs, but I assure you a 52 pound Falcon, without power pads fits nicely into a suitcase.  Hehehe.

But then you have to ride with a suitcase. 

[Maverick]

7 hours ago, Hellkitten said:

But then you have to ride with a suitcase. 

True, but the suitcase was now empty and lite.  In my case, I needed to get me and my Falcon to my friend's far away home.  He picked me up at the station.  My only other option was to ship the Falcon by UPS.  The world, while purporting to be green-friendly, isn't EUC friendly. Sadness, great sadness.

[GothamMike]

Once again, If anyone wants to go to AMtrak HQ, we must make our case. Venting here does nothing.