Passenger Trains > Amtrak discounts for railroad employees?

I'm an engineer for CSX. Does Amtrak give railroad employees discounts on travel? I'm going to call Amtrak, but was wondering if any of you have and reliable information or experiences about discounts. Thanks.

If you asked for it at the time, and were employed by a railroad prior to Amtrak you would receive a pass that provided discounts. I don't think anything is available for RR employees hired after 1971 but could be wrong.

palmland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you asked for it at the time, and were employed
> by a railroad prior to Amtrak you would receive a
> pass that provided discounts. I don't think
> anything is available for RR employees hired after
> 1971 but could be wrong.

When I hired out with Santa Fe in 1978, passes were still available with free coach travel on one's "home road" & discounted (50% IIRC)on other Amtrak routes. By the time I went over to the SP in 1981, all pass privileges had ceased for new-hire freight road employees.

The only passholders now are Amtrak employees & perhaps those freight road employees (& retirees) who had passes prior to the cutoff date. Otherwise, no discounts are available to railroad employees that are not available to the public.

I hired out before 1971 and get free travel on my home road SP and i guess now includes the UP since the merger (not sure).. any other road i get a 50 percent discount...

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hired out before 1971 and get free travel on my
> home road SP and i guess now includes the UP since
> the merger (not sure).. any other road i get a 50
> percent discount...

J..... still the same.

V

SLOCONDR

There is a cutoff date in 1971, if you hired out before that
date, you get free transportation either unlimited or 12 round
trips a year depending. After the cutoff date, you can get a
reduced rate ticket but soon after that, no discounts of any kind.
Your home road is the railroad that you worked for at the time of
Amtrak takeover. For example, Union Pacific as it existed in
1971, no railroads that they eventually took over. Seaboard Coast Line as it existed in 1971, nothing more than that. Penn
Central as it existed in 1971, etc etc.
It doesn't matter who owns the railroad lines today, they go by
1971.
Once the present freight railroad employees and retirees have
passed on, there will be no freight railroad employees with
Amtrak passes.
s

There are still some pass privileges for post-Amtrak freight employees and family up to a cutoff date which I am unaware of. Some still get 50% off standard fares and later into the 70's I know they reduced the discount to 25%. I renewed a lost pass several years, had to start with the pass bureau of my home road who in turn forwarded my application and nominal fee to Amtrak. They don't make it easy. The 25% discount is hardly worth the effort as Amtrak discounts usually yield better fares, there are also reservation restrictions.

sphogger

I hired out 1946-AT&SF..Since May, 1971 to now, we have free coach on any ex Santa Fe lines, with half tariff for sleeper or on 'foreign
roads'..this includes 3&4 LA-Chgo, San Joaquin to Sacto-San Jose-San Fran., and the San Diego Line (south of LA)

Agt-Highland Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hired out 1946-AT&SF..Since May, 1971 to now, we
> have free coach on any ex Santa Fe lines, with
> half tariff for sleeper or on 'foreign
> roads'..this includes 3&4 LA-Chgo, San Joaquin to
> Sacto-San Jose-San Fran., and the San Diego Line
> (south of LA)

Are freight road employees/retirees who have pass privileges still under the 24-hour reservation restriction for reserved trains?

Why does Amtrak have pass restrictions for freight railroad employees? It seems to me that Amtrak could establish some good will if the freights employees are provided with a little benefit like a free pass on coach and discounts for sleepers.

Maybe it all gos back to the lack of public relations ability that Amtrak over the years has proven it lacks!

DanV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why does Amtrak have pass restrictions for freight
> railroad employees? It seems to me that Amtrak
> could establish some good will if the freights
> employees are provided with a little benefit like
> a free pass on coach and discounts for sleepers.
>
> Maybe it all gos back to the lack of public
> relations ability that Amtrak over the years has
> proven it lacks!

IIRC, the original legislation establishing Amtrak included a reimbusement formula for pass trips taken by employees of the railroads who elected to "join" Amtrak. Some years later some of these same railroads sued Amtrak in Federal court because they thought the formula unfair. Amtrak prevailed in the lawsuit. I believe it was the decision of the freight railroads involved to cease providing Amtrak pass benefits to new hires. As I mentioned in a previous post on this thread, this happened sometime between 1978 and 1981.

The freight railroads over which Amtrak operates are well-reimbursed for the service (or lack of) that they provide. They are just one category of many industries with whom Amtrak contracts for various materials and services. Should Amtrak provide pass benefits to the employees of all these various companies? No. The freight railroads are no different.

Pass privileges are non-negotiable between carriers and employees under the railway labor act. What ever the carriers choose to provide is what you will get.
As a pre-71 Santa Fe employee, I get free coach travel on Santa Fe and half fare on sleeper car charges. For example I paid $147.00 to travel from Barstow to Albuquerque in a delux room single occupancy. I'm not complaining. It does seem unfair, however, that I cannot use my pass to reduce the cost of moving my private car TIOGA PASS. Not that would be a real benefit.

Norm

I am not an expert on this, but I have been told that now, when an employee of a freight railroad uses their pass that the freight railroad does pick up part of the cost of the transportation for Amtrak. In other words an Amtrak pass is just not a service provided by Amtrak to freight road employees but a perk the freight roads must chip in for for their own covered employees. I have never seen this mentioned anywhere but I was told BNSF sends a check to Amtrak every month to cover pass holder travel by covered employees. I'm sure there must be someone on this board that has better info than me on this topic.

OliveHeights Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am not an expert on this, but I have been told
> that now, when an employee of a freight railroad
> uses their pass that the freight railroad does
> pick up part of the cost of the transportation for
> Amtrak. In other words an Amtrak pass is just not
> a service provided by Amtrak to freight road
> employees but a perk the freight roads must chip
> in for for their own covered employees. I have
> never seen this mentioned anywhere but I was told
> BNSF sends a check to Amtrak every month to cover
> pass holder travel by covered employees. I'm sure
> there must be someone on this board that has
> better info than me on this topic.

It has been the case since day one of Amtrak that the freight railroads must reimburse Amtrak for pass travel. As I mentioned in a previous post on this thread, some of the freight roads sued Amtrak over the reimbursement formula & lost. IIRC, that was the reason that, sometime between 1978 & 1981, freight roads discontinued pass privileges for new hires.

all pre amtrak employees should be in the amtrak computor system till about 2044 or at least that was what i was told at several different stations on both sides of the country i asked is it okay to live that long heck ill be ninety by then :]