Passenger Trains > Retiree Rail Pass Travel

Can retired railroad employees with an Amtrak Rail Travel Privilege Card ride on other lines for free besides their home line?

No.

WatchingAlways Wrote:
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> No.

But can't the card holder travel at half-price in coach on foreign lines? Yes / no?

hoghead22 Wrote:
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> WatchingAlways Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > No.
>
> But can't the card holder travel at half-price in
> coach on foreign lines? Yes / no?

Used to be able to. Rules have certainly changed.

exmiop Wrote:
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> Can retired railroad employees with an Amtrak Rail
> Travel Privilege Card ride on other lines for free
> besides their home line?


As they posted above, you cannot ride foreign lines free. Now here is another tid bit that some are not aware of. If someone had hired out on the SP say 40 years ago and then,as happened, the UP takes the SP over. Some think that you are now able to ride both the old SP lines AND the current UP lines free. This is not true though. If you hired out on the SP, then you may only ride the SP lines free. Ands the UP for the UP folks.

Virlon

SLOCONDR

I am retired from Conrail but at Amtrak start up was with Penn Central with a system Penn Central
pass. I still have my pass with free priviledges over all of the former Penn Central including the
Amtrak owned corridor as well as much other territory.
On the rest of the Amtrak system I have half fare, 50 per cent off BUT after a lot of inquiry to
Amtrak last spring I found out that in the case of the long distance trains with many different
fares depending on the day, time of season and other factors, the half fare is half of the highest
applicable fare so they take the highest possible fare and cut it in half. In some cases the
regular senior fare is lower that the fare that my pass would get me so I would just pay the
senior fare and enjoy the ride as a full revenue passenger. On other trains such as the Boston -
Portland train with just one regular fare, the pass did indeed give me 50 per cent off.
You really need to do much research regarding using your pass off of your home road.
Also some Amtrak agents are not used to handling these passes anymore, maybe some of them never
did know the restrictions and conditions, so you need to know that Amtrak has something like a
"red, white and blue" day system for their pass holders and on some days they can't ride anywhere
without paying. This restriction DOES NOT apply to active nor retired freight railroad employees
and we still basically have the same conditions that we had when we got our passes oh so many
years ago.
I don't think Amtrak is happy about our pass priviledges but as we die off or become so disabled
that we can not use them, they will see less and less of them. Freight railroad employees today
have zilch for priviledges and freight railroad employees who worked for a railroad that had no
passenger trains on day one of Amtrak or that Amtrak runs no trains over (such as the Erie
Lackawanna) still have no place where they are able to ride for free.
There are a number of cases where Amtrak trains have been re-routed over the years and I do not
know just what applies in cases like this.
I have made liberal use of my pass in the north east since I retired 11 years ago but I have never
had occasion to use it to my benefit here in Florida although I have ridden Amtrak in Florida
several times.
Noel Weaver

Can retired AMTRAK employees with an Amtrak Rail Travel Privilege Card ride Amtrak on off-Amtrak owned lines for free, such as trains 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 11-14, etc?

Lurch_in_ABQ Wrote:
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> Can retired AMTRAK employees with an Amtrak Rail
> Travel Privilege Card ride Amtrak on off-Amtrak
> owned lines for free, such as trains 1-2, 3-4,
> 5-6, 11-14, etc?


Yes, subject to the "red, white and blue"-day restrictions that Noel mentioned. I currently have pass tickets for #11 PDX-CMO in June, #5 DEN-GSC and DEN-SAC and #14 SAC-PDX in September.

Retired 1985..39yrs service AT&SF..
We ride free LA-Chgo on 3&4,LA-SF-Sacto
on San Joaquins (including bus service),
LA-San Diego (Biz class is $14.00 each way)
Sleeper is half price, includes meals.

This on ex AT&SF and merged or rerouted lines.

Foreign lines are half fare including sleepers.

We have done theses recently the past few months.

Our Card symbol is 'FFL'..

Jim700 writes about having pass tickets in June and September. I have been using my Santa Fe Pass since 1956 on Santa Fe and then Amtrak but have never heard of being able to get pass tickets prior to 24 hours of when you want to travel, which makes it difficult in the summer. Is getting tickets in advance an Amtrak employee thing or is that wishful thinking?

cajon63, it's an Amtrak employee thing. We've been able to make advance reservations for several years now. AFAIK the freight railroad employees who have Amtrak free or half-rate travel privileges are still limited by the 24-hour rule. Perhaps rpcn will jump in here to confirm or refute my understanding.

I am retired off the BNSF hiring out in 1962.
My home road is ATSF.
I know I can ride free on the former ATSF lines
with my RTPC but can I also ride free
on the former BN lines
or is it half fare?

exmiop Wrote:
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> I am retired off the BNSF hiring out in 1962.
> My home road is ATSF.
> I know I can ride free on the former ATSF lines
> with my RTPC but can I also ride free
> on the former BN lines
> or is it half fare?

Unless they have changed the requirements in the last two years, no, you cannot ride the former BN lines free. That is an example of what I posted above about one line taking over another. Your pass will only entitle you to ride former ATSF lines free and former BN lines at the 1/2 fare rate.

Virlon

SLOCONDR

Thanks SLOCONDR. I somehow missed your first post..

Our pass has been honored on #3-4 on BN(CB&Q)
for years on the reroute into Chicago..
Also, on the ex SP Stockton-Sacramento on the
San Joquins...I've carried a AT&SF-CL pass since
Jan-1949..started August 16, 1946...

I have an Amtrak pass thanks to my 29 years of work on SP and Santa Fe. It is good for free travel on former Santa Fe lines and half fare on other Amtrak routes.

I asked Amtrak if I could use my pass to move my private car "TIOGA PASS", or at least to reduce the costs of moving it. They did not see the humor or irony of my question, saying "Hell No!!. Then I aksed if I could use Amtrak Guest Reward Miles to move my car.
Again, the response was very abrupt and crude!!

Oh well!!!

Norm

72368 Wrote:
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> I have an Amtrak pass thanks to my 29 years of
> work on SP and Santa Fe. It is good for free
> travel on former Santa Fe lines and half fare on
> other Amtrak routes.
>
> I asked Amtrak if I could use my pass to move my
> private car "TIOGA PASS", or at least to reduce
> the costs of moving it. They did not see the
> humor or irony of my question, saying "Hell No!!.
> Then I aksed if I could use Amtrak Guest Reward
> Miles to move my car.
> Again, the response was very abrupt and crude!!
>
> Oh well!!!
>
> Norm

Maybe if Tioga Pass had been an SP or ATSF car? Even if not successful Norm, you get an "A" for creative thinking. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA