A few things to remember about Amtrak: If your trip doesn't cover the total distance between two cities in an advertised fare, your ticket cost could be even less than the published price.
Unlike airports, there is no need to arrive at the station two hours before departure. Allow yourself 30 minutes prior to departure. As with air travel, you won't have access to checked baggage until the end of the trip. You're allowed two carry-on pieces. The rules for sleeper car travel are different, so check with Amtrak for specifics. Service attendants and waiters/waitresses expect tips for good service.
Arrivals and departures might not be as frequent or convenient as you'd expect at the airport. In Cincinnati, for example, the Washington-bound Cardinal arrives at 5:30 a.m. for a nine-minute stopover. Westbound enroute to Chicago, it checks in at 11:56 p.m. and stays only three minutes. Again: clearance fares on Amtrak can only be booked online.
How can a financially ailing railroad practically give away tickets? The answer lies in the question itself.
Amtrak can ill-afford large numbers of empty seats. The situation is desperate. Any amount of money is better than nothing at all.
Notice that many of the routes on sale are not among the busiest in the system. You do not see New York-Washington or New York-Boston on the list of discounts. Those are the "cash cows" that keep Amtrak from sinking even farther into the red.
But discounts also apply to moderately traveled routes.
A seat from Miami to Tampa is $21.90. That's not bad. Yet consider it's more than triple the Detroit-Chicago fare, even though both routes cover similar distances.
"There will be no shutdown of services this summer," Amtrak CEO David Gunn told railroad employees after the USDOT agreement was reached in late June. But the days of traveling Amtrak --especially at these prices -- may be numbered.
So if you're still making travel plans for the summer and early fall, consider booking one of these deals.
Hold the Amtrak obituary for a while. Get the travel bargains while they last.
