I finally located the local Amtrak Bus stop (7 mile drive vs. 20 miles to train station). If I book a trip using the Bus Stop as starting point, do I get a “boarding code” or something similar to give to the bus driver? (I would plan to pick up the tickets at “will call” once I get to the train station).
In the past I have booked simple round-trips using Julie and getting a boarding code for unstaffed rail stations, but in this case I was planning a multi-leg trip to be booked on the Amtrak website, starting the journey at a bus stop.
As much as I’ve enjoyed doing business with “Julie,” if you persevere online or on the phone you can get to a real live person. I must commend Amtrak on the ticketing service it provides and the polite salespeople (or so has been my experience).
And I commend you for refusing to dismiss the option as untenable before all the facts are in. Couldn’t Amtrak just mail you the ticket ahead of time??
Unfortunately, ticket delivery by first class mail is no longer an option. [Amtrak had that in the past.] The choices are “will call”, where you pick tickets from a station agent or a ticket machine, or incur a $15 fee to have them delivered, and the need a signature upon delivery. That delivery option is impractical for me.
Also, I often don’t know my availability to travel until the day before the trip, so I can’t book ahead in time to get the tickets delivered anyway. My trips are almost always one-day turnarounds or loops, and I sometimes include long distance trains in the plan. The long distance trains can’t be too far behind schedule, otherwise the trip is scratched.