Like where I am its a Pharmacy or a candy store or a newsstand…perhaps we could let private buisnses sell amtrak tickets in stations that also have complemntry buisnseses…VRE does this.
Since the ticketing equipment is similar in operatrion to a lottery ticket machine, I see no reason why the ticketing arrangement can’t be located in an existing business adjacent to the Amtrak bus shelter. It could be handled like any other concession.
Reference to, “Amtrak bus shelter,” inspired by Benson, AZ. Amtrak has a bus shelter on the old platform a few dozen meters from the original SP station - which is now operated as a museum by the local COC.
Chuck
Bonas,
Amtrak has an even better idea. Instead of paying a small business a commission to sell tickets Amtrak gets passengers to become their ticket clerks and sell the tickets to ourselves, all for free. We do that by buying our tickets on the internet. We input the departure and destination information, charge ourselves the fare with a credit card and print up the ticket on our own printer with our own paper. Then, when we ride the train we simply produce the ticket which has a code that can be scanned. And we never stand in line or see a ticket agent.
John
Well, it’s a better idea for people with valid credit, computers, broadband, and printers, anyway. Not so good for folks whose Internet connectivity extends only to their mobile phone…
For people like that, the answer is not too different (and is already in use on at least two airlines): You sign up as John indicated, and as confirmation Amtrak sends a code that can be ‘read’ directly off the face of a cell phone. Your phone becomes your ticket – no fuss or muss, waiting for the printer, wrassling with an 8x12 sheet of paper doing the job of a ticket-sized one, no fumbling in pockets or having the awful realization you left it on the kitchen counter while picking up your keys… and if you have to change flights, the system updates the code in seconds.
There are kiosk systems in place for theatres that work as an intermediate step. You order online, and get a confirmation number. When you get to the theatre, you input the credit card you used to order, and the system tracks that and prints the appropriate ticket or access pass. (It also tacitly conforms identity and present credit). Some variant of this would probably work for customers who have pre-reserved but don’t like paper…
Amtrak already has exactly this, so I’m a bit confused now.
I hit send early, before I made the right point.
Point is that theatres can justify the expense of the kiosks, because they’re secure (in the theatre locations) and are used often for business purposes that customers recognize as a true convenience. I doubt that Amtrak has, or could even justify, rolling out a large number of dedicated ticket machines – even in all the unattended station locations it has. There may be better technical solutions.
What Amtrak might consider doing is finding a way to incorporate their ticketing into multipurpose kiosks, for example the kind of ‘multi’ ATMs found at some big-box stores like Wal-Mart. This might use rolls of ‘Amtrak-specific’ paper, but would otherwise use generic inks, printer drivers, and the like to produce the ‘ticket receipt’ or ‘on-board scan pass’ on the same form factor used for bank or ATM transactions.
Alternatively, the kiosks might be designed as ‘one-stop’ transportation and reservations machines, using the same general design as the vending machines in post offices (which could dispense different types of output depending on expectations). This shares the cost of the systems implementation across multiple industries and companies, helps ensure the right rapid response to breakage or outage, and saves both space and confusion when customers are trying to find the right resource. Some of the Internet travel giants might underwrite this service in the same general way that American underwrote the sAAbre reservation system, and this would give the kind of pervasive access that the OP was talking about – certainly for buses, a bit less prominently for regional rail, but… it does seem to me that the ability to avoid racking up an on-train extra fee by just ducking into a restaurant or store near your station, or on your station-commut
I enthusiastically support this idea (see my other post in this thread).
Airports became tremendously more livable when you could actually buy name-brand food in them. Amtrak stations might become a logical ‘focal point’ for a development, even a mini-mall, where vehicular and foot traffic also goes. In particular, this would give financial incentive to keep Amtrak operations in historic station locations, while all the cognate businesses help foot the bills.
One potential tie-in is how trains would be provisioned if some or all of the meal and snack service was ‘outsourced.’ There will need to be food-prep facilities along the route that supply and service the dining and cafe cars. If these are also retail outlets in sufficiently-large and interested markets, much of the stranded cost of a food supply operation for relatively small and interrupted service (which is what most Amtrak LD service would otherwise provide) would be effectively ‘underwritten’. Now add (for vanishingly small effective implementation cost) the ability to special-order your food or snacks while enroute, pay via credit or debit card (so there’s no risk of no-show no-pay on delivery!) and then have the order hot and ready just at train time…
No reason why a limited concierge service could not be coordinated either. Books and magazines, toiletry articles, computer supplies or services… the list is long.
I checked Greyhound locations in Iowa. Many of the (few remaining) small towns they serve don’t have a place to purchase tickets. They recommend purchasing on line or prior to your trip at a location that has a ticket office. (Greyhound’s ticket office in Ottumwa, IA is located in the Amtrak depot.)
I checked a couple of other bus lines, one may have been an agent for Greyhound, and many of the routes and stops were pretty much the same. Over the years as routes have moved to interstate/multilane and/or limited access roads, the bus stops in small towns have declined. Bus travel is almost as inconvenient as rail or air travel. You need an automobile for the short distance to be able to travel a long distance.
Jeff
I like people. people who care and love…Thats what the train is about.
I had noticed a few years ago that Greyhound recommends buying on line; I never felt it necessary when traveling Greyhound between Vancouver and Vancouver Island; the times that I rode Greyhound in conjunction with travel in the U.S., I used the Thruway service and thus obtained my Greyhound coupons with the Amtrak ticket.
I have taken one trip using tickets that I printed at home; I usually buy a Rail Pass, but since the fare for this trip was less than that for the 15 day Rail Pass, I bought more-or-less ordinary tickets, and I was sent the tickets by internet. As I recall, the ticket going was scanned by a conductor on each of the two trains I rode–but the ticket for the return was scanned by the conductor on the first train only. It may have been scanned at the Metropolitan Lounge when I arrived in Chicago; I do not remember for certain.
The next trip I plan to take makes use of a 15 day Rail Pass–and I was sent the reservation number, which I took to the station. Something new was added as I picked the ticket up: each coupon was stapled to the envelope in such a way that it could be readily scanned instead of being stacked together; apparently I get to keep both the coupon and its stub–I will find out when I start the trip.
Using the scanning system does make life a bit easier for conductors; no longer will they have to turn a bunch of pieces of paper in. Incidentally, did any of you ever see the variety of coupons that conductors used to have to collect? Towards the end of passenger service by the various railroads, many roads had their own ideas as to what shape and size to use for their tickets–and when Pullman ceased operating first class cars, each railroad that continued such service had its own idea as to the shape and size of the coupons.
That too, Bob. And both ways you become Amtrak’s ticket agent at no cost to Amtrak. I bet Amtrak has cut way down on the number of ticket agents it hires if it is hiring any at all.
John
Not too long ago Trains had an article about the forms railroads used to use. Using forms is a traditional way bureaucracies of all kinds has used to control work flows and maintain both quality and quantity of work. But computers – information technology – have really changed all of that. For example, when an Amtrak conductor now “lifts” your ticket it doesn’t just go into his pocket to be counted, checked and tallied later. That inormation is almost immediately available in Amtrak’s offices. As I rode my train from New York to Providence Joe Boardman could learn how many people got on at New York before the train reached Stamford. It’s a whole new world.
Another way to solve the small city problem is to use a portable POS terminal with a ticket printer. Since the conductor already knows what cars are being used for which cities, all they have to do is go to that car, find the people that just boarded, accept their credit card and punch in which cities they are traveling between. Then a ticket prints out (from a roll of paper) and a stub could be printed for the conductor to place over the seat. This is used in Europe on non reservation trains where people board at the last minute or a station is closed when the train comes through before or after opening hours or weekends when the station might be closed. Any need for communication for data transmission could be done over regular cell phone frequencies that are used for data transfer on today’s smart phones or could be batched process at the end of the conductors shift or end of the line where there is a manned station.
That’s not really needed. They’d just use the little green slip they already use.
My 2 cents worth. Here in my town the Greyhound station is also a U Haul franchise. In addition to selling tickets they provide package and baggage service. After hours there is a lock box for this as well. So if it is Sunday you can still get packages and baggage dropped and picked up. On Sunday you have to wait for a bus to stop for the driver to open the room. I remember some years back taking Greyhound across Texas and any number of small towns all they had for Greyhound service was a bus shelter and a lock box for dropping baggage and packages. I do not know if this is still the case out that way. I do remember it being an interesting service for out of the way places. Amtrak just started service here. No checked baggage. Just a waiting room. With train times being 509am westbound and 918pm eastbound we do not have businesses open downtown at those hours. People are just happy to have the train stop. Thx IGN