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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 14, 2014 at 4:55am

I sent mine.

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I know many people in and around Chicago who would like to be able to take bikes on Amtrak's Hiawatha service for day trips and longer trips in Milwaukee and beyond.  If Amtrak could reconfigure some cars for roll-on bike service, you might be surprised at the demand that exists for this amenity. I hope that you will consider this change in the near future.

If roll-on service was available today, I would use it for many round trips each year, as would many of my friends.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on January 14, 2014 at 5:33am

At some point the trains that Talgo built in Milwaukee and showed off to the public in 2012 may be added to the line. They were contracted to build these train sets right before Wisconsin Governor Scott "Highways are better than trains" Walker pulled funding for Amtrak. 

These new train sets have room for bikes on board (without requiring a box). 

The reason, as I understand it, that Hiawatha cannot currently allow roll-on bicycle service is that they have no café car. Typically, Amtrak removes seats from the café car to install bike racks (this is what they did on Michigan service trains). 

 

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Permalink Reply by Bob Kastigar on January 14, 2014 at 5:55am

Odd. There are three Illinois Service routes, as well as one Missouri route, that allow you to carry on your bike without a box,

http://www.amtrak.com/illinois-services-train

There's room at the end of each car, there's no easy way to secure the bikes (like Metra) and it costs $10 plus a reservation (tho I've gotten on without a reservation once)

I guess it might depend on the types of cars.  None of these require special space,  Hanging the bikes would be nice but just leaving them set on the floor is better than nothing.

Steven Vance said:

These new train sets have room for bikes on board (without requiring a box). 

The reason, as I understand it, that Hiawatha cannot currently allow roll-on bicycle service is that they have no café car. Typically, Amtrak removes seats from the café car to install bike racks (this is what they did on Michigan service trains). 

 

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Permalink Reply by Eli on January 14, 2014 at 6:08am

The roll-on service on the Illinois Service routes is very good, even with no racks. You simply lay your bike down in the space at the end of any car. (I believe mine was the only bike on the trip I took, but the requirement that you make a reservation means that you don't have to worry that there will be too many bikes to fit as you do on Metra.) It's a great and fairly stress-free experience.

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Permalink Reply by Tricolor on January 14, 2014 at 6:18am

I thought the Talgo sets were never delivered and had been sold elsewhere by now.  Really stupid of Scott since the Hiawatha is a pretty regular run and extending it to Madison would be a good route.

Steven Vance said:

At some point the trains that Talgo built in Milwaukee and showed off to the public in 2012 may be added to the line. They were contracted to build these train sets right before Wisconsin Governor Scott "Highways are better than trains" Walker pulled funding for Amtrak.

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