A few weeks ago, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: on Wednesday, July 30, 2003 1:15 PM a request To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], regarding Subject: [Bikies] "advice needed re east coast transit"
It's a good thing she was headed East and not West, according to my experience this spring. Amtrak's bike accommodation is inconsistent, confusing, and in need of major improvements. Further, if the services provided in Europe and those on Amtrak were reduced to a boxing match between charicatures, "Eurie" would floor "Ammie" with a knock-out punch at about 23 seconds of the first round... For your edification I submit the woeful tale below, from a letter I recently wrote to Amtrak. See the last paragraph for a brief summary of how Eurail nations treat bicyclists, as I experienced for the first time on a very recent trip (probably the only time, as getting there by jet probably uses up a vast portion of one's theoretical "global warming credits" earned by bike commuting for 40 years....). Anyone who has been to the Old Countries should be inspired to lobby Mayor Dave and County Kathleen to make good on their spring-time pronouncements about Dane rail service in 2-3 years, and request that the local trains in Norway, Germany, Austria and Switzerland be used as models. They are electric, clean, quiet, fast, carry lots of people, and have room for lots of bikes, strollers, carry-on luggage, etc. While you can certainly encounter traffic congestion and rude drivers there with a similar frequency to here, over there it is easy to almost completely divorce yourself from the auto-centric world. It is akin to being on a different planet. Nearly everywhere we looked there were segregated bike paths, both paved and graveled, that went everywhere the highways went. Usually, they were a comfortable distance from the highways. (In Norway, they were often over the next ridge, unless you ride the highways). Often, they were close to the rail lines, which had lots of trains on them, but since nearly all are electric, there is no diesel plume to hold your breath for as you pedal along. In Norway, nearly all electricity appears to be generated by hydro dams. This minimizes their smog problem to that diluted mass which drifts north from Germany, Britain, and other coal-fired nations to the south and east. Not so good for Norway's rivers, but they claim their fish passage devices help maintain reasonable population levels of aquatic life... But biking there seems to be a healthier activity than anywhere else. (Norway also escaped this summer's extreme heat wave.) Only one weird thing. While Europe is decades ahead (a century, perhaps?) of Dane County and the rest of the U.S. in providing (or restoring) clean, efficient transportation, we are decades ahead in personal protection. Very few people wear helmets or bike gloves outside of Norway. So, if you want to go and enjoy a wildly wonderful bike journey, take your own head and hand gear or budget some money to buy it there. No shops seem to rent them, either. I felt very insecure without a helmet while pedaling some the streets of Madison's sister city in Germany - Frieburg. All bike parking at rail stations we noted was covered by Plexiglas roofing. Parking was not covered at major public venues, but bike parking racks can cover a very large area - such as that which easily held the 500 to 600 bikes parked outside the municipal swimming pool in Frieburg on a 101* afternoon. Here's the Amtrak escapade: (Dear Amtrak Customer Service) On April 12, 2003, we wanted to take up to four (4) mountain bicycles aboard the California Zephyr to the Grand Junction, CO station and then proceed with them in a rental van to Moab, UT for a week of biking in that popular region. We called a couple weeks in advance of our departure and asked the station agent in Princeton, IL if we could bring our bikes. She said "people just roll them on." We had previously taken skis as far as California and train staff helped us stow them in spacious compartments accessed from panel doors on the exterior of the train. (These compartments appear large enough to hold at least two to four bikes each, with handlebars turned parallel to the frame and seats lowered.) But when the westbound California Zephyr arrived at the platform, the conductor refused to let us put them on board. He said he needed the lower compartment space for potential handicapped and elderly passengers. That we understood and noted that the compartments used for stowing skis were plenty large for mountain bikes, and we'd expected to leave them there. He refused to allow us to do that. We were shocked and then outraged... Only by chance did we have another adult with us who was coming back to Madison, so he locked our bikes in our car after the train left and took his kids' bikes back. Had he not been there, we would have had to delay the train while we rolled our bikes through the coach car to the station side of the platform, and then locked them in or onto our car... Or we may have had to have insisted on a refund, and cancel the vacation our boys had been dreaming about for years, as at Easter week the rental shops are very low on bikes and we really did not have rental fees in our budget for this trip. (As it turned out, the lower coach space never had more than two or three passengers in it, and there remained ample space for stowing bikes there...) The bad information we got, coupled with Amtrak's inabililty to accommodate bicycles (in part apparently because most stations no longer offer checked baggage or express freight service), cost us as a group about $750 in unplanned rental costs. This took some of the joy out of our travel, not only due to the cost, but also due to the fact that one of our sons had spent hours preparing his bike for this special trip, only to suffer the heartache of leaving it behind on the platform as the train pulled away... I urge Amtrak to make suitable accommodations for carrying bicycles aboard all Amtrak trains from and to all stops, beginning with the Cal Zeph due its proximity to the mountain bike "mecca" of Moab, Utah. I feel that most bikers would be happy to pay $25 or $30 to have their bikes brought on board. As a final thought, we just returned to the US from a month of traveling and biking in Norway, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. I know many Amtrak supporters, directors and staff have experienced first-hand the joys of European train travel. Virtually every train, from the soaring Inter-City Express (ICE) trains to the rattling shuttle trains up obscure Swiss Alps valleys, has ample space for bicycles in designated cars that are well-marked on the outside (and at no extra charge). The Swiss and Norwegian cars often have ceiling hooks for securing a bike by the front wheel, so it can't roll into anyone's way. It would be thrilling to have the same service here in the U.S. Thank you. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
