Anonymous on 6/4/2014 4:19:51 PM:
http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/blog/amtrak-bicycle-task-force-bringing-bikes-on-board/
Today we are featuring a guest post by Deborah Stone-Wulf, Amtrak's Chief of Sales Distribution and Customer Service. She manages all of Amtrak's distribution channels including Amtrak.com, mobile applications, the Quik-Trak kiosks and Amtrak's Contact Centers. Deborah also sets and implements the strategy for each of Amtrak's distribution channels as well as their intermodal distribution strategy. She is a co-chair of the Amtrak Bicycle Task Force, along with our Travel Initiatives director, Ginny, and is an essential partner in the initiative to expand accommodations for bicycles on Amtrak.
I am very excited to be working with Adventure Cycling and the other representatives of the bicycling community on the Amtrak Bike Task force. I believe the partnership we have created will lead to some very exciting developments in Amtrak’s ability to expand the level of service available to the bicycling community.
What many outside of Amtrak don’t know is that we have been working on this issue for quite some time. We understand and appreciate the synergies between rail and bike travel, and continue to work hard to better serve the bicycling community. We, however, have many challenges, primarily with our core infrastructure. Among the key issues are finding space for bicycles on our trains and developing the ability to safely and efficiently load and unload bicycles. Much of Amtrak’s fleet is quite old with many cars more than 40 years old and bikes were not a consideration during the original design. The good news here is new equipment for long distance trains is on the way, featuring design elements that will help on this front. That still won’t help with our station platforms, however, which are of varying heights and present an obstacle for loading and unloading bicycles. The challenge to identify space on the train where bikes can be safely loaded, s