We biked from Raleigh to Durham one beautiful fall Sunday with the intention of taking the 2:30PM Amtrak Piedmont service back into the city after stopping in downtown Durham for brunch. The cost for a one-way trip costs anywhere between $6.50 and $8.00 to go from Durham to Raleigh, and there is currently no charge to bring a bicycle.
The Piedmont Train services the following stations twice per day and you can take your bicycle for free anywhere to the stations along this route. I recommend it!
- Raleigh
- Cary
- Durham
- Burlington
- Greensboro
- High Point
- Salisbury
- Kannapolis
- Charlotte
Update April 2013: No change to the price or process.
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| "Add Bike to Trip" when you purchase your ticket on the Piedmont Service between Raleigh and Charlotte |
Once at the station they give you a baggage tag to attach to your bicycle and you must roll your bike to the left hand side of the platform where the baggage car is located. The baggage handler loads the bikes into the compartment, although we did help them do some of the lifting. Once you hand off your bicycle, you need to walk quickly down to the seating cars and board.
My biggest advice is to reserve space for your bicycle in advance, at the time you buy your train ticket. There are only a limited number of spaces for bicycles available. Several in our group had to lay our bikes down on the floor of the baggage compartment because there were not enough bicycle hooks.
Although many of the trains have 7 bicycle hooks, this train only had 5. At left is a photo of what this compartment looks like and how the bikes are transported. Be cautious if you have a large group as there may not be enough space for everyone's bike to hang. Also, as was the case on our trip, there were already bikes on the train. I expect this to become more popular in the future so be sure to reserve ahead of time!
The Piedmont service has very roomy seats. Our crew really enjoyed the bike trip and learning how to use the regional Amtrak services. Truly multi-modal!
Update April 29, 2013. I recently rode to Durham and used the service again. I got a better view of the baggage compartment on the Piedmont Service where the bikes are stored during the trip. As of this writing, there have been no changes to the process for putting bikes on the train. Staff in both Durham and Raleigh seemed very familiar with the process for loading and unloading - just make sure you save all the bike tickets (both baggage and claim) to turn in when you get to the final destination.
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| This particular train had space for 6 bicycles. |
Amtrak is a great starter for a bike camping weekend. A handful of pals and I took the train from Durham to Charlotte and rode back over a weekend. It was really wonderful.
ReplyDeleteWe've also considered doing Durham to Greensboro, riding all day, grabbing dinner at Natty's then Amtrak back home again. Good stuff.
Nice! That brings back memories from when I lived in Switzerland and did such bike/train trips many many times. One tip though for such one day trips: Do the train leg first! That way, if they have no space, or something else goes wrong with the train you're still close to home and can just change your plans. Otherwise if you've done 30 miles and they don't let you on the train, you're only option is to ride 30 miles back home or spend the night waiting for the morning train.
ReplyDeleteGood to see that Amtrak was accommodating, though.
Cary-Raleigh bike/train is also good, shorter and very nice if you take the green-way route through Umstead.
Thank you for the pictures and text.
ReplyDeleteI travel often in New York State, along the north coast (Great Lakes), and along the East Coast to Washington DC from New York City.
Six years ago I purchased a used folding bicycle (Bike Friday/New World Tourist) to avoid the "boxing a bike" syndrome when traveling by train or intercity bus.
In fact the intercity buses, Greyhound and most Trailways franchisees, do not require a bike to be boxed. A bike simply has to be placed in a sturdy canvas like bag.
On airplanes the bike does have to be boxed and it is very expensive to transport a standard diamond frame bicycle on a plane. It is actually less expensive to ship a bike via UPS or FedEx than shipping it as baggage with your flight. With the folding bicycle I simply cut a box to the proper size required by the airlines (usually 62" total in all dimensions) and make certain the box weighs no more than 50 pounds.
I have been advocating for roll on roll off bicycle carriage service on Amtrak trains traversing New York State for more than 25 years.
I would like your permission to use the pictures, with proper attribution, when advocating for improved bicycle carriage facilities on Amtrak trains.
Thank you.
Harvey Botzman
Director, New York Bicycling Coalition
Director, Rochester Cycling Alliance
Director, Canal New York Marketing & Business Alliance
Author, Cyclotour Guide Books
cyclotour@cyclotour.com