I was planning on making a trip to Boston from NY so I can pick up some beer from trillium. I was going to go with my GF and bring bags and maybe some luggage to bring back like 4 cases of beer. Is Amtrak ok with that? Was wondering if anyone had any experience. I tried emailing them last week, but got not response.
Last time I rode Amtrak was in Dec '08 so my information is a little dated, but back then they didn't care so much about the size of luggage. I had a large suitcase that I traveled with from Norfolk to Philly and never had an issue with it from Amtrak.
https://www.amtrak.com/baggage-guidelines-booking Not that I saw anyone checking (I rode Amtrak earlier this month). You should be fine.
Traveling on Amtrak is nothing like traveling on airplanes as far as having luggage searched or scanned. As long as you're reasonably close to guidelines in terms of amount of luggage, you should be fine. Not that it helps you, but if a person gets a sleeper car for a long distance trip, they are allowed to bring their own alcohol. I take the overnight train from Chicago to New Orleans every year or two and always break out a special bottle or three for the trip.
Make sure wherever the beer is stashed it does not freeze. I've rode on two different routes, both of them had a bar car (Carbondale IL to New Orleans and St. Louis to KC). It's been a while but your beer choices were Bud or Bud Light. I would imagine the train service in the East is much quicker than out here. It's quicker to drive.
Unbelievably the Amtrak between NYC and Burlington, VT serves Dogfish 90min. As to lugging beer on the train, you should be fine, I just wonder how big of a pain it'll be to get if from Grand Central to your final destination.
I recently took a train to Chicago and hauled back a case or two worth of beer. From what I recall, Amtrak has strict weight restrictions if you check your luggage. Since I kept mine as a carry-on, there were no issues - except for the small issue of stuffing it into the overhead luggage compartment.
I was going to reply the same thing. For the NE corridor trains too, between Washington, Baltimore, Philly, and NYC. A pleasant surprise.
Not sure what the train cars are like out East, but I have traveled the Empire Builder to Seattle and Southwest Chief to LA (both from Chicago) and brought back a couple of cases of beer each time. Luggage goes on the lower level and I've never had any bags checked or been told a limit. I've just stashed the beer below with my bags. I've never had a problem with drinking my own beer either, but I didn't really make a big deal over it.
Maybe my experience was too long ago and things have since changed, but I don't believe you even need a sleeper car to bring your own. I used to train from Chicago back to Michigan all the time when younger. it wasn't uncommon to see a group of kids just post college to have a cooler literally in the aisle full of beers. Amtrack is pretty relaxed on that kind of thing in my experience. always made the trip fly by too!
