Sneak preview: New Traintrek coming!

Here's a sneak preview photo from a new Traintrek outing I'm working on. Not going to reveal the location just yet. I'll just say it's in Sacramento's backyard. Sort of.

Hope to have this trip posted in the next week or so.

How to: Reservations not required

One of the joys of train travel is that it's possible to be spontaneous. At least on the Capitol Corridor route, I've found that advance ticket purchase is not required. Which means I can go on a whim.

Quik-Trak kiosk

The easiest way I've found is to arrive at your station at least 15 minutes before departure and buy your ticket at a Quik-Trak kiosk. Located in most Amtrak stations, these work like an ATM machine: press a few buttons, swipe your debit or credit card, and the machine spits out tickets. Then you just walk to the train. You can go the ticket counter instead, but that can be slower.

There is an even faster method, and I discovered this by accident. On one trip, I intended to arrive early at the train station and buy my ticket there, well before boarding. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up barely getting to the train in time to board. So board I did, knowing I could buy a ticket from a conductor on board. I knew this would cost a bit more (they charge an extra fee) but didn't worry much about it.

It ended up being a rather crowded train and the conductor who came for my ticket was, well, a little bit cranky. He was upset I didn't already have a ticket. Apparently the conductor has to do some paperwork when they sell a ticket aboard. So instead, he suggested I use the Amtrak smartphone app to buy my ticket right there on the train. I knew about the app, but resisted it: I guess I'm old-fashioned, and like the feel of a real ticket in my hand.

It turned out to be easy and fast. I now have the app on my phone, and I can purchase a ticket whenever I want. When the conductor comes around for my ticket, I just give him or her my name and ticket code number, or they can scan an verifying reservation image right off my phone.

There are other benefits of the Amtrak app, but I'll write about all that in a future post.

The moral of this story is, don't avoid that train trip just because you haven't bought a ticket already. Get down to your nearest station and buy the ticket there, or buy it en route.