Improve the Virginia DRPT Amtrak Lines map

[Overtone]

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportant has released a subway-style map of all Amtrak lines going through Virginia. It’s a great map. I learned about it from a Greater Greater Washington article.

This map lacks something that would be very useful – little bicycle icons showing which of the stations have checked baggage service so you can board or disembark with an unboxed bicycle. (I believe none of the lines in Virginia have carry-on bicycle support yet, so traveling with your bicycle requires checked baggage support – and only some of the trains on each line have the appropriate baggage cars for unboxed bicycles.)

Does anyone on the forum have (a) the information about the stations, and (b) the photoshop skills to add the icons to the map? If so it would be great to generate it for our own reference, and send it back to DRPT asking them to improve their map. [If you’re going to take this on, I recommend you start from the full-resolution PDF linked above, not the low-res JPEG export I show below.]

Thanks!

John

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Topic

[TwoWheelsDC]

Per Amtrak, you can check bikes on the Carolinian at Alexandria and Richmond-Staples Mill. I assume the same is true for the Palmetto, since they offer the same bike service (train-side checked). With a bike, I’ve personally done Fayetteville to Union Station on the Palmetto, and Union Station to NYP and back on both the Carolinian and Vermonter. I think I actually prefer the trainside check of the Palmetto/Carolinian to the self-load of the Vermonter.

[Overtone]

When I looked at the Amtrak site I couldn’t find which stations have the support for the train-side check. Thanks for the info.

I did the self-load to go to Pittsburgh (in order to bike back on the GAP / C&O). It worked fine for me. Glad to hear the train-side checking experience is also good – it opens opportunities for other long distance one-way bike trips that I’d like to try.

[mattotoole]

Thanks John, that’s a good idea. I’ll pass it along. In the meantime, to anyone handy with graphics — feel free to create! We’ll post it for sure.

But — per this week’s big news — don’t forget to add Richmond’s Main Street Station.

[Overtone]

Hooray! I have a good friend in Richmond and look forward to using the new service this summer.

[Author]

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