BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

also known as the Trexlertown swap meet. I try to go each year. Best deals can be found on clothes and shoes.

This looks cool, damn I'm gonna have to get into a car for this, oh well.

damn I'm gonna have to get into a car for this, oh well.

Not necessarily...

Bike Route S to Bike Route L ought to get you close...

we ran 2 swaps a few years ago. they were fairly well attended, it was just too much work to make happen and be sustainable. if anyone is willing to help make this happen on a volunteer basis, we have resources.

Bike Route S to Bike Route L ought to get you close... real funny. That's more then two miles from here.

The T-Town swap is cool, go in the fall for the best deals.

Our swaps here in Pittsburgh were pretty great, but as Erok said, hard for us to set up and make a sustainable, year to year event.

Bike Route S to Bike Route L ought to get you close... real funny. That's more then two miles from here.

No humor intended...Route S is a (mostly) nice ride. Take a few days, meet the family at campgrounds, motels, or whatever along the way...could be a nice trip.

Car? Could do Amtrak to Downingtown, then bike 65+- mi. to Trexlertown.

Actually that would be pretty cool to do for some of the track racing.

i went to high school in downingtown

65 miles? what?, I'm working on it, maybe I could get my neighbor to go and he could tow me.

The bigger problem is going to be getting a functional bicycle on the Pgh-Phila Amtrak run. Functional as in not having to take it apart & box it up first. Or have they resolved that issue?

I'm always amazed by Greyhound and Amtraks inability to facilitate the movement of bikes for their customers, their whole business more or less relies on people that don't drive, or don't want to that day. curious.

I don't know if they have resolved that issue at all. I just entertain this daydream of a world with perfect train/bike intermodality. As daydreams go, it would require almost 0 change in physical facilities, just stupid policy changes. Makes me sad.

Amtrak from Pgh to Philly doesn't even make cost vs. time sense unfortunately. It's a six hour car ride in normal traffic, somewhere between 7 and 8 hours by bus, and likely 10 hours+ via Amtrak.

The cost of Amtrak versus Greyhound is comparable as is the cost by car, and only if you factor in maintenance in addition to fuel costs. Southwest Airlines was even only like $70 bucks or something for the trek. Not like you could take the bike reasonably on a plane either.

Anyone please feel free to correct me about any of what I just said, I'm just speculating. However, it's no wonder people don't take the train anymore. It's all a shame to me because I think Pittsburgh is in a prime location to "bridge" the future East Coast and Midwest rail networks.

actually, its 5 hours by car, 6 hours by bus and 7 hours by amtrak. the cost difference between greyhound and amtrak, these days are negligable! (unless you buy your ticket 3 months in advance) in my book it is totally worth it even though its an extra hour because of the leg room, being able to walk around and not being treated like dogshit by the employees. the most recent time i took amtrak was 90$ round trip.

i REALLY want to see the bike issues resolved -offically that is. i have been able to smuggle my bike onto amtrak!! i just stuffed it into a very large duffle bag. so this is proof that they are discriminating against bicycles, luggage large enough to carry a bike is OK as long as they don't know its a bike!

EDIT: the biggest down side of taking the train is that there is only ONE train a day each way! this is a funding issue with fedgov. it only 8 years ago that there were 2 trains a day, i hope to see this return someday.

is there anything bikePGH can do about the amtrak bike issue? or should i take this up with PA walks and bikes?

If that's true nick I'm impressed. I've heard horror stories of people getting stuck in multiple lengthy layovers in the Pittsburgh-Harrisburg leg making the whole trip like 10 hours. Apparently freight trains get the track priority, like, WTF is up with that!?! If there is only one daily train running, it can't at least get accommodations like that?

Also, I've heard that as part of the U.S. high-speed rail network plan they're reevaluating the Pittsburgh-Harrisburg segment and wholely considering restoring the two-a-day service in the corridor.

As for bikes on Amtrak, I agree it should be more lenient, but I'm not sure what steps would need to be taken in order to legally allow them to be brought as cargo or something.

yeah, i've never had a problem with train delays personally. i take the train trip maybe 5 times a year. it wouldn't surprise me to see it happen though during better economic times especially when freight traffic can get very heavy. from pgh to harrisburg is part of the NS mainline to chicago. the reason amtrak has to yield to priority intermodal trains is the norfolk southern owns the tracks and amtrak leases a right of way.

i would love to see at least some investment in the pgh to harrisburg line for speed upgrades. harrisburg to philly is super fast right now, its also a 90% commuter rail line (owned by NS but infrequently used, their mainline goes to Allentown), but there was some investment in it to make it faster and the travel time varies from about 1 to 1 and a half hours! that's actually faster than driving! these are not high speed trains either. a similar type of investment in the pgh to harrisburg line would be amazing. about 5 or 6 hours of the travel time is eaten up on this part of the ride and the train feels slow when i'm on it.

If I drive my car, which is ok at 24 mpg, and pay toll on Pa turnpike, to, say Downingtown, it's $102.00+-, without accounting for vehicle wear, insurance, chance of death, etc. Amtrak wants $116 for the same trip. More time, obviously. But if they would make some simple accomdations for bikes, I would do it just to keep from giving it to the Pa turnpike commission.

Plus, do they serve booze on trains?

Seems like Ray LaHood might be a good one to hit up for bike accomodations on Amtrak. Gives bikes equal transportation consideration as, I dunno, a suitcase?

Oh, crap, btw, numbers above are for round trip.

In California, they have these nice racks for your bike on the Amtrak commuter trains (Capital Corridor route). I've posted pictures here before. You just wheel your bike on the train, toss it in a rack and throw a lock on it, if you feel inclined to do so. If you get a non-commuter train, they let you place your bike in the luggage compartments without taking it apart or boxing it up. They just say do so at your own risk. Nobody ever tells you "sorry, you can't bring your bike". Unfortunately, they too must yield to freight traffic. I've had some 1 hour train rides take upwards of 5 hours before. On the plus side, they sell a decent selection of beer/wine/booze in the dinning cart, and have wifi and outlets in many of the cars nowadays. I'd pick it over driving every time, even with the chance of a 4 hour delay throw in there. I'd be interested to see how Amtrak here differs, it certainly sounds like its a much bigger PITA to bring your bike.

I just like taking the train as someone mentioned, the leg room, the sightseeing, Phillys got a beautiful station, when I consider what I save on not owning a car, the trains reasonable enough, would be nice to take a bike. And sir, they do indeed serve booze in fact you can bring your own.

amtrak does serve booze on the train!

BTW the fare is only 90$ to philly and back..

For the record I took the train to Chicago and then to Minneapolis last summer and brought my bike along, packed in a box. Way easier than flying. Free to Chicago, they "stuck" me for $5 for the bike from Chicago to Minneapolis, with another $5 to insure it for $1000.

Hell yeah. Will do again. A+ experience all around.

I flew home from Minneapolis, and shipped my bike back to me via UPS.