Trek on 8/20/2010 11:37:04 AM:
To my knowledge Amtrak does not allow tandems or special bikes. A bike is a half bike only, according to them. Boxing it if you have couplers would leave you with your shipping material at the start of your ride...I guess you could send that back UPS or the like.
If I didn't have couplers and didn't want to mess with shipping boxes, I'd not put myself in the situation where I might potentially be stranded or suddenly have a complete change of plans because the conductor would not roll my tandem on.
Time is often a constraint when you have to double back, but we can cruise along on our tandem around 20 mph on the Katy. And the trail most always looks different going the other direction too.