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Just in case nobody has noticed, both Via and Amtrak have now officially announced on their websites that the pass is being discontinued effective the 30th of September 2008. If you do purchase the pass on or before this date it will be valid until the 30th of September 2009. Neither railway gives a reason for the discontinuance.
chrisg Member # 2488
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They are reintroducing the USA Rail Pass that everyone can buy and the Morth American Rail Pass is suppose to be continued per Trains Magazine this month.
Chris
RRRICH Member # 1418
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We traveled on a North America Rail Pass on our trip this summer, and went sleeper on all overnight segments, but there was no real difference in the total price between the rail pass or if I would have booked the whole trip segment by segment.
Geoff M Member # 153
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The USA Rail Pass, as it was when available only to foreigners, only covered coach travel in specific regions (or the nation) for 15 days or 30 days. If you were to travel in coach then my calculations on several trips worked out that it was more cost effective to buy individual tickets if travelling less than 2.5 long haul routes. Prices vary and that is an average. Before anyone here goes into complete apoplexy at the mere thought of mingling with mere coach passengers, read on.
However, do as RRRICH did and factor sleepers in, and it's a completely different ball game. The rail pass then makes up only a small part of the total travel costs and thus the percentage gain is much smaller.
That said, a rail pass does give you a lot of flexibility if you need to change your plans. If space is available, just turn up, "buy" a ticket, and hop on board. My second Amtrak trip consisted of arriving at New York Penn with the aim to be back at the same place in two weeks. NYP to NYP via NOL-LAX-CHI and I boarded the Crescent 20 minutes after deciding that's where I was going. My preferred trip was fully booked, that of NYP-CHI-SEA-SF-CHI-NYP, hence the rather shortened booking time!
Though immoral (and I have never done it) you could speculatively book a place on a train just in case and then not use it. I'm not sure how clever Amtrak are when it comes to this and it's not something I would particularly recommend.
Geoff M.
royaltrain Member # 622
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Up until the last two years, I always bought the NARP when travelling between Canada and the U.S., but there was only a small cost benefit since I just bought five or six segments, however, a small saving is better than no saving. One thing I particularly liked about the pass, is that there is no Canadian GST on either the pass or the sleeper tickets (one of the few un-taxed items in Canada).
Jarrod Member # 4318
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As far as I can tell, the new pass is already up on the website...
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