--- title: Amtrak Gets Stricter on Baggage, But Still is Very, Very Generous description: Amtrak is cracking down on excess luggage, limiting passengers to 150 pounds free, which is actually really generous. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2015-09-28T17:17:33.000Z' modified: '2024-05-07T10:14:43.000Z' section: Lifestyle word_count: 270 canonical: https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![An Amtrak red cap baggage handler pushes a cart next to an Amtrak Acela passenger train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., U.S., on September 3, 2015.](https://img.money.com/2015/09/150928_em_amtrakluggagefees.jpg?crop=0px%2C4px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85) *An Amtrak red cap baggage handler pushes a cart next to an Amtrak Acela passenger train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., U.S., on September 3, 2015.* If you were passing through the Amtrak terminal at New York City's Pennsylvania Station last night with a Wes Andersonian amount of luggage, you most likely overheard a loudspeaker announcement telling you the next time you brought a mountain of luggage, it would cost you something. Effective October 1st, Amtrak [will begin to enforce](http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1251621565003) its long-standing baggage policy. From now on, passengers get 150 pounds of luggage gratis: two personal items up to 25 pounds each, and two carry-ons up to 50 pounds each. If you really need to, you can take two more pieces aboard for $20 each. In other words, for $40 you can transport up to 250 pounds of your stuff. "It isn’t so much a revenue generator as it is a baggage space control device,” the [Mineta Transportation Institute](http://transweb.sjsu.edu/)'s executive director emeritus Rod Diridon told [Marketplace.org](http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/amtrak-cracking-down-baggage-policy), who added that the policy change perhaps *should* have been revenue focused, considering the underfunded nature of rail in the U.S. When you compare Amtrak's $40, 250-pound luggage limit to airline baggage policies, it seems extremely generous. On [U.S. Airways domestic flights](http://www.usairways.com/en-US/traveltools/baggage/baggagepolicies.html), for example, the first 50-pound bag is $25, the second $35, the third $150, and the fourth $200, bringing you to a total of $385 for 250 pounds when you count the 40-pound carry-on and a 10-pound personal item. That same assortment of luggage would be similarly expensive on other carriers—[$360 on United](https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/CheckedBaggage.aspx), for example. At $150, [Southwest comes off as a relative bargain,](https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/baggage/checked-bags-pol.html) but not compared to Amtrack. In practice, these policies shouldn't cause much of a ripple: Lugging 250 pounds on a train isn't exactly commonplace. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Travel", "item": "https://money.com/travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Amtrak Gets Stricter on Baggage, But Still is Very, Very Generous" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/", "name": "Amtrak Gets Stricter on Baggage, But Still is Very, Very Generous", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-09-28T17:17:33.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-07T10:14:43.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Amtrak Gets Stricter on Baggage, But Still is Very, Very Generous", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/09/150928_em_amtrakluggagefees.jpg?crop=0px%2C4px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "150928_EM_AmtrakLuggageFees" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-09-28T17:17:33.000Z", "description": "Amtrak is cracking down on excess luggage, limiting passengers to 150 pounds free, which is actually really generous.", "abstract": "Amtrak is cracking down on excess luggage, limiting passengers to 150 pounds free, which is actually really generous.", "@id": "https://money.com/new-amtrak-baggage-policy/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-07T10:14:43.000Z", "wordCount": 270, "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Travel", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel" ] } ] } ] } ```