Amtrak Questions

[MudCamper]

I know guns are not allowed on the trains, except in checked baggage. My questions are not about that. I am bringing my daughter to get on a train at the Emeryville station. These are my questions:

1 - Are there security checkpoints or metal detectors at the Emeryville station?

2 - Am I legal to carry my licensed CCW into the station just to see my daughter off? (I am not getting on a train.)

3 - Can my daughter carry a folding pocket knife on the train? The Amtrak prohibited items list is a bit unclear on this. ( https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/bagga...ted-items.html )

4 - Can my daughter carry her Taser StrikeLight on the train? ( https://taser.com/products/strikelight-2 ) Stun guns are not listed in the prohibited items.

Looking with Google Street View, it appears that we can just walk right up to the tracks without even having to enter any buildings, but if anybody has any recent experience with the Emeryville station, please do share. Thanks.

[socal m1 shooter]

YMMV-- last time I went through that station I didn't get off the train-- but in my experience none of the AMTRAK stations I've ever transited have had security which would discourage/detect someone legally carrying concealed on the station premises. I've been in major and minor stations, like LA Union Station, Portland (OR), King Street (Seattle), San Diego, etc., and so forth. Regarding your specific questions, you can read the prohibitions as well as I can; in my experience, so long as she is not advertising that she is carrying the items you mentioned, it would not be a problem, but I am not an official spokesman for Amtrak.

I would add, in my view it is worth paying for business class on Amtrak, regardless of whether you pay cash or points. It doesn't guarantee that nogoodniks will not be present, but generally there are more disagreeable people in coach. Again, YMMV.

[MudCamper]

Thanks m1 shooter. So we went there this morning. Very low key. No security. No checkpoints. No metal detectors. And I was able to go right to her train car door as she boarded.

They had some paranoia inducing videos playing on the TVs in the lobby. Human Trafficking, See Something - Say Something, Run-Hide-Fight, etc.

[Hamsterman]

Tasers are treated like firearms:

All firearms (rifles, shotguns, handguns, taser guns, starter pistols) must be unloaded and in an approved, locked hard-sided container not exceeding 62" L x 17" W x 7" D
(1575 mm x 432 mm x 178 mm). The passenger must have sole possession of the key or the combination for the lock to the container. The weight of the container may
not exceed 50 lbs/23 kg.
Smaller locked, hard-sided containers containing smaller unloaded firearms such as handguns, taser guns and starter pistols must be securely stored within a suitcase or
other item of checked baggage, but the existence of such a firearm must be declared.
All ammunition carried must be securely packed in the original manufacturer's container;

While stun guns aren't listed, it would be a bummer if someone saw the brand and assumed it applied here.

[socal m1 shooter]

Thanks m1 shooter. So we went there this morning. Very low key. No security. No checkpoints. No metal detectors. And I was able to go right to her train car door as she boarded.

They had some paranoia inducing videos playing on the TVs in the lobby. Human Trafficking, See Something - Say Something, Run-Hide-Fight, etc.

Typical. My opinion of Amtrak keeps going lower as the years pass.

As an aside, Amtrak was forcing passengers to mask or get off the train and be banned from future travel on Amtrak back in 2022. I was riding an Amtrak right around the time that a federal judge overturned the Bidumb administration mask mandate. The conductors came on the PA before stops, after stops, and between stops and issued stern warnings, sometimes snarling at everyone on the train for a minute or more: "if you are not actively eating and drinking you will be masked or we will let you off at the next station and you will be banned from future travel on Amtrak. Blah blah blah."

If anyone was disappointed to learn about the ruling, it was a couple of conductors on the train I was riding. What a shock, give people who have little authority a mandate to enforce, they become insufferable a**holes.

[MudCamper]

While stun guns aren't listed, it would be a bummer if someone saw the brand and assumed it applied here.

She decided not to bring it.

TAs an aside, Amtrak was forcing passengers to mask or get off the train...

Fortunately the stupid mask mandates are gone, for now.

And since coach in her train was going to be 100% full, I paid an extra 65 bucks to upgrade her to a roomette. She just was traveling down to San Luis Obispo. Her first time on a train. She had a good time.

[socal m1 shooter]

[...]I paid an extra 65 bucks to upgrade her to a roomette. She just was traveling down to San Luis Obispo. Her first time on a train. She had a good time.

The roomette is not too bad. Better than business class.

I had the privilege some years ago of taking the family on the Coast Starlight from LA Union Station to King Street Station in Seattle.

It was an awesome holiday, and the train portion was pretty memorable. We had adjoining rooms and enjoyed that part of the trip, in spite of being cooped up in a train for almost two days.

Scenery was great-- sunny beaches in Vandenberg AFB and CA central coast, to snowy beauty in the Cascades-- all right outside our windows, within a relatively short span of time. Even better, I redeemed Amtrak points instead of paying cash.

Amtrak has moments of being bright and shining, glad to read that your daughter had a great trip so far.