Excess baggage fees introduced by Amtrak

Amtrak started charging $20 to passengers who exceed limits for carry-on and personal items on Thursday.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the fees will help enforce the company’s established polices, preserve space on crowded trains and reduce safety concerns created by items that are too heavy.

Customers are allowed to bring for free two personal items weighing up to 25 pounds and two carry-on bags weighing no more than 50 pounds each. Personal items might include things like a backpack, laptop, purse or other small bags. Passengers with children under the age of 2 also can bring onboard an additional item like a stroller or diaper bag.

The fee applies to each item above those limits.

Eric Menendez, 21, traveled to Merced from Los Angeles on Thursday. He said he travels lightly and is not concerned about the excess baggage fees, but thinks some passengers will not be pleased.

“I think it makes sense on a plane, but I don’t really see what difference it makes on a train,” he said.

Although he doesn’t anticipate the fees affecting him directly, he believes others, such as college students who travel home often, will be forced to be more cautious about their luggage.

According to Amtrak, the passenger-train operation still has one of the larger allowances for free carry-on and checked baggage in the travel industry.

U.S. airlines started introducing bag fees in 2008 and now charge a standard fee of $25 for the first checked suitcase. Those fees generated $1.6 billion for the airlines in the first quarter of this year.

But the airline charges also are more extensive than what Amtrak plans, and Magliari said the train operator didn’t start its fees to make more money.

“It is simply a space and safety initiative,” he said.

He said the fee was aimed at a small percentage of the company’s 31 million passengers who exceed limits for what they can bring onboard for free. Passengers can avoid the fee by checking their bags through to the final destination, if that service is available on their train.

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Excess baggage fees introduced by Amtrak."