Rail Plus online with Amtrack

MELBOURNE – Agents can now book Amtrak on Rail Plus’ on line service, just as they do for Europe product.

Rail Plus national sales manager, Greg McCallum, said moving Amtrak from “on request” to instant confirmation from live availability and live inventory was a significant development for the Australian market.

“The US market is doing well at the moment with new air capacity and the Aussie dollar being strong,” he said. “This initiative just makes it easier for agents to book rail as an alternative for city centre to city centre travel.”

“Agents are very familiar with our system with some 90 percent of agency sales transacted on line, so we expect the addition of Amtrak to be a seamless process,” he said.

Rail passes and point-to-point tickets are available.

The Amtrak USA Rail Pass, for instance, includes key cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle.

This pass is available for eight segments over 15 days ($453 adult/$227 child), 12 segments over 390 days ($674/$338) or 18 segments over 45 days ($871/$437).

One segment equals one city-to-city pair. For example, New York to Washington would be considered one segment.