Hi Folks
Hi Headbandgrrl
Your post comes at very good time. I had just posted on another thread about is there a message board for people with disabilitys. I wanted to find out just how disable people (not just dialysis) go about day to day life. There are people who are working just as hard to take away rights, as people working hard for the disable.
How much time did you have in advance of train trip? Can you drive, if so why not rent a car?(if you don’t have one?) Have you been on the trains before and don’t trains have baggage cars? We (wife and me) had looked into a trip to the west coast. We looked at air (I won’t fly), bus(greyhound) and train. I would have l’ll loved to take a train or bus but the cost was just out of range.
I wish best to you. And if you can post and lets us know how things work out.
[QUOTE=Headbandgrrl;16770]I know about the airline travel page. I specifically am looking for information on train travel. The homedialysis travel page is only for airline travel.
The situation is I am scheduled to travel on Amtrak tomorrow. Being, the organized individual I am, I always call ahead to make sure they are aware I am traveling with my machine, and to arrange any type of assistance I can.
When I called Amtrak, I repeatedly was told that their baggage limit was 50lbs, and my “life saving equipment” had to be under their weight limit. It was not the size that was the problem, but the weight!
I called Amtrak customer service three times, and was told by the representatives that answered, the same, that I couldn’t transport my machine. Two of the three representatives put me on hold for really long periods of time, and then said their supervisor said that it couldn’t be transported.
I called the regional NxStage representative, the NxStage customer service, and the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Civil Rights.
The FRA office of Civil Rights made a few phone calls to a contact at Amtrak in DC, and there is supposed to be someone calling me with instructions. It is now 5:15 pm eastern and I haven’t heard from anyone. I hope they call before tomorrow morning.
I am going to show up at the train station two hours early, armed with all of my ADA documentation and insist that I get on that train.
I dread to think what I would have gone through if I decided to take the bus.[/QUOTE]
Thanks
Bob O’Brien