do passengers stay onboard when crossing the US/Canadian border?
Apr 12, 2006, 3:13 pm
#2
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Originally Posted by sandra_w
do passengers stay onboard when crossing the US/Canadian border? thanks! 
The one exception is Vancouver, BC for Amtrak to Seattle. There you clear Customs even before departure!
Apr 12, 2006, 4:28 pm
#3
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Originally Posted by sandra_w
do passengers stay onboard when crossing the US/Canadian border? thanks!
However if your citizenship is anything other than US or Canadian, you will have to disembark the train and go into the building to clear customs. I believe that the new procedure will also require anyone doing that, to pay a fee for the processing to enter the US.
So far I've not heard of this procedure having spread to any other train. AFAIK, it is a pilot program that will be evaluated after 6 months. I think it's been running now for at least 2 months.
Apr 13, 2006, 6:23 am
#4
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Apr 13, 2006, 3:16 pm
#5
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Originally Posted by the_traveler
The one exception is Vancouver, BC for Amtrak to Seattle. There you clear Customs even before departure!
Apr 14, 2006, 4:09 pm
#7
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Sacramento, CA, US
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Buses are Different
With buses, passengers are generally required to disembark and go through the customs/immigration facility.
One sort of wonders why we bother with all this when people hopscotch through the border informally all the time, to the tune of 12 million.
One sort of wonders why we bother with all this when people hopscotch through the border informally all the time, to the tune of 12 million.
Apr 20, 2006, 12:39 am
#8
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On the Vancouver Seattle Casacade Train, you clear US Immigration inside Pacific Central Station right before you board the train and have your luggage security screened by an X-ray machine. When the train reaches Blaine, WA which is not a station stop, the Customs officers board the train with the sniffing dogs and collect your customs declaration cards.