What Happens If Missed Connection and Next Train Is Full?
We have a trip on the Southwest Chief from Lawrence, KS to Kalamazoo, MI for a short visit with family in early June. We have made the trip a few times before with no major issues.
Since we live close to the tracks that the Southwest Chief travels through Lawrence, we know that it is often quite late. Recently Amtrak has changed our connecting time from 3 hours to 2 hours. Since our scheduled train from Chicago to Kalamazoo is the last one of the day, if we miss that connection Amtrak would then put us up overnight in Chicago until the "next available train."
However, if the next train - at 6am - is full (albeit there are several more that day), it would severely limit the time we will get to spend with family. Although we could book a rental car for the relatively short drive (probably at our expense), I have no desire to navigate through central Chicago traffic.
My question is:
Since the fare from Chicago to Kalamazoo is quite inexpensive, would we be wise to book the 6am train as a separate trip from the original reservation, and then cancel an hour out from Chicago if our arrival time will be enough to make the connection?
If we did make this extra reservation on our own, would Amtrak be obligated to provide us overnight accommodation in Chicago because we happened to have booked a second, separate reservation on our own to make sure we were on the 6am train?
We would still keep the original reservation so I think they'd still be obligated to put us up overnight since they think we'd still be taking that second leg of the trip, but on a train that departs later than 6am.