Lyft Partners With Amtrak So Users Can Book First, Last Legs Of Trip

Lyft and Amtrak are partnering up so that travelers can book a Lyft trip directly using Amtrak’s mobile app.

According to Tech Crunch, the Lyft ride quest feature will help travelers manage the first and last legs of their trip, with the company also offering a $5 credit for new Lyft users for their first four rides.

As its main rival Uber continues to deal with the fallout from accusations of sexism by female workers, the ousting of CEO Travis Kalanick, and a lawsuit with Google over self-driving car technology, Lyft has grown into 150 new cities this year and raised $600 million in April. It also recently announced its gross bookings grew approximately 25 percent to more than $1 billion in the second quarter — a faster rate than Uber.

In addition, Lyft continues to partner with some major players, announcing that it’s also working with Disney on in-resort transit and with Taco Bell on mid-ride pit stops for fast-food orders.

This Amtrak partnership, in particular, has a great deal of potential as a model Lyft can replicate with other transit providers. Other companies, including Ford’s Chariot, are exploring first- and last-mile transit as a business opportunity, and it’s likely to attract the interest of even more startups, automakers and other transportation companies in the years to come.

The new Amtrak/Lyft partnership is in effect, and new users to Lyft can redeem the code “AMTRAKLYFT” to get that initial $5 discount on their first four rides. Lyft says that it reaches 97 percent of Amtrak riders with its current U.S. presence, so this should be a considerable new user sign-up opportunity for them.