Where can I leave my luggage for the day?
Short answer
Not in a station locker — those have largely gone from American stations and airports. Amtrak staffs a baggage counter at a handful of big-city stations, and that is the official answer.
The lockers you are looking for are not there
Travellers arriving from Japan, Korea or Taiwan tend to plan around coin lockers, because in those countries a locker bank is part of what a station is. American stations and airports are not built that way, and looking for one costs an hour you did not budget.
Plan the day in the other direction: decide where the bag will sit first, then build the route around it.
What Amtrak actually offers
Amtrak runs staffed baggage storage at several of its largest stations — Chicago Union, New York Penn, Washington Union and Los Angeles Union among them. You hand the bag over at a counter, it is held for the day, and there is a flat charge per bag.
It is a rail service, so it sits inside a rail station and keeps station hours. Check those hours against your flight rather than against the clock, because a counter that closes before your evening departure is worse than no counter at all.
Airports are not a substitute
Do not count on airport storage. Where it exists it is usually a private concession in one terminal rather than a facility the airport itself runs, and it is not something to arrive assuming.
The reliable fallback is the hotel you just left. Front desks will commonly hold luggage for guests after checkout at no charge, and that is the arrangement most visitors end up using.
Good to know
- Coin lockers are largely absent from US stations and airports
- Amtrak staffs baggage storage at several major stations, at a flat rate per bag
- Check counter hours against your departure
- A hotel front desk holding your bag after checkout is the common fallback
Two separate systems: coin lockers you work yourself, and staffed counters that will hold a bag for up to two weeks.
Metro station lockers. Shanghai runs them at 32 stations, sized by suitcase inches and charged by the hour with a daily cap.
Lockers sit in most subway stations and bus terminals. The newer ones take a card; the older ones only take cash.