Some Amtrak stations are unmanned which leaves customers with no way to pay for tickets without the use of a credit card.  As we hear on the news, sometimes people are afraid to use the credit card as through a goof, the info could fall into the wrong hands.  Paying by cash is the tried and true option.  But with towns that don't have any live people to sell tickets, people are stuck with having to use a Quick-Trak ticket machine which those things only accepts credit cards and only other option is to buy them over the Internet and the payment is only through the same method.  Grocery stores sometimes have customer service counters that sell tickets and you can pay for them with cash.  In St. Louis, there is Dierberg's and Schnucks.  Kroger is also a nationally known grocery store chain.  If you want to make a train reservation but you want to buy your ticket by paying cash, just think how easy it would be to walk to your local grocery store with cash in your hand to buy your ticket.  Buying with a credit card does have it's perks for if you feel unsafe in walking all over the city with hundreds of dollars.  But to me, I think only perk is to not to have to worry about carrying large sums of money around.  Some might say that selling Amtrak tickets at a grocery store might be bad as someone wants to stop in just to grab a ticket.  But I find that to be rubbish.  But for making a short journey on the train, I find it would be much easier to purchase the train ticket at the grocery store if the train station is unmanned.