Amtrak's Most Disappointing City Station

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:How safe is the neighborgood around Schenectady?

We went there in January and walked around looking at townhouses. It seemed just fine.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:How safe is the neighborgood around Schenectady?

Downtown around that area is decent I would say. It used to be way worse, but I consider its safe now. Your also less than 5000 feet I think from Schenectady PD's HQ and the rest of downtown.

It might be big and it might be modern, but New York Penn. sucks! It's the busiest train station in the country and one of Amtrak's hubs. The busiest station, located in the largest city shouldn't be an overcrowded rat hole, through which you enter the city. Shameful with Grand Central Terminal a few blocks away.

A shame that town with a quality university has such a dump of a station. (Referring to South Bend, IN)

Aside from the Purdue branch campus in South Bend, what quality universities are there IU SB? You certainly can't be referring to Notre Dame...

I nominate the old Milwaukee station that has since been rebuilt or the Burlington, IA station. New York Penn is worth mentioning as is North Philadelphia, PA.

Cheers,
Nick

i can comment on schenectady.. i went to college there for 4 years. its ok area. right in downtown. they are trying to get it replaced with something grander.

i would nominate savannah ga, its in the middle of nowhere and looks awful.

Wow do I have to choose only one?

Actually on the basis of a recent trip I would like to nominate Washington Union Station. I know,I know. Before you are all outraged...yes it's magnificent. Unfortunately the magnificent part is a mall and the train station part basically looks like a parking garage, complete with sliding supermarket doors. I mean come on, this is their headquarters and the marquee destination for the marquee train. Is this the best they can do?? The FOOD COURT is even nicer than the waiting areas and platforms...

Easy......Raleigh, NC. NCDOT Rail DIvision has done some great things with depots in this state, unfortunately plans for building a new downtown terminal in the NC capital are still in the infancy stage. Six trains a day and soon to be eight at the former SR depot. Several years ago a remodel job was down on the depot that basically made it the ugliest building in the state. The parking situation is a joke. During holidays its a major joke, they werent letting non passengers park last Christmas.The lot is always full and many people have to park across the street or double park when picking up/dropping off freinds and relatives. A station with an island platform would be nice for those times the Silver Star and Piedmont show up at the same time in the morning and it becomes a game of "who's on first". It is too small for the amount of passengers Amtrak handles there. For critics of Amtrak who think no one rides trains outside the NEC, I suggest they sit in the Raleigh station when the Carolininan comes through. Boy that train is always packed.

Buffalo exchange St is definitely up there, an old shed (or so it looks) located under a highway a few blocks from light rail. location isn't absolutely horrible, but the station is poorly lit and feels out of the way since it's underneath a highway. worse than that, though, is St. Paul. It's a decent Amshack, as far as they go, but the experience of coming seeing the glittering downtown from the train, then you keep going and stop in the middle of nowhere behind some warehouse in the dark is a pretty big letdown.

korax wrote:I will "third" Boston's Back Bay.
(snip)
But waiting for a Washington-bound Amtrak train on the platforms can be an exceptionally awful experience. It's very dark and grimy down there, the air lacks proper ventilation, and is thick with diesel fumes from MBTA commuter locomotives.

The logical solution to this is to electrify that part of the MBTA system.... which would save them money in the long run, too... but hoping for Massachusetts to make such an investment seems pretty hopeless.

Suburban Station wrote:worse than that, though, is St. Paul. It's a decent Amshack, as far as they go, but the experience of coming seeing the glittering downtown from the train, then you keep going and stop in the middle of nowhere behind some warehouse in the dark is a pretty big letdown.

Agreed. Minneapolis/St. Paul is sort of a "Giant Amshack". I got great service there, but the station facilities reminded me of nothing more than the old airport in Ithaca, NY, before they built a modern terminal. Or an obsolete bus station.

Luckily, there are serious plans to move Amtrak into St. Paul Union Depot, which St. Paul and/or Ramsey County have already bought. They're currently waiting for the Post Office to move out of it, which is taking forever, and they seem to be finishing all the environmental documentation while they're waiting; they're also actively pursuing funding (and kicking in some of their own money). I read they're actually developing the plans to the point where they hope to literally start construction as soon as the Post Office gets out. Whenever that may be.

I have to agree that the worst stations are the ones without buildings or shelters, and it's disgraceful that they exist in decent-sized cities (Beaumont, TX is not a small village!) You may be waiting for an Amtrak train for quite a while, and you don't want to be doing so in Beaumont....

neroden wrote:Luckily, there are serious plans to move Amtrak into St. Paul Union Depot, which St. Paul and/or Ramsey County have already bought. They're currently waiting for the Post Office to move out of it, which is taking forever, and they seem to be finishing all the environmental documentation while they're waiting; they're also actively pursuing funding (and kicking in some of their own money). I read they're actually developing the plans to the point where they hope to literally start construction as soon as the Post Office gets out. Whenever that may be.

The Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority has created a website for SPUD, where you can follow the progress of the restoration project:

http://www.uniondepot.org/index.html

Station Aficionado wrote:

neroden wrote:Luckily, there are serious plans to move Amtrak into St. Paul Union Depot, which St. Paul and/or Ramsey County have already bought. They're currently waiting for the Post Office to move out of it, which is taking forever, and they seem to be finishing all the environmental documentation while they're waiting; they're also actively pursuing funding (and kicking in some of their own money). I read they're actually developing the plans to the point where they hope to literally start construction as soon as the Post Office gets out. Whenever that may be.

The Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority has created a website for SPUD, where you can follow the progress of the restoration project:

http://www.uniondepot.org/index.html

Well, they look set to do a better job than Kansas City anyway. I'm hoping that commuter rail between SPUD and Minneapolis Ballpark Station is completed soon after SPUD opens as well - Minneapolis also deserves good connections to high speed rail.

neroden wrote:

korax wrote:I will "third" Boston's Back Bay.
(snip)
But waiting for a Washington-bound Amtrak train on the platforms can be an exceptionally awful experience. It's very dark and grimy down there, the air lacks proper ventilation, and is thick with diesel fumes from MBTA commuter locomotives.

The logical solution to this is to electrify that part of the MBTA system.... which would save them money in the long run, too... but hoping for Massachusetts to make such an investment seems pretty hopeless.

Given the other pressing needs for the MBTA I wouldn't see that happening even if the money was there. MBTA would have to go out and procure a set of electric locomotives plus additional cars since now you have trainsets that can only be used on certain routes and not on other parts of the south side system such as the Old Colony. To become diesel free at Back Bay you would need to electrify Needham, Franklin, Stoughton and the proposed south coast (Fall River / New Bedford). I'm assuming you could leave Framingham/Worcester as Diesel. With some of those lines you would have serious NIMBY issues. People in Stoughton and Easton are already going nuts with the proposal for FR/NB I can't imagine to their reaction at catenary poles as well.

If you go over to the MBTA forum you can see where pages of virtual ink have been spilled on this very topic.

Jon

LI Loco wrote:Some other candidates:

Rochester, NY - a boxy standard Amtrak building that replaced a beautiful old NY Central station.
Springfield, MA - see above
Pittsfield, MA - an Amshack that replaced a beautiful old NY Central station.

P.S. When Amtrak served Roanoke, the station was an Amshack instead of the beautiful modern N&W station designed by Raymond Loewy.

I live in the city next to Springfield. And to its defense. The amtrak station IS small, but for what it is, its a nice place. Staff is always nice, its always clean, its not in the best part of the city, then again, none of downtown really is the best. But the city is (still) in talks to restore the original Union Station into an inter modal facility including Amtrak, CTDOT and all local and intercity bus service.

And Pittsfield isnt an amshack. Its an intermodal facility with local and interstate bus service

Interloafer and Agent Skelly: I remember Schenectady well from the 80s-You have an interesting Downtown area with places like Proctor's Theatre and neighborhoods like the Stockade District. I also recall the large GE plants there-how are things there today? I like Amtrak's location there...

I remember how Rochester was back when it was newer-from pics I have seen it looks rough around the edges today. The big Empire improvement has to be Syracuse though...
MACTRAXX