What routes start/end at an unstaffed station?

The only one I can think of is Capitol Corridor, where it might reverse at the Oakland Coliseum station. Theres also the commute time service to Roseville.

The Heartland Flyer in Oklahoma City arrives each evening and boards each morning for Fort Worth (the only Staffed Station on this Route) from the old Un-staffed Santa Fe Station,now City owned.

How about the Vermonter and the Ethan Allen? Neither St Albans or Rutland are staffed.

IMO, staffed stations represent a major part of good marketing . Most terminal stations have it but some larger cities are without it. Rail passengers appreciate stations with baggage check in, help with their ticketing and train info. Amtrak seems to be cutting staff but a lower level of service may not be the way to grow..

Just a correction. The endpoint for Capitol Corridor is Auburn, which is unstaffed.

I believe the station at Roanoke, Virginia, the end of the NE Regional from Boston, is unstaffed.

Amtrak highlights checked baggage as a benefit in its marketing, but quietly reduces the number of staffed stations. The Heartland Flyer originates each morning in Oklahoma City, not a small town, rather the capitol of Oklahoma, with no one staffing the station.

The northernmost station on the Downeaster, Brunswick Maine is unstaffed by Amtrak.

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Deerfield Beach is staffed but they discontinued baggage service in August!

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Some others not been mentioned yet:

Quincy, IL (Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg)

Pontiac, MI (Wolverine Service)

Grand Rapids, MI (Pere Marquette)

And then of course there are stations that are staffed, but only for some departures (at least, if Amtrak's website listing station hours is to be believed). An example of this is Niagara Falls, NY. The website says the ticket office is open 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. daily. If that's the case, it means it's open for exactly zero of the weekday trains that originate there and zero of the trains the end there.

The only weekday departures the ticket office is open for are the two Maple Leaf trains, which are passing through on their way to/from Toronto. So in a way, you could include NFL on the list of routes that start/end at unstaffed stations.

NFL is open for one Empire Service departure on Sundays only Train #288 which leaves at 2:59pm (train #280 which leaves at 3:52am doesn't operate on Sundays.

SubwayNut said:

NFL is open for one Empire Service departure on Sundays only Train #288 which leaves at 2:59pm (train #280 which leaves at 3:52am doesn't operate on Sundays.

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Yes, that's why I qualified my statement.

However, to the OP's original question...is there any particular significance for a route to start or end at an unstaffed station? I don't care for the trend toward unstaffing stations, but I don't see anything more or less onerous about an endpoint station being unstaffed rather than a midpoint station.

fairviewroad said:

SubwayNut said:

NFL is open for one Empire Service departure on Sundays only Train #288 which leaves at 2:59pm (train #280 which leaves at 3:52am doesn't operate on Sundays.

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Yes, that's why I qualified my statement.

However, to the OP's original question...is there any particular significance for a route to start or end at an unstaffed station? I don't care for the trend toward unstaffing stations, but I don't see anything more or less onerous about an endpoint station being unstaffed rather than a midpoint station.

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Well - I'm thinking endpoints typically are the main destinations with bigger ridership. Not always the case. I can't really imagine that Amtrak would have moved a major route like the California Zephyr to a route that starts/ends at an unstaffed station. Part of the deal is many people who might insist of beginning at the endpoint.

I would think that there should be some kind of staffing at the endpoints, to provide certain services at least for the train crews? Not sure....where do train crews get up to date manifests, train order's, etc...?

railiner said:

I would think that there should be some kind of staffing at the endpoints, to provide certain services at least for the train crews? Not sure....where do train crews get up to date manifests, train order's, etc...?

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Every LD train starts and ends at a staffed station. So the applicable trains are really just a smattering of corridor or state-supported trains.

And what I think we're talking about here is "staffed stations," i.e. those with a ticket agent. Presumably things like cleaning the train, getting train crews to their overnight lodging, refueling the engine, etc, happen independently of the ticket agent even at staffed stations. So this is really a question about passenger services, rather than crew needs.