Inside the new St. Paul Union Depot

[MIke Bain]

Amtrak indeed had a staffed booth on the lower level of the depot. It was staffed by Amtrak employees and had copies of the timetables of the EB on the counter. They were also handing out coloring books for the kids which my nephew took full advantage of. The lower level Amtrak booth is located on Kellogg Blvd and is visable when driving or walking by.

Amtrak ALSO had staff and copies of the timetables and coloring books inside what will be their Sleeping Car First class lounge. This lounge is in the concourse, right next to the waiting room. The Sleeping Car First class lounge was not downstairs. I was just remarking to the person that said he didn't believe that Amtrak had a booth in the main Depot area, that yes they did ALSO have a booth in the main Depot area.

 

[Mike Bain]

Everyone has known for 2 years that the Union Depot was scheduled to be re-opened by the end of 2012. It is pathetic that the switching issue couldn't have been addressed in spring of 2012, instead of waiting for the spring of 2013.

With even 5th grade planning, Amtrak should have been able to begin serving Union Depot the day after the Grand Opening!!!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffersonlines.com/come-see-us-at-union-depots-grand-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

 

[jebr]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffe...and-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

Are they moving all Hawthorne operations to SPUD? (They also have stops at the U of M, MOA, the airport, and outer-ring suburban transit centers, which I'm assuming they won't move, since all of those stops are from buses that either originate or terminate at Hawthorne.)

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffe...and-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

Are they moving all Hawthorne operations to SPUD? (They also have stops at the U of M, MOA, the airport, and outer-ring suburban transit centers, which I'm assuming they won't move, since all of those stops are from buses that either originate or terminate at Hawthorne.)

I don't know, I was just reading the article. I'll try to see if I can hop on a JL to St. Paul soon.

 

[jebr]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffe...and-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

Are they moving all Hawthorne operations to SPUD? (They also have stops at the U of M, MOA, the airport, and outer-ring suburban transit centers, which I'm assuming they won't move, since all of those stops are from buses that either originate or terminate at Hawthorne.)

I don't know, I was just reading the article. I'll try to see if I can hop on a JL to St. Paul soon.

Okay. I may wind up going through the Twin Cities on Jefferson Lines that first week of service already, so if they're moving all of the Hawthorne service to SPUD, I'll be transferring through there!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffe...and-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

Are they moving all Hawthorne operations to SPUD? (They also have stops at the U of M, MOA, the airport, and outer-ring suburban transit centers, which I'm assuming they won't move, since all of those stops are from buses that either originate or terminate at Hawthorne.)

I don't know, I was just reading the article. I'll try to see if I can hop on a JL to St. Paul soon.

Okay. I may wind up going through the Twin Cities on Jefferson Lines that first week of service already, so if they're moving all of the Hawthorne service to SPUD, I'll be transferring through there!

Where ya going?

 

[Nathanael]

Everyone has known for 2 years that the Union Depot was scheduled to be re-opened by the end of 2012. It is pathetic that the switching issue couldn't have been addressed in spring of 2012, instead of waiting for the spring of 2013.

With even 5th grade planning, Amtrak should have been able to begin serving Union Depot the day after the Grand Opening!!!

Everyone is assuming, probably correctly, that the problem stems from one of the freight railroads: UP, CP, or BNSF. There's not much Amtrak or Ramsey County can do if UP has decided to be obstructionist.

 

[anir dendroica]

Everyone has known for 2 years that the Union Depot was scheduled to be re-opened by the end of 2012. It is pathetic that the switching issue couldn't have been addressed in spring of 2012, instead of waiting for the spring of 2013.

With even 5th grade planning, Amtrak should have been able to begin serving Union Depot the day after the Grand Opening!!!

Everyone is assuming, probably correctly, that the problem stems from one of the freight railroads: UP, CP, or BNSF. There's not much Amtrak or Ramsey County can do if UP has decided to be obstructionist.

Probably not BNSF, as the depot change doesn't affect their tracks or Amtrak's timetable on their routes. Most likely CP/UP, which could be bureaucratic trouble since the point where SPUD will connect is either joint CP/UP track or else adjacent tracks are separately owned by UP and CP.

 

[jebr]

Here's the Jefferson news release: http://www.ridejeffe...and-re-opening/;

Bus service begins 14 January 2012.

Are they moving all Hawthorne operations to SPUD? (They also have stops at the U of M, MOA, the airport, and outer-ring suburban transit centers, which I'm assuming they won't move, since all of those stops are from buses that either originate or terminate at Hawthorne.)

I don't know, I was just reading the article. I'll try to see if I can hop on a JL to St. Paul soon.

Okay. I may wind up going through the Twin Cities on Jefferson Lines that first week of service already, so if they're moving all of the Hawthorne service to SPUD, I'll be transferring through there!

Where ya going?

I'm not entirely sure yet.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Okay. I may wind up going through the Twin Cities on Jefferson Lines that first week of service already, so if they're moving all of the Hawthorne service to SPUD, I'll be transferring through there!

Where ya going?

I'm not entirely sure yet.

Why not just go to St. Paul?

 

[jebr]

Where ya going?

I'm not entirely sure yet.

Why not just go to St. Paul?

I have a free roundtrip on JL from a Facebook contest, and I want to make the most of it. Plus I don't know their schedule for SPUD yet.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Where ya going?

I'm not entirely sure yet.

Why not just go to St. Paul?

I have a free roundtrip on JL from a Facebook contest, and I want to make the most of it. Plus I don't know their schedule for SPUD yet.

Right, hope you enjoy whatever trip you take!

 

[jebr]

Here are some photos from SPUD that I took today. Mainly of the bus bay and waiting area, since I took the bus into Union Depot.

https://plus.google.com/photos/106906368961053430502/albums/5823436611865167649?banner=pwa&sqi&sqsi

 

[TraneMan]

Thanks for the photos!

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

Nice photos jebr.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Look at how it's just waiting for Amtrak! Even the signs are in place! Nice Phamtoms and LFS, BTW.

 

[dlagrua]

Older thread but worthy of mention again. St Paul is a beautiful classic restored railroad station that should be opened for train service soon. Has the official opening date in 2014 been announced?

 

[Guest]

This article says they may move in March, we shall see.

http://finance-commerce.com/transit/2014/01/06/march-targeted-for-amtrak-move-to-union-depot/

 

[dabrilloman]

That would be great. I am planning a trip out of St. Paul the last week of March!

 

[anir dendroica]

That seems to be a moving target, always about two months away. Until they pick a date and make an announcement I'm not going to believe any estimate.

 

[XHRTSP]

So with this beautiful and awesome building coming back on line, how does that change the prospects for getting new services to say Chicago or Winnipeg, if any?

 

[Ispolkom]

That seems to be a moving target, always about two months away. Until they pick a date and make an announcement I'm not going to believe any estimate.

At this point, it's not surprising. They've been working on Union Depot since 2009, but didn't come to an agreement with the host railroads to connect the station to rail until last April. Then Amtrak didn't sign on until November 2013, almost a year after the depot "opened." With the Ramsey County Board in charge, everything takes a long time, and it all has to be done sequentially. Apparently you can't negotiate with the railroads until you've finished the station.

I can certainly see why Amtrak wasn't interested in signing anything about moving to Union Depot until the County Board had gotten an agreement with the railroads. They seem just as happy at Midway, and will still attach and detach cars there even after moving passenger operations to Union Depot. Amtrak clearly wasn't a prime mover in the restoration.

I'll bet money that light rail is open to Union Station before the Empire Builder stops there. The Green Line has to open before the All-Star Game in July. Union Depot has no such deadline.

So with this beautiful and awesome building coming back on line, how does that change the prospects for getting new services to say Chicago or Winnipeg, if any?

Not much. One reason for renovating Union Depot was that at the time there seemed a reasonable possibility of extra service to Chicago. That's not going to happen with the present Wisconsin state government. I don't think there's much interest in a Winnipeg line, though it's remarkably expensive to travel between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg. The proposed (and mostly dead in the water) service to Duluth would, I think, terminate at Target Field, not St. Paul Union Depot. The same is true, of course, for any trains to St. Cloud.

 

[mitch]

The article said that Amtrak agreed to move service to St Paul station in Q1 2014 but no specifics were given. I would say that if its in the agreement, March may finally be the month. This would be historic as train service has not been in that station since 1971 when Amtrak terminated service there and relocated to the Minneapolis Great Northern Station which has since been demolished. .

 

[Devil's Advocate]

This would be historic as train service has not been in that station since 1971 when Amtrak terminated service there and relocated to the Minneapolis Great Northern Station which has since been demolished.

I wonder why the desire to demolish grand railway stations was so widespread and systemic. San Antonio still has two very nice stations in excellent condition and even though neither one is used for trains anymore I'm glad we had the brains and the balls to keep any moronic Madison Squareheads from carelessly destroying them.