Amtrak stations, best and worst

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J

Jtbarton

Joined
Dec 31, 2016
Messages
8
Amtrak is great, but sometimes the stations can be located in the worst areas, or ones that are so far outside the city center, you wonder if they can even call the station what they do. In this topic, post your 3 best and worst Amtrak stations in the system (bus doesn't count) using the following guidelines. Location, Customer service, train times at the station and accessibility. Provide a short discription for each station and why you chose it. Can't wait to hear from you, Jack
 
Three Best:

1) 30th St./PHL

2) LA Union Station

3) Washington Union Station

Plenty of Trains/Local Transportation/Convienent Locations and Good Customer Service and Facilities with Good Hours

Three Worst:

1)Sanderson,Texas-There's No There There/Only LD Trains 3 Days a Week

2)Maricopa,AZ-Ditto

3)San Antonio,Tx-No Parking/No Local Transportation/Bad Calling Times for the 2 Long Distance Trains/1 which only runs Three Days a Week
 
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Second San Antonia. Terrible. Only seating space for about 25 persons. On a cold dreary night waiting for a late #2 to arrive and #22 to originate have seen over 100 stuffed into that small waiting room with others standing outside. Platforms are lighted by very dim light fixtures + missing bulbs in many fixtures. No place to eat close by and the two vending machines often sell out. Insufficient bathrooms. If someone can note any improvements will retract ? ? ?

Of all higher volume passenger stations absolutely the worst. Makes Atlanta appear as a Taj Mahal.
 
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My vote goes to Cincinnati, located in some weird museum, and a bad neighborhood. 3 day a week trains arriving at 1am and 3am.
 
My worst was Topeka, KS, next worst Lawrence KS. Both are located in the "bad part of town", the train calls in the middle of the night, and there is no way to or from the station except by private vehicle. We always got picked up or dropped off by family, and I never even saw a single taxi at either station. At Topeka, they had a station, but it was locked up -- there was no place to go inside. I've been to several stations that were just a platform, but if it's in a smaller town like Winnemucca NV or Chemult OR (my home station), at least you don't feel unsafe. In Topeka, you did not want to hang around till the train got there.

My favorites have always been:

1. Los Angeles CA

2. Baltimore MD

3. Portland OR

Reasons: It's pretty easy to find your way around each station, and very easy to get to and from by public transit. Los Angeles comes in first because of the walkable neighborhood with food and lodging in easy walking distance. Portland and Baltimore are both walkable -- as long as you know which direction to walk. Baltimore has that wonderful free Circulator bus line going right by, and down to the harbor, past lots of food and lodging.
 
San Diego CA is good, they have the trolley system and it's only a short walk to the USS Midway.

Harpers Ferry WV is right in the middle of things too.
 
Peachtree Station in Atlanta is strange. Not bad, just strange. For a major city it has almost no parking and no real connection to mass transit. Union Station in DC is pretty nice, except at the track level, which is left over from the 1920s.
 
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Don Newcomb said:
Peachtree Station in Atlanta is strange. Not bad, just strange. For a major city it has almost no parking and no real connection to mass transit. Union Station in DC is pretty nice, except at the track level, which is left over from the 1920s.
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Agree about Atlanta. Not bad, just strange.

Birmingham, AL, is on the bad list. Basically the basement of the old station with the top chopped off. There will, however, be a new station coming on line later this year which will be much nicer.

My nominee for the best group are stations along the Crescent route in Mississippi. They are all nicely restored and maintained as well as Slidell, LA. And New Orleans UPT is also pretty nice.
 
If I remember correctly, I believe Salt Lake City is just a "portable" building and not even in the ground. It did seem a bit far from the city (or at least far away from my family's house). It's hard to tell from the neighborhood because they have close to if not graveyard shift service (the westbound arrival is supposed to be around 11pm but when I last rode it the CZ didn't get in until well after 1am/around 1:30am.

I think Pittsburgh is centrally located but it is just a building and little if any amenities. Normal AU lingo for that is "Amshack".

I would say New York Penn Station and Chicago Union Station are centrally located (Penn Station is pretty close to Madison Square Garden and Union Station is within walking distance of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower and have a lot of things inside to do but they're way busier (the only time it would bother me if I had to wait in a long line). Washington isn't really centrally located (although the Metro Red Line can get you quickly to the major attractions) but it looks like there's a mini mall with a lot of shops and restaurants attached to it and that's where the main ticket line is. Philly 30th Street is also a bit west of the main city attractions (again MFL line works well) and has a good number of places to eat. To me, if you have to wait a long time in the station you'd rather not wait in an Amshack with a poor selection of food (or none at all, does SLC have any?)
 
GaSteve said:
My nominee for the best group are stations along the Crescent route in Mississippi. They are all nicely restored and maintained as well as Slidell, LA. And New Orleans UPT is also pretty nice.
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HBG was a very nice little station with plenty of parking. Meridian looked nice from the train. One place I thought, "I'm really going to have to come back and visit some day." is Toccoa, GA.
 
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Mostly agree about Atlanta, but the bus that connects to the subway (or continues all the way downtown if you don't want to switch) is right across the street. And more passenger pickup parking is available up behind the church out the side on the other side of the street. Nice to have things people want and then keep them secret by having tiny signs no one can see. Also, sitting on the mains and having no bridge to the other side means potentially crossing the tracks to go up/down.
 
For the best:

Boston South Station (the most civilized of Amtraks big city stations)

New London

Washington Union

Ken
 
The Ft. Worth TX station is nice-for about an hour. After that the bench seats grow uncomfortable and the lack of anything to do in the immediate area of the station becomes painfully obvious. If I have more than that between the Eagle and the Flyer, I head to the "annex" station a few blocks north, that being the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium.
 
There are a lot of horrifyingly terrible stations in Texas. Taylor, McGregor, and Cleburne all have terrifyingly substandard platforms, although some of them have OK waiting rooms. Malvern, AR is another failure-of-platform. It was an eye-opener for me to ride the Texas Eagle, because the routes I'd ridden before all had proper platforms.

Haven't seen them personally, but Alpine and Sanderson are awful too.

Sanderson is probably the worst in the system. Beaumont used to be worse but they finally replaced the platform.

Houston is probably the worst station which is located in a top-10 metropolis.

There are also a number of appalling SEPTA stations on the Northeast Corridor -- asphalt patches at the side of the tracks, with grade crossings to board trains running on the inside tracks -- though SEPTA is slightly outside the bounds of the question. Most of these are being upgraded to real platforms as SEPTA gets money.

Best? Honestly most of them are pretty nice.

Denver is probably the nicest one I've been to.

Of the ones I've gotten on or off at... St Paul, LA, Philadelphia, Boston, Syracuse (my home station), Utica, Albuquerque, San Diego, Worcester MA, New Rochelle, all very nice.

...Salt Lake City is an oddity. Amtrak is in a temporary building which is a bit of a shack, but it's located on the corner of a very nice open-air intermodal facility. And the *platform* is all spiffy and nice. So on the whole Salt Lake is a very nice station, though the Amtrak building is the shabby end of it.

Kansas City is nice except for the *extremely* long walk from the ticket office to the platform.
 
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I've been to 6 Amtrak stations.
In Iowa:
Burlington - Apparently they started renovating the station back in 1995 or so. When I was there in 2014 they still had a long way to go and the Men's bathroom was a porta-potty out in front of the station. But the station still had up it's Train Information from 1993 showing 2 trains that are no longer, the Pioneer and the Desert Wind. (photos below)
Osceola - The one time I was there in 2010 it was staffed, but hasn't been now for a couple of years. They did however pave the parking area about 2 years ago. The station is only open when the CZ is there.(no photos)
Ottumwa - Ottumwa is staffed and the upstairs part of the building is the Wapelo County Historical museum: Tuesday – Friday 10:00am – 4:00pm. Saturday – Noon – 4:00pm. Admission $5 for adults, $1 for children.

In Colorado:

Grand Junction - On my first Amtrak ride (2010) I boarded in Osceola and rode to Grand Junction for a family reunion in Hotchkiss. The station seemed functional but had clearly seen better days.

In California;

Sacramento - I was first there in 2014 and a full blown restoration was in progress. I was there this last October and they were in the finishing stages of the job. I posted photos of both visits.

SAC is downtown so there is public transportation (bus and light rail), taxis, nearby hotels and motels, restaurants, a railroad museum and more.

In Oregon:

Eugene - In 2014 I caught the Coast Starlight at SAC and went to Eugene to visit my sister. Eugene has a nice station and is near restaurants and other amenities and attractions.

_KMH0012.jpg


Burlington

BRL%20station%20entrance.jpg


MensRoom.jpg
 
Neroden: FYI, Alpine now has a Nice new Platform but it isn't long enough so two spots, still have to be made for the Crew Change/Sunset Sleepers and the Coaches/Eagle Sleeper.

The Unstaffed, Historic Station is undergoing renovation. (Nice Mural inside the Station)

The Three Times a week Sunsets still block the two downtown crossings during the stops,but Alpine is so laid back no-one seems to mind.
 
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Bob Dylan said:
Neroden: FYI, Alpine now has a Nice new Platform but it isn't long enough so two spots, still have to be madeIn Alpine for the Crew Change/Sunset Sleepers and the Coaches/Eagle Sleeper.

The Unstaffed, Historic Station is undergoing renovation. (Nice Mural inside the Station)

The Three Times a week Sunsets still block the two downtown crossings during the stops,but Alpine is so laid back no-one seems to mind.
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I been to Alpine and I am sure no one minds the Sunset blocking the streets! In Alpine its a big issue when the train stops! I like the town and its a cool little town.
 
Don Newcomb said:
GaSteve said:
My nominee for the best group are stations along the Crescent route in Mississippi. They are all nicely restored and maintained as well as Slidell, LA. And New Orleans UPT is also pretty nice.
Click to expand...
HBG was a very nice little station with plenty of parking. Meridian looked nice from the train. One place I thought, "I'm really going to have to come back and visit some day." is Toccoa, GA.
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I noticed the little stations in MS (and Slidell LA) looked fresh and attractive. well-maintained. I don't know if it translates to more business but I hope so.
 

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