Houston Station

I'm on business in Houston at the moment and thought I would run by and check out the Houston Amtrak station. I was expecting a Dallas sort of Union station or perhaps even some bygone era legacy rail terminal facility. Not even close. This is, by almost all accounts, an Amshack.

Not the worst Amshack I've seen, but its pretty bad. I don't know what the history of this section of platform is, but there ain't much around. It's located underneath a highway interchange about a half mile from "real" downtown Houston. It's right next to a police precinct.

But perhaps the thing that bothered me the most about the station is their hours of operation:

Mon - 1:30 PM to 11 PM

Tu/We/Fri - 4 AM to 11 PM

Th/Su - 4 AM to 1:30 PM

Sat - Closed

What the.....?!?

This is a station that sees 6 trains a week! Three in each direction! Compare that to Salisbury station in North Carolina which is open only a couple hours around whenever a train is scheduled, is staffed by an employee of the State of NC, and sees 8 trains a DAY and has 27,000 annual riders compared to Houston's 18,000.

Is there some sort of law requiring Amtrak to fully staff a station even if there is no train?

I believe the current station was originally the old Southern Pacific passenger station. If you want to see Houston grand old station, head over to Minute Main Park where the Astros play. They built the stadium right next to Union Station and use it as the main entrance.

The station you saw was the one I left from several times growing up. Seemed like a great station to me at the time! I guess Houston never latched on to rail travel once Amtrak took over. It is an oil town so people really like their cars.

The now have one pretty simple light rail line with plans for more. Hopefully, one day, Houston will wake up to rail and have a bunch of light and commuter rail. Should would help get around the congested roads.

I did drive (don't know why I didn't bother riding) the whole length of the Metro light rail. Not much to write home about. And I love downtown trolleys. Dallas did it right. Houston has a ways to go.

Since the station is staffed they want to have the station open 8 hours to justify paying someone a full time pay.

Minute Maid Park is located on the site of Houston's Union station. The old terminal building was restored and is now the entrance to the ballpark. The platform started about where third base is now.

Houston's Grand Central Station was torn down in the 60's. The main post office is on that location now. The Amtrak station is located only a few blocks away from that location because that's where the tracks are.

A plan to build an intermodal station in Houston was killed last year due to money problems so the Amshack will be around for a while.

If you go inside the Houston Amtrak station there are pictures all around the walls of Houston's passenger rail history including many of the old SP Grand Central Station that was torn down in 1960 to make way for the post office that is there now. The one remaining platform you see is from the original station and was the last or fartherest track from the old station. The nice old wood benches inside come from the original station. The Amtrak station has actually been added on too and as originally builtby SP was much smaller. There are two tracks behind it but only one is used. The other was used when Amtrak still ran the Lone Star between Chicago and Houston. It is rarely used now. Sometimes Barnum & Bailey uses it for part of their circus train when it's in town. Interestingly, when news broke that SP wanted to sell the station, the city toyed with the idea of buying it and turning it into a multi-modal transportation facility and moving all the then existing Union Station trains to the SP station as it was much newer and nicer. But alas, as Houston usually does, nothing happenned and the station was sold to the Post Office.

As to the hours of operation, I assume they dove tail with the Sunset Limited's hours of arrival. On Friday's there are two trains. No trains on Thursday's or Saturday's. MWF it's the westbound around 9pm, FSuTu, it's the eastbound at 5am.

The other grand old station, Union Station, which was home to ATSF, MP, Burlington and RI is now the ball park and the original waiting room has been completely restored and looks great.......but sadly it's now a ball park. The MKT had it's own station at the north end of Main street under the now UH downtown campus building which then was known as the M&M building. MKTs passenger service to Houston ended in the mid 50's. That station is also gone.

So if ever Houston gets restored passenger train service of any quantity, we will need a completely new station.

Here is the problem we have getting anyone interested in passenger rail in Houston. We have two airports. Hobby is the oldest being the original municipal terminal. In 2010 it had 51k landings and saw over 9 million passengers. Bush Intercontinental had 257k landings and boarded 40+ million passengers. Amtrak boarded around 15 thousand.

Here's a picture of the old Grand Central Station from the Houston Railroad Museum.

Houston Grand Central Station

VentureForth said:

I'm on business in Houston at the moment and thought I would run by and check out the Houston Amtrak station. I was expecting a Dallas sort of Union station or perhaps even some bygone era legacy rail terminal facility. Not even close. This is, by almost all accounts, an Amshack.

Not the worst Amshack I've seen, but its pretty bad. I don't know what the history of this section of platform is, but there ain't much around. It's located underneath a highway interchange about a half mile from "real" downtown Houston. It's right next to a police precinct.

But perhaps the thing that bothered me the most about the station is their hours of operation:

Mon - 1:30 PM to 11 PM

Tu/We/Fri - 4 AM to 11 PM

Th/Su - 4 AM to 1:30 PM

Sat - Closed

What the.....?!?

This is a station that sees 6 trains a week! Three in each direction! Compare that to Salisbury station in North Carolina which is open only a couple hours around whenever a train is scheduled, is staffed by an employee of the State of NC, and sees 8 trains a DAY and has 27,000 annual riders compared to Houston's 18,000.

Is there some sort of law requiring Amtrak to fully staff a station even if there is no train?

Click to expand...

A correction to your phrasing. An Amshack is basically nothing more than a bus shelter. Houston has a station, ugly as it may be, it is a waiting area with doors and windows and a ticket office and baggage service. An Amshack is you, the bugs, and the bus shelter.

I was on a business trip in Houston some years ago (2008, for a big convention) and the entertainment part of the event was a visit to the Minute Maid Stadium.

Our guide told us a bit about the history and that it used to be a train station. It wasn't really clear to me which bits were original as even the supposeldly old bits looked a bit fake to me and the guide didn't know much more than her script. So I stopped pestering her for details.

As a nice touch, there is a choo-choo locomotive up on the roof that actually moves. There is also a real Souther Pacific steam loco outside the entrance.

Here are some pics

The entire station building is still left. The main lobby was completely renovated, apparently a false ceiling had been added years ago. This was removed which opened up the lobby considerably. The upper two floors which had railroad offices were completely gutted out.

ScottC4746 said:

VentureForth said:

I'm on business in Houston at the moment and thought I would run by and check out the Houston Amtrak station. I was expecting a Dallas sort of Union station or perhaps even some bygone era legacy rail terminal facility. Not even close. This is, by almost all accounts, an Amshack.

Not the worst Amshack I've seen, but its pretty bad. I don't know what the history of this section of platform is, but there ain't much around. It's located underneath a highway interchange about a half mile from "real" downtown Houston. It's right next to a police precinct.

But perhaps the thing that bothered me the most about the station is their hours of operation:

Mon - 1:30 PM to 11 PM

Tu/We/Fri - 4 AM to 11 PM

Th/Su - 4 AM to 1:30 PM

Sat - Closed

What the.....?!?

This is a station that sees 6 trains a week! Three in each direction! Compare that to Salisbury station in North Carolina which is open only a couple hours around whenever a train is scheduled, is staffed by an employee of the State of NC, and sees 8 trains a DAY and has 27,000 annual riders compared to Houston's 18,000.

Is there some sort of law requiring Amtrak to fully staff a station even if there is no train?

Click to expand...

A correction to your phrasing. An Amshack is basically nothing more than a bus shelter. Houston has a station, ugly as it may be, it is a waiting area with doors and windows and a ticket office and baggage service. An Amshack is you, the bugs, and the bus shelter.

Click to expand...

The staff is just about as uninviting as the building~ was there last week on the last #2 (service disruption because of the flooding) and a lady was going to New Iberia(never has had checked baggage since Amtrak started, IIRC). The older agent checked her bag to NOL. Lucky thing we had a great A/C as he sifted through the baggage car and retrieved her bag. There were a lot more unprofessional activities goings on behind the counter to which I won't elaborate.

Nice pictures Cirdan. The multi story red brick building is of course the old Union Station building. The ball park is built where the station tracks used to be. The SP locomotive is one of only two 2-10-2's remaining. The other was in Beaumont I think, but is now at the Illinois Railway Museum. The engine at the ball park was in Herman Park in Houston. It was not being cared for very well and was cosmetically restored when they moved it. At least in front of the ball park it will be maintained in good order as I am sure the ball park doesn not want an eyesore in front of their park.

The Amtrak station is not really an Amshack, it was a real station built by the SP to serve their remaining train service in Houston after Grand Central was sold. They did not want to move to Union Station and had only the Sunset Limited serving Houston by that time. All the trains remaining at Union Station were of the long distance variety and all disappeared with the coming of Amtrak, if they were not already gone, that is except the Santa Fe's Texas Chief. It continued to serve Houston as the Lone Star and called at the current Amtrak station until the Carter Masacre.

There were aborted attempts to serve Houston after that with the InterAmerican splitting at Temple and then a branch of the Eagle running between Houston and Dallas, but all eventually failed. The Lone Star was a popular train and should have been retained. Now they run a portion of it as the Heartland Flyer between Ft Worth and OKC.

VentureForth said:

But perhaps the thing that bothered me the most about the station is their hours of operation:
Mon - 1:30 PM to 11 PM

Tu/We/Fri - 4 AM to 11 PM

Th/Su - 4 AM to 1:30 PM

Sat - Closed

What the.....?!?

Click to expand...

I believe the station also handles passengers for the Lone Star Coach bus which goes to Longview to connect with the Texas Eagle.

Grandpa D said:

VentureForth said:

But perhaps the thing that bothered me the most about the station is their hours of operation:
Mon - 1:30 PM to 11 PM

Tu/We/Fri - 4 AM to 11 PM

Th/Su - 4 AM to 1:30 PM

Sat - Closed

What the.....?!?

Click to expand...

I believe the station also handles passengers for the Lone Star Coach bus which goes to Longview to connect with the Texas Eagle.

Click to expand...

Thanks Grandpa, I actually forgot about that 'train' and it is daily. What the poor passengers do on Saturday when the station is closed I have no idea.

henryj said:

Thanks Grandpa, I actually forgot about that 'train' and it is daily. What the poor passengers do on Saturday when the station is closed I have no idea.

Click to expand...

They'd also have a problem on Monday, as the bus 'departs' at 1:05 pm. Maybe the bus driver checks the baggage or just puts them on the bus and checks the baggage at Longview. Tickets might also be printed at Longview. The schedule does say that the ticket office may not be open for all trains.

Seems like a sad waste of manpower..

Well, it is 5:10 AM on a dark Friday morning. #2 is already running 30 minutes late. My initial estimate is that there are 25 folks ready to board. Looks like there are two staff here; a ticket agent and a baggage agent.

It's cloudy and windy. An illuminated church steeple pokes it's way through the muggy haze.

I just checked the status again. It was running 40 minutes late, then 30 minutes late and now an hour and 22 minutes late. I hear freights off in the distance, but none that will come through this old part of town.

On the other side of the platform sits a dark, faded private varnish car inside a fence topped with rolls of barbed wire.

I came out here expecting it to be too dark for pictures, but by the time#2 arrives, it should be light enough.

Back inside, the benches from yesteryear are filled, but not crowded, with plenty of folks that look like they should have been asleep in their bedroom or coach seat at katy a half an hour ago. The room is filled with memorabilia from the legacy passenger service. A warm inviting sign reminds rail fans that this faculty is for Amtrak passengers only and loiters will be prosecuted. Hopefully they mean that hobo outside, not me. But it is his home, not mine.

It's 5:30 and an announcement is made: The train should be getting here in 25 minutes. Have your tickets ready.

Most folks probably had their tickets ready 50 minutes ago.

It's 5:45. No train.

It appears that the problems started in San Antonio. Even though#2 arrived 22 minutes early, it left 55 minutes late. No speculating what caused that sort of delay.

5:50 and #2 rolls in. 2 P42s, baggage, sleeper, sleeper, dining, lounge, coach, coach.

For some reason, the schedule showed a 30 minute layover. It isn't a service stop - its last station was. Not for the crowds - only a handful getting off and the 25 getting on. Loading should be less than 5 minutes, with baggage.

San Antonio to New Orleans has got to be one of the slowest routes in the system. Don't know what all the logistics keeping it from being top teir involve, but if there are improvements to be made at Amtrak, out looks like they should start here. Its not only Houston's problem. Passengers need to demand it, Amtrak needs to listen, and politicians need to support.

They are likely going to take off soon. Back in my car to chase, then I need to find an iHop. I'm hungry.

VentureForth said:

Back inside, the benches from yesteryear are filled, but not crowded, with plenty of folks that look like they should have been asleep in their bedroom or coach seat at katy a half an hour ago. The room is filled with memorabilia from the legacy passenger service. A warm inviting sign reminds rail fans that this faculty is for Amtrak passengers only and loiters will be prosecuted. Hopefully they mean that hobo outside, not me. But it is his home, not mine.

It's 5:30 and an announcement is made: The train should be getting here in 25 minutes. Have your tickets ready.

Most folks probably had their tickets ready 50 minutes ago.

It's 5:45. No train.

It appears that the problems started in San Antonio. Even though#2 arrived 22 minutes early, it left 55 minutes late. No speculating what caused that sort of delay.

5:50 and #2 rolls in. 2 P42s, baggage, sleeper, sleeper, dining, lounge, coach, coach.

.

Click to expand...

I was on that train from NOL to San Antonio one fine day in 2009. The train was stopped at Houston for a longer period but there wasn't really the light for taking photographs.

I got this one anyway. I think it goes well with the spirit of your description.

I went to the Houston station to do a ticket transaction, and to just make sure I knew where it was before my departure date. While the building is not impressive, I would not call it a shack either. It is a small, very plain, late 50's early 60's generic institutional type architecture, nothing to write home about. It was very clean, and the agent was very friendly and helpful. The station's location at the end of a dead end street does make it feel very isolated. Even with the new building going up next door, it does feel that there is nothing around it. I didn't see any illicit activities, and no homeless people were wandering about. It was at around 3 in the afternoon. I will be interested to see it at 4:30am though!

I can't imagine working there with so little activity, and nothing to keep one busy, it seems like the day would drag on forever!

A public domain picture of the station from wikipedia can be found here: Houston Amtrak Station

I just rode the Sunset Limited to New Orelans and I have a couple of things to say. First, I noticed that there have been some improvements to the station. There is a new Amtrak sign on the platform, that says in each direction (east) New Orleans, and (west) Kansas City (?) does anyone know why it would say Kansas City? Also, I noticed that they have repaved the area around Track 1 (or is it Track 2) and it is no longer a de-rail track. Good to see those improvements.

One last thing, looking at GoogleMaps I noticed that there was a passenger train (not Amtrak) on the recently repaired track. Does anyone know what train this is?

EDIT: Sorry, I seem to be having a little trouble embedding the Google Map image? Can anyone point me in the right direction on this?

mfastx said:

I just rode the Sunset Limited to New Orelans and I have a couple of things to say. First, I noticed that there have been some improvements to the station. There is a new Amtrak sign on the platform, that says in each direction (east) New Orleans, and (west) Kansas City (?) does anyone know why it would say Kansas City? Also, I noticed that they have repaved the area around Track 1 (or is it Track 2) and it is no longer a de-rail track. Good to see those improvements.

One last thing, looking at GoogleMaps I noticed that there was a passenger train (not Amtrak) on the recently repaired track. Does anyone know what train this is?

EDIT: Sorry, I seem to be having a little trouble embedding the Google Map image? Can anyone point me in the right direction on this?

Click to expand...

It must be the Lone star getting ready to leave for Kansas City.

Or it could be this train.

http://swrails.com/2011/03/04/up-2011-engineering-department-passenger-special-passes-through-houston/

mfastx said:

I just rode the Sunset Limited to New Orelans and I have a couple of things to say. First, I noticed that there have been some improvements to the station. There is a new Amtrak sign on the platform, that says in each direction (east) New Orleans, and (west) Kansas City (?) does anyone know why it would say Kansas City? Also, I noticed that they have repaved the area around Track 1 (or is it Track 2) and it is no longer a de-rail track. Good to see those improvements.

One last thing, looking at GoogleMaps I noticed that there was a passenger train (not Amtrak) on the recently repaired track. Does anyone know what train this is?

EDIT: Sorry, I seem to be having a little trouble embedding the Google Map image? Can anyone point me in the right direction on this?

Click to expand...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=houston,+tx&sll=35.221997,-101.831297&sspn=0.410043,0.891953&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Houston,+Harris,+Texas&ll=29.767551,-95.367419&spn=0.001702,0.003484&t=h&z=19

Good question. Looks to have two domes on it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=houston,+tx&sll=35.221997,-101.831297&sspn=0.410043,0.891953&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Houston,+Harris,+Texas&t=h&ll=29.767749,-95.366583&spn=0,0.002401&z=19&layer=c&cbll=29.767662,-95.366591&panoid=yfq50Cqqg4FRpTpt_g3Xkg&cbp=12,281.41,,0,4.63

This view shows it to be the American Orient Express consist.

But that is coming off the siding. The single car that is on that siding in the first view is PV and its still there. The consist that's located at the station could very well be Amtrak, though that sure doesn't look like a P42 on the head.

Thanks, I think it is the Union Pacific passenger train. Still don't understand why it says Kansas City to the west though. Weird.

mfastx said:

Thanks, I think it is the Union Pacific passenger train. Still don't understand why it says Kansas City to the west though. Weird.

Click to expand...

All I wanna say is that Kansas City sign will be there when our grand-children are our age irregardless if there never is direct service to Kansas City...I love the way Amtrak operates sometimes. :lol: