Amtrak relocates to SPUD May 7 (includes old topic)

[jebr]

Last I heard, the crew changes at SCD. (barring the all-too-usual delays)

Correct. Crew change is scheduled at SCD, and tickets are usually pulled before the train ever arrives there.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

At every intermediate stop until the discharge only stops of the NEC, the same thing happened just one door would be opened and our train got later and later, two to two and a half hours late. There were no noticeable freight train delays.

This is why the idiotic "one door, check tickets at door" stuff is - according to what I've heard secondhand -- prohibited by the rulebook. Is there some way to get Amtrak to crack down on conductors who do this?

You could threaten to whine at them.

 

[NW cannonball]

What did he mean by "narrow platforms"? They seem quite wide to me, certainly more so than Chicago Union Station!

I am not sure if wider than CHI. But it's narrow when you got a lot of people getting off and on at the same time so it can get crowed vs the old Midway, there was LOTS of space.. (I'm guessing they are used to that.)h

The platform at SPUD is wide enough. Us old-timers at the old Midway station assumed that detraininig people just bypassed the station and walked around the building, maybe to the checked baggage carousel, or not,or to to their ride with friends or family, as need be. It takes some adjustment to not be able to walk right up to the tracks, like we used to do. Now, got to go up, over, around. But who cares about us long-time users?

Now there's a mostly locked access point to some stairs and mostly working escalator to the platform.

One of the two staff at the ticket and bag check way over on the Kellog street side has to walk a long ways to open the gate to the stairs-escalator. The Conductor can't check tickets at the gate. The detraining pax have to use the stairs-escalator contra the boarding pax - none of which mattered at the old nowhere station.

And - there's only few-minute stop.

Eventually, detraining pax will learn to bypass the up-over-down -- it's not NYP.

Meanwhile - SPUD is a PITA.

And a gate dragon -ha - one who can't be there is worse than one who can at least direct traffic.

 

[plink]

At the new SPUD, the gate is way up 2 flights from platform to the classic waiting area. The ticketing and baggage check people are way away -- at least 60 yards and 2 flights from the head of the gate to the escalators and stairs to the tracks.

Also, there's still only 2 people assigned to the ticketing and baggage check (2 levels down and 80 yards from the head of the amtrak boarding escalator.

When the eastbound #8 was late a few weeks back, I watched the second "ticketing and baggage person" go up - over - down -- at least 3 times.

For Amtrak employees, getting to the ticket office from the platform shouldn't require going up the escalators through the Waiting Room and back down to the ticketing area.. I haven't been in it, but if you look to the north of the Amtrak platform there appears to be an access point leading to a route that goes under the platform area which would allow access to the ticket office.

 

[neroden]

Or they could follow the baggage cart route.

 

[NW cannonball]

w

Or they could follow the baggage cart route.

I apologize for not explaining more clearly.

It seems that one of the two workers at the ticket desk at SPUD has to go to the upper-level gate at the farthest end of the concourse to open the door to the stairs and escalators to the tracks and platform. To allow any waiting pax down to the platform. Nobody gets to the tracks before official arrival.

I've heard her check in at the lock on the gate to the tracks, use her card, check in with "somewhere", and open the mostly-locked door to the platform. "Super-gate dragons are us"

-

The point is -- one of the two ticket-area (and bagage-check people)

has to walk to, and unlock, the concourse level gate. In person. At the head of the stairs.

This is obviously a policy thing. No pax on the platform before the train officially arrives.

Try to get to the platform before official; arrival

All us MSP people used to know that you can meet your party near the tracks.

Not now.

At SPUD - trying to be gate dragons, getting out of breath - and any shortcut to the platform is off-limits even to the local employees.

Welcome comments - b

Yes, there's ways around the up-and-over - but -- I'm not trying --big space - Amtrak (or SPUD) trying big bad boarding control - not working - big pain.

 

[NW cannonball]

Or they could follow the baggage cart route.

If they want to be arrested

 

[jphjaxfl]

When Saint Paul Union Depot was vacant, they used to have problems with homeless people coming up the stairs from the platform to the building to stay warm in the winter even though it wasn't heated. At one time, BN stored old passenger rail cars in the depot, many from the early zephyr trains and the observation cars from the post WWII Empire Builders. They too were a haven for the homeless.

 

[NW cannonball]

When Saint Paul Union Depot was vacant, they used to have problems with homeless people coming up the stairs from the platform to the building to stay warm in the winter even though it wasn't heated. At one time, BN stored old passenger rail cars in the depot, many from the early zephyr trains and the observation cars from the post WWII Empire Builders. They too were a haven for the homeless.

The best havens for the homeless in Saint Paul - used to be - the old streetcar adit - up under the Cathedral. (gone) Now - I've got no clue. The new wonderful station does not attract. The area around the bluffs near the big Hoffman wye is still pretty good. I see some travellers near Saint Anthony from time to time.

None of them ever hassled me.

The few (homeless or travellers I rarely see near the tracks in my upscale neighborhood - ) no problem.

 

[Potato]

When Saint Paul Union Depot was vacant, they used to have problems with homeless people coming up the stairs from the platform to the building to stay warm in the winter even though it wasn't heated. At one time, BN stored old passenger rail cars in the depot, many from the early zephyr trains and the observation cars from the post WWII Empire Builders. They too were a haven for the homeless.

If you take a look at pre-renovation photos of Union Depot when it was shuttered, you can actually see a giant heater near where the First Class lounge is now located. USPS kept the concourse and waiting room heated "just enough" to keep the pipes from freezing and structure from crumbling in the harsh winters.

 

[neroden]

Or they could follow the baggage cart route.

I meant the employees could follow the baggage cart route and unlock the door from the back side.
After all, they have to follow the baggage cart route to handle the baggage anyway. In fact, if they're doing anything sensible, they should be driving the baggage cart with the outgoing baggage up to the platform shortly before they unlock the doors for the passengers. (It is apparent from your descriptions that they are not doing anything sensible.)

 

[neroden]

Nobody gets to the tracks before official arrival.

This is never sane policy. These are trains. People should be on the platform before the train pulls in. Syracuse doesn't have ideal policies, and it has dangerously narrow sections on its platform, but they do get all the boarding passengers onto the platform a few minutes before arrival, so that boarding can be as efficient as possible.

I've heard her check in at the lock on the gate to the tracks, use her card, check in with "somewhere", and open the mostly-locked door to the platform. "Super-gate dragons are us"

-

The point is -- one of the two ticket-area (and bagage-check people)

has to walk to, and unlock, the concourse level gate. In person. At the head of the stairs.

This is obviously a policy thing. No pax on the platform before the train officially arrives.

A policy which needs to be changed. This is another one of these goofy airplane-mimicking policies which makes no sense for trains.

 

[Ispolkom]

No pax on the platform before the train officially arrives.

I've only caught #7 out of SPUD once, but when I took it we boarding passengers were on the platform at least 10 minutes before the train arrived. I'm not surprised that different Amtrak personnel have different procedures, as that's the one uniformity of Amtrak.

 

[NW cannonball]

The way I see it works now - yeah not good.

The door to the stairs and escalator is locked always, until one of the two employees walks up and over to do some "security" thing, and unlock the door, just as the train is arriving (but I heard one of them bitching that -when will that be?)he

Nah, the way it works now is dumb, stupid, and counter-productive.best I could say

I had high hopes for SPUD. and if you want to take a bus to a casino - good. Or even the bus to the airport -- the #54 good,cheap, frequent,

But boarding Amtrak at SPUD - not so good. Klutzy would be the best I could say.

The beautiful space echoes so much that announcements are unintelligible. Maybe why Amtrak sends a person up to the head of the boarding ramp -

There's displays for the local and casino buses. and for Amtrak- but knowing that the train might arrive in an hour or two is not very helpful.

Aah -

 

[Ispolkom]

I agree that the boarding procedure at SPUD leaves much to be desired, but that could be helped by a few simple steps, like the signs that were suggested earlier. SPUD does have some serious advantages, in my mind, over Midway station.

1) Public transit connections are significantly better, and obvious to the arriving passenger.

2) The waiting area is much larger and more pleasant, with better seating and free wifi, an important consideration since you'll probably be waiting for an hours-late train. I especially think that it's nice that there's lots of room for small children to run around in, since they'll be cooped up pretty soon.

3) The neighborhood isn't an industrial wasteland. I can think of a half-dozen nice places within two blocks of SPUD, which is six more than I could name near Midway. Again, given the lateness of the train, that's a nice thing.

Conductors at Midway were always prone to needlessly boarding procedures (first boarding by groups size, next boarding single passengers by destination, etc.). I think that it wouldn't be hard to simplify and rationalize boarding at SPUD.

 

[NW cannonball]

Totally agree that public transit from SPUD is really really good. The #54 bus to the airport, the Green line - can get anywhere in the Twin Cities on public transit. And lots of good eating places nearby - Tanpopo, Ruam Mit, Cosetta, -- hell even Mickey's.

A visitor would have to walk a long long way to get to a dangerous neighborhood.

.

But - the boarding procedure is annoying.

<edit> never tried the in-station restaurant- but so many good and reasonably priced places nearby -- and the river to watch --

The good thing about waiting for the EB is -- SPUD in a good neighborhood.

 

[frequentflyer]

So what happens to the old Midway Amshack?

 

[Galtier]

I was by the Midway Amshack. Most of the old letters were pulled off the building, but interestingly enough the neon marquee on the building was still on. The waiting room looked like a disaster zone. I can't believe any employee who takes pride in his workplace would like to walk past such a mess, as I understand that Amtrak still has an operations office there. I could be wrong -- but I did observe a handful of cars in the parking lot in front of the building.

The Amshack is still probably nicer than every other building in the area. Seeing as it has windows, I could see it easily being repurposed. It does need a lot of work, though.

RE: SPUD --------- Everything that cannonball has been pointing out as deficiencies aren't really problems with SPUD itself, but rather Amtrak's lack of process control at SPUD. All of the challenges at SPUD could easily be overcome.