"Boarding from the Great Hall"

[Steve4031]

Wouldn't it be great if the old speaker system came on and echoed the following announcement:

"Now boarding on Track 29, the Broadway Ltd- Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York"

Oh, the good ole days

It usually left on track 28 from

South concourse.

 

[neroden]

Personally, I avoid the Great Hall during the summer since the windows along the top tend to add a greenhouse effect. It gets very stuffy. In the winter, though, it's wonderful. It stays much warmer than the general boarding area.

I doubt they'll stop renting it out. The Great Hall is a cash cow.

http://www.chicagounionstation.com/event_pricing.html

They're still going to have to stop renting it out during the most busy train hours, sooner or later. They're supposedly running a train station and in the next few years they're going to need the space. They'd better keep an eye on the fire code limitations which apply to the concourse.

There's clearly still enough "low train service" periods in the day to do stuff like 1 hour professional photo shoots any day, but at some point pretty soon they're going to have to start putting blackout dates up for stuff like "full day filming" -- no doing this the week of Thanksgiving, stuff like that.

 

[SarahZ]

I'm fairly sure they take that into consideration when renting it for wedding receptions and other evening events. Additionally, their FB page announces Great Hall closures well in advance so commuters can prepare to use alternate entrances/exits.

There has been talk about expanding the main waiting room, but I haven't seen any recent updates or additions.

 

[NorthShore]

Those rental rates are a steal, considering how many people the major events draw. The real problem, of course, being that the original building housing the platforms was demolished (and replaced by the office tower) with its now insufficient passenger facilities. Financially advantageous? Sure. But service oriented for actually running an effective train station?

 

[Railroad Bill]

Wouldn't it be great if the old speaker system came on and echoed the following announcement:

"Now boarding on Track 29, the Broadway Ltd- Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York"

Oh, the good ole days

It usually left on track 28 from

South concourse.

Whoops! I was one track off and wishful thinking on the Columbus stop Actually the Broadway came pretty close to where I now live in Ohio. My wife rode it from Crestline, Ohio back in the 50s. 4am westbound. 9pm eastbound. Her uncle was a conductor on the Pennsy and they got "free rides" to Chicago and Fort Wayne when she was a little girl.

 

[jis]

Whoops! I was one track off and wishful thinking on the Columbus stop Actually the Broadway came pretty close to where I now live in Ohio. My wife rode it from Crestline, Ohio back in the 50s. 4am westbound. 9pm eastbound. Her uncle was a conductor on the Pennsy and they got "free rides" to Chicago and Fort Wayne when she was a little girl.

Yep I remember back in the late '70s and early '8os when I rode the Broadway limited a lot - Canton, Crestline, Lima, Fort Wayne, Valparaiso .....

 

[SarahZ]

Those rental rates are a steal, considering how many people the major events draw. The real problem, of course, being that the original building housing the platforms was demolished (and replaced by the office tower) with its now insufficient passenger facilities. Financially advantageous? Sure. But service oriented for actually running an effective train station?

Yes, I was a bit surprised to see they give a bit of a discount for weddings, even. It's actually not as far out of the usual price range as I'd thought. I know plenty of venues in Chicago that charge much more for an evening reception.

 

[CHamilton]

Wouldn't it be great if the old speaker system came on and echoed the following announcement:

"Now boarding on Track 29, the Broadway Ltd- Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York"

Oh, the good ole days

It usually left on track 28 from

South concourse.

Whoops! I was one track off

I thought track twenty-nine was for the Chattanooga choo-choo

 

[Ryan]

You guys are all wrong, this is Track Twenty-Nine

 

[jis]

You guys are all wrong, this is Track Twenty-Nine

Or alternatively http://www.songkick.com/venues/1408818-track-29

 

[neroden]

I'm fairly sure they take that into consideration when renting it for wedding receptions and other evening events. Additionally, their FB page announces Great Hall closures well in advance so commuters can prepare to use alternate entrances/exits.

There has been talk about expanding the main waiting room, but I haven't seen any recent updates or additions.

There was a throwaway comment (in a MARP newsletter IIRC) stating that the project was postponed "due to the sequester".
It's a badly overdue project. The initial scheme is to move the Metropolitan Lounge into some of the unused rooms next to the Great Hall (the ones they removed the asbestos from a few years ago) and then knock down the walls around it to open up all the space between the "north waiting rooms" and "south waiting rooms" as a single waiting room. I think they're planning to move other facilities (Amtrak Police) over to the unused rooms around the Great Hall as well.

 

[Steve4031]

Moving the lounge to the great hall and opening up that waiting area is the most efficient thing to do. What does " do to sequester" mean?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Moving the lounge to the great hall and opening up that waiting area is the most efficient thing to do. What does " do to sequester" mean?

Money put on hold because the gov't shut down, probably.

 

[SarahZ]

I'm fairly sure they take that into consideration when renting it for wedding receptions and other evening events. Additionally, their FB page announces Great Hall closures well in advance so commuters can prepare to use alternate entrances/exits.

There has been talk about expanding the main waiting room, but I haven't seen any recent updates or additions.

There was a throwaway comment (in a MARP newsletter IIRC) stating that the project was postponed "due to the sequester".
It's a badly overdue project. The initial scheme is to move the Metropolitan Lounge into some of the unused rooms next to the Great Hall (the ones they removed the asbestos from a few years ago) and then knock down the walls around it to open up all the space between the "north waiting rooms" and "south waiting rooms" as a single waiting room. I think they're planning to move other facilities (Amtrak Police) over to the unused rooms around the Great Hall as well.

That makes sense. They did open up one of those rooms as a separate waiting area during the busy... I think it was Thanksgiving?... holiday last year. I want to say it was for certain trains/BC, and then all of the sleepers used the regular Lounge.

I'm going to have to dig up a link later. I think RickyCourtney mentioned it.

 

[neroden]

What does " do to sequester" mean?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/sequester

 

[PRR 60]

Wouldn't it be great if the old speaker system came on and echoed the following announcement:

"Now boarding on Track 29, the Broadway Ltd- Columbus, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York"

Oh, the good ole days

Broadway Limited went to Columbus? Fort Wayne - yes. Columbus - no.

And, Fort Wayne was a boarding only stop eastbound, in PRR days. The first discharge stop heading east was Pittsburgh. From Chicago, it was Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, Paoli, North Philadelphia, Newark and New York.

 

[railiner]

IIRC, at one time in its glory days, The Broadway only carried passengers that were destined to Englewood and Chicago, westward. And similar eastward. There were many other trains on the route that serviced the intermediate stops. The Century had similar traffic restrictions.