Denver Rental Cars near Amtrak Station

[RailFanLNK]

My wife has to go to Cheyenne WY for two days to train employees on work related items so we've decided to take the CZ to DEN from LNK and rent a car to Cheyenne WY. I know the DEN station is in temporary digs but are there rental car agencies at the DEN station? And if so what companies. We want to make it as simple as possible. Thanks!

 

[Chuckles]

Car rental AT a station is rare; there's generally not enough business throughout the day.

What I usually do is go to Google Maps and search "hotels near...", "car rental near..." etc. It's not perfect, the main problem is false matches, which have to be ignored.

Following my own advice, I see Enterprise about 0.8mi away; Hertz and Avis are further away, about 1-1/4 mi SE of the station along 20th St. Nothing closer if Google Maps is to be trusted.

Enterprise advertises that they will pick you up, and it is reasonable to ask them to pick up at the station. Otherwise, all these are short walks or short taxi rides.

 

[chakk]

I have rented from those Avis and Hertz stations on 20th Street, Denver before.

 

[zogburr]

To find travel resources, and other things, around stations, go to MapQuest.com and enter the address of the site you are interested. Then, go to top left of map insert and click on the travel icon (plane and auto) and select the car rental option. The site will then provide car rental locations that are within the map. If none appear, just zoom the map out to show a larger area. I have had fairly good luck finding resources around stations using this method.

MapQuest.com doesn't handle the temporary station address correctly, so put in the address of the Union Station that is being renovated. Sorry

 

[Nathanael]

Pretty much all of the downtown Denver car rental locations will pick you up from the train station (the current "temporary" train station) and take you to the rental car place. I used Hertz.

 

[Shanghai]

When will the regular Denver station be reopened?

 

[Guest]

Several years ago, from the old station, Hertz picked me up. Actually, there were so many of us, that they paid for my cab to get to them. But they are not too far.

 

[Nathanael]

When will the regular Denver station be reopened?

The official word is "2014", but they've never said *when* in 2014. It's not clear when.

There's several separate projects going on.

The bus box is built and the bus terminal is getting final finishes. The trainshed and canopies are mostly up. The platforms are partly poured. So the trackside stuff will probably be done on time, or early. Unofficial information from 2011 said that the bus terminal was expected to open in April 2014, Of course that's old information... and the bus terminal could easily open before the station proper does, since it has an entrance from the other end.

The main station building is also being altered and rearranged for the hotel, under a separate contract (sigh). That project started later and I haven't heard *any* word as to how fast that work is going. That includes Amtrak's operational space, so at least part of it has to be done before Amtrak moves back in. That's why I won't be surprised if Amtrak's return to Union Station slips into early 2015; it depends on this project and I haven't heard any updates on it.

There's yet another project rebuilding the open space in front of the station (formerly parking), two office building projects adjacent to the station building, and a third adjacent to the platforms.

Then it won't be until 2016 that the commuter rail actually starts running out of the station.

The station platforms for the rebuilt Union Station have an interesting design. All the passenger platforms are at the same level, but not all the tracks are at the same level. The commuter rail has top-of-rail 48" below platform height (providing level boarding). I believe the Amtrak tracks have top-of-rail 18" or perhaps 15" below platform height (providing level boarding). There are two Amtrak tracks with side platforms; there's also a narrow service platform between the two tracks for Amtrak to service the trains, which I presume is lower. There are two tracks because the track layout was designed when Ski Train was still running. Anyway, it will provide Amtrak with substantial flexibility for delayed trains, special services, etc., especially since the "temporary" station platform and track will be retained and can be used for cut-off cars, protect engines, etc.