Does Amtrak know how trains work?

[VentureForth]

Chicago does have fundamental problems currently with a shortage of waiting area; the Metropolitan Lounge needs to be moved, in a project which Amtrak half-completed and then apparently abandoned (?!?!), and the main waiting area needs to be moved back into... the main waiting room, a.k.a "Great Hall". But the kindergarten walk doesn't help the problems with the current arrangement at all, it actually makes it worse by putting even more pressure on the constricted area, namely the waiting room.

The original concourse layout, if restored, would make it pretty nearly impossible for passengers heading for one track to block passengers heading for another track. It's very wide. That said, passengers don't seem to block each other *now*, and that's with Metra passengers running loose all over the place!

THIS is the point (and can be repeated at WAS, etc. Somewhere along the line, the Great Hall became revenue space - no longer a waiting room. With all the trains that ply in and out of these two great stations, the GREAT HALLS NEED TO BE THE WAITING ROOMS.

 

[jis]

Washington Union Station actually does have trackside waiting areas beyond the gates. But most cleverly they are not used for anything. So who is to blame for lack of waiting and circulation areas?

 

[VentureForth]

But you can't really get to them unless you're part of a cattle call from the lobby. I am not 100% certain, but if you change trains in DC, I think you'll get some very suspect looks if you change tracks without going inside and loiter by the platforms.

 

[gwschenk]

At LA Union Station I do sometimes see people lined up for the Surfliner and Southwest Chief, but I've always just walked ahead to the platform and boarded. Once the proper track was posted.

 

[Bus Nut]

Since when have you been able to just go down and railfan without a ticket at BAL? It's been a few years, now, but when I used to travel between BAL and WAS they made constant announcements about how the platform was off-limits to all but ticketed passengers.

Also, I want to second the notion about seat reservations. They would do a world of good and could be implemented with low tech or high tech. All the poor countries in Europe use printed paper cards that go in the seat check slots. It's a small upcharge.

Besides the stations mentioned there is also the horrible queue at Portland, OR to get a seat. BOS conductors seem to be pretty good about seating parties on LD trains but as someone else mentioned, that doesn't help you if you board at RTE.

With paid seat reservations there would still be a queue but sane people could avoid it!

At my home station, BAL, they usually don't do a ticket check (though I saw them doing it last week during the holiday rush), nad you can sit in the concourse until the train is announced. On the other hand, if you want to go down to the platform to railfan, nobody stops you. Also, when they first announce the train, that means it's 5-10 minutes out of the station. If the weather's nice, I'll go down to the platform, but this time of year (or in the middle of the summer), I think I'd wait until the final call.

 

[Ryan]

Washington Union Station actually does have trackside waiting areas beyond the gates. But most cleverly they are not used for anything. So who is to blame for lack of waiting and circulation areas?

What areas are you talking about? The starlight room and the indoor space above the lower level tracks?

 

[jis]

Yes

 

[Rob Creighton]

If I remember 20 years ago or so at CUS -- there was an Amtrak Lounge where all passengers could wait. They'd announce the trains. You'd walk to the gate and then out to the platform. They may have boarded sleeper passengers first. And there may have been an Amtrak employee or two at the gate to the tracks. But there wasn't this whole process to get to the trains. The current Amtrak waiting area was rather "new" to me when I left CUS on a Michigan regional train last winter. The line up seemed kind of ridiculous to me.

As for Metra-- they usually seem to have the gates open, and access to the next train out as early as they can. The Challenge for non regular Metra passengers is making sure you get on the right line. I once needed to get to Oak Lawn on the then Norfolk Southern operated line, and wound up on a Joliet Heritage Corridor line train. Luckily the conductor made an announcement before leaving so that I assume happened often enough. It was also boarding from one of the through tracks at the side of the station where heading out of the gate could lead you to two or three platforms. On the Norfolk Southern trains (I think Metra runs them on their own now) they'd always go, "This is not Amtrak and not the train to Aurora. This is Norfolk Southern to Orland Park with stops....." That said, even if casual riders could get confused, most every day Metra riders know exactly where their train is, where they're going to sit and who they're sitting with!

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

If I remember 20 years ago or so at CUS -- there was an Amtrak Lounge where all passengers could wait. They'd announce the trains. You'd walk to the gate and then out to the platform. They may have boarded sleeper passengers first. And there may have been an Amtrak employee or two at the gate to the tracks. But there wasn't this whole process to get to the trains. The current Amtrak waiting area was rather "new" to me when I left CUS on a Michigan regional train last winter. The line up seemed kind of ridiculous to me.

I'm curious as to what ridership at CUS was back then... At least with NYP they use their space a bit more effciently, CUS has some areas of empty space and massive overcrowding in other spots. NYP just has the general feeling of being overcrowded in all places.

 

[Ryan]

Washington Union Station actually does have trackside waiting areas beyond the gates. But most cleverly they are not used for anything. So who is to blame for lack of waiting and circulation areas?

What areas are you talking about? The starlight room and the indoor space above the lower level tracks?

Yes

The Starlight room gets used for PM MARC departures (at least it used to), and still provides insufficient space for all of the commuters that use that end of the station.

The indoor space at the other end is a lot like the space outside Gate A - fill it with people waiting to board and the people coming off the train have nowhere to go.

That doesn't excuse the silly "line up and wait so we can check your tickets", but the solution for WAS involves both policy changes and structural ones.

 

[jis]

The first structural change should be to knock down the wall at which the current gates where lineups happen are and just use the gates close to the platform, thus opening up the space between those two gates, increasing space available for people to wait for trains at.

Admittedly, they will probably need to redo the Club Acela to create a door right onto the platform area at its back, instead of using the side doors which will then open up among the masses. But the waste of all that available space is crazy IMHO, while claiming shortage of space.

 

[Ryan]

Agreed.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Ditto!

 

[Nathanael]

It was also boarding from one of the through tracks at the side of the station where heading out of the gate could lead you to two or three platforms.

Those through tracks are a bit confusing, and also have grade crossings across tracks (which I've been led across), so there may be some reason to restrict access to the through track platforms...
But each of the the other (stub-end) tracks at Chicago has a nice electronic monitor right in front of the ONLY entrance to the track, which could be used to explain which train is leaving from the track.