South Bend now unstaffed

[SubwayNut]

I need to book an open sleeper ticket to join a friend on a pre-purchased roomette in a couple of weeks. I thought it would be easier to just go my local Amtrak station, South Bend, where at least pre-pandemic the normal agent was super knowlegable, instead of dealing with Amtrak's phone tree, and hoping I get an agent who understands what an open sleeper ticket is.

I looked on-line and found out the station is now unstaffed (the building claims to be still be open) with checked baggage service no longer offered. I was surpised by this since the ramp from the former South Shore Line platform up to the Amtrak platform is quite steep and the agent would golf-cart passengers needed assistance to and from the platform, so it feels like a potential ADA violation as well.

I am greatful that the trip I'm looking to book originates in Tampa and not South Bend so I can pick-up my paper value ticket there. I searched online and found no informaton. I mentioned this to someone I know who's working with Amtrak to potentially bring the station downtown and he said he knew the station had become unstaffed (had heard about it) but couldn't remember the context of it.

Any other stations recently become unstaffed?

 

[danasgoodstuff]

Weird, I swear it was staffed when I was there a little over a year ago. Not that I needed anything so maybe I just didn't notice.

 

[joelkfla]

What happened to that Congressional mandate that they restore station staffing to prepandemic levels? Did it have a sunset date?