Springfield, MA Intermodal Center

[Maverickstation]

Union Station in Springfield Mass., has been restored and reopened as a multi-modal transit facility , following a reconstruction of the building, and years of Amtrak using small portions of the structure,and IIRC a trailer at one point as it's ticket office.

The planned commuter service will increase the rail activity next year, and it will be a wait and see if increased rail service

to and from Boston becomes a reality.

http://wwlp.com/2017/06/25/springfields-new-union-station-opening-today/

Ken

 

[acelafan]

That station was in rough shape for the longest time, it's nice to see it restored. I wonder if the view from the tracks looks any better though - I seem to remember trackside was still kind of a mess.

 

[neroden]

Judging from the June drone video, platform work proper hasn't started yet. Which is unfortunate. You can see where the platform access points will be (still covered up) and you can see the superstructure for the canopies (no canopies). Target date is still "early 2018".

 

[NS VIA Fan]

Boy....that's been years in coming !! I remember my first time in Springfield while travelling from Boston to Montreal in July 1973. Amtrak's 'Bay State' provided a connection with the 'Montrealer' at Springfield and the station was in such poor condition......plaster ceilings falling in etc....the Amtrak agent suggested I wait the 4 hours between trains at the nearby Peter Pan Bus Terminal!

The Bay State used the exNew Haven, exPC 'Roger Williams' modified RDC units.... shown here at Springfield.

 

[lordsigma]

Not sure when platform work is going to get done, but only one platform is getting the full treatment, the one between tracks 4 and 6. This will be a high level island platform with its own stairway and elevator. The vast majority of trains will use this platform. The former west stairwell to the platform is the one that will be used. The headhouse for the second east facing stairwell has been demolished and the frame for the elevator shaft is in place. The elevator will land in the middle of the tunnel unlike the existing elevator to the track 8 platform where they put the elevator where the east stairway used to be. It appears that the track 8 platform will also remain in use for some trains. The big unknown is the LSL. I am not sure if they are reconfiguring the tracks to allow the LSL to use track 4 or if it will continue to use the mainline CSX platforms. Those platforms had their stairwell houses and canopies demolished as part of the tunnel waterproofing. Presumably with the new high level platform in the way people wont be able to cross the tracks to get to tracks 1 and 2 and 2a. It seems the 3 options are: 1) they are going to make it so people can still cross over from track 8 even with the high level platform in the way. 2) they are making a new track connection that will allow the LSL to pull into track 4 for the station stop. 3) or the LSL passengers will use a new entrance from the second floor of Union Station. Will be interesting to see.

 

[neroden]

It will be interesting to see. Looking at the Google Maps overhead footage, it looks like they've reinstated the northernmost track.

I know exactly what I'd do:

-- high level platform adjacent to the northernmost track (track 3?) on the station side for the westbound LSL

-- high level platform adjacent to the fourth-from-northernmost track (track 2a?) for the eastbound LSL

(I'm a little unclear on the track numbering)

This avoids having a high-level platform adjacent to the freight mainlines while providing high level platforms for everyone. Since the LSL Boston Section is only a few cars long they could make a pretty short platform in both cases; they would need a new elevator for the eastbound, but could use the station elevator for the westbound.

 

[HP_Lovecraft]

Great, now they can spruce of the nearby bus station.

Last year, we were trying to take a convoluted trip from Portland, maine to NYC. So we did the Downeaster to boston, LSL Sleeper to springfield, Peter Pan bus to New Haven, then MTA to Grand Central. Getting off at Grand Central is so much better then at Penn.

Anyway, the only negative part was that Springfield bus station. It was dirty, and loud. Crowded, lots of fights, drunks, etc.. even with a large police presence. On a positive note, we had some time to kill in springfield, and they have some fantastic museums. I never even knew about them until I was there. They were mostly empty, so it seems nobody really knows about them.

 

[lordsigma]

That bus station is closed. The new Union Station is an intermodal facility - Peter Pan and Greyhound and the PVTA local bus services are now operating out of Union Station. Ironically the only thing that hasn't moved in yet is the rail service, although Union Station is directly connected to the present Amtrak station by a corridor under the tracks. Once the aforementioned platform work is done the rail service will be moving into Union Station as well.

 

[tricia]

Anyone here know whether long-term parking is available at Springfield? If so, where? How much $$ ? Any sense of whether it's safe to leave a car there?

 

[lordsigma]

The renovated station has an attached parking garage that is loaded with security cameras and offers daily and some long term parking. You make your selection on an electronic kiosk. It is owned by the Springfield parking authority so you'd need to contact them for prices. Also nearby is Ken's Parking which also provides long term parking for Union Station. I do not know whether they have an enclosed garage or if it's open lot but it's less then a block from the Lyman street entrance. I believe the new garage is pricier for long term.

 

[tricia]

The renovated station has an attached parking garage that is loaded with security cameras and offers daily and some long term parking. You make your selection on an electronic kiosk. It is owned by the Springfield parking authority so you'd need to contact them for prices. Also nearby is Ken's Parking which also provides long term parking for Union Station. I do not know whether they have an enclosed garage or if it's open lot but it's less then a block from the Lyman street entrance. I believe the new garage is pricier for long term.

Thanks! I've got a niece in grad school at Northampton, MA, and Springfield is the best way for her to connect with Amtrak, esp. now that there's more frequent service.

 

[lordsigma]

Union station garage

1.50 FIRST 1/2 HR

$2.00 EA ADD'L HR

$20 one day

$40 two days

$50.00 3-7 days

Rates for kens parking (do not know what the security situation here is)

1-2 Days | $10/day

3-6 Days | $8/day

7+ Days | $6/day

 

[tricia]

Union station garage

1.50 FIRST 1/2 HR

$2.00 EA ADD'L HR

$20 one day

$40 two days

$50.00 3-7 days

Rates for kens parking (do not know what the security situation here is)

1-2 Days | $10/day

3-6 Days | $8/day

7+ Days | $6/day

Thanks for details! The wealth of info AU taps into is wonderful.

Rivaled only by breadth of digression.

 

[dlagrua]

Great to see another grand old station refurbished . This leads me to believe that there is a fine future for passengers rail but I the future rail network may be based on regional rail providing connections to the Amtrak LD routes. In other words towns that were once served by LD trains may now become part of regional rail.

 

[lordsigma]

I got the info from the trains in the valley website . A great resource for rail information for the Springfield area.

 

[neroden]

The renovated station has an attached parking garage that is loaded with security cameras and offers daily and some long term parking. You make your selection on an electronic kiosk. It is owned by the Springfield parking authority so you'd need to contact them for prices. Also nearby is Ken's Parking which also provides long term parking for Union Station. I do not know whether they have an enclosed garage or if it's open lot but it's less then a block from the Lyman street entrance. I believe the new garage is pricier for long term.

Thanks! I've got a niece in grad school at Northampton, MA, and Springfield is the best way for her to connect with Amtrak, esp. now that there's more frequent service.

Excellent! Your niece does know that there is actually an Amtrak station in Northampton, right? (Only one train each way per day though -- the Vermonter.)

 

[lordsigma]

Note that right now service is quite sporadic especially during the week because a lot of trips are replaced with bus service while they finish upgrading the tracks in CT and they have been even canceling some trains on the weekend and replacing with bus service.) But from next spring going forward the expanded service will begin. (And the existing service will return to its normal operation by then, hopefully even earlier within a couple months or so.) When all is said and done there will be 3 additional Amtrak round trips between New Haven and Springfield and 3 round trips on the new CTRail service. All added together the service will include:

- 3 CTRail New Haven to Springfield commuter round trips

- 4 New Haven to Springfield Amtrak Shuttle round trips (Connecting to NE Regional trains in New Haven)

- 1 Amtrak Vermonter round trip

- 1 Amtrak Northeast Regional through train round trip

- 3 Additional Amtrak trains (Presumably these will be more Shuttles but nothing concrete has been said other than that there will be "3 new Amtrak round trips")

Brings total to 12 round trips between New Haven and Springfield)

 

[Palmetto]

And there's the on-again, off-again talk of running more trains on the Inland Route [once there's double track re-laid between Worcester and Springfield.

 

[tricia]

The renovated station has an attached parking garage that is loaded with security cameras and offers daily and some long term parking. You make your selection on an electronic kiosk. It is owned by the Springfield parking authority so you'd need to contact them for prices. Also nearby is Ken's Parking which also provides long term parking for Union Station. I do not know whether they have an enclosed garage or if it's open lot but it's less then a block from the Lyman street entrance. I believe the new garage is pricier for long term.

Thanks! I've got a niece in grad school at Northampton, MA, and Springfield is the best way for her to connect with Amtrak, esp. now that there's more frequent service.

Excellent! Your niece does know that there is actually an Amtrak station in Northampton, right? (Only one train each way per day though -- the Vermonter.)

Timing of that one train is problematic for most purposes. This will provide more-useful options for connecting to NE corridor trains.

 

[lordsigma]

MassDOT awarded the platform project to a contractor today - J.F. White of Framingham (who interestingly was involved in the recent I-91 Viaduct project in Springfield.) They will be building the platform itself and working in concert with Amtrak work crews who will be doing the track work.

 

[lordsigma]

Interesting we have a similar situation going on where I live with Springfield, MA (SPG) to what happened with Miami Intermodal. In 2017 the city opened up a brand new intermodal center in the historic union station. The center serves intercity and regional bus services as well the new CTrail commuter service. Space was included for Amtrak but Amtrak continues to use their old station located above on the railroad viaduct. There has been very little news on that lately and it is unclear if there is still a plan for Amtrak to move into the new center or if they are simply going to remain in the old station. There are a lot of complaints about the current setup as a lot of money was invested in the center and the Amtrak station is tired and run down but there seems to be no urgency in addressing it and I really don’t know what has happened with it. And if Amtrak doesn’t move the situation will become even more confusing when a new high level boarding platform is finished with elevators down to the new terminal, the design of which assumed all passengers would use the new terminal. Will be interesting to say the least to see what happens.

Obviously a big difference from Miami is the new facility is directly connected to the old and passengers actually have to enter through the new center to get to the elevator and stairs to the Amtrak station and the same platforms are used but still a weird situation and not ideal given the local investments made.

MODERATOR NOTE:  The discussions regarding the Springfield Intermodal were split from the discussion of the Miami Intermodal Center here

 

[daybeers]

More info about the platform construction in SPG here. The hope is that once that is completed, Amtrak will move into the renovated station, but it's Amtrak, so...

 

[neroden]

There's a national push to get rid of pedestrian grade crossings at stations, so if Amtrak stayed in its current location at SPG it would be all up and down and up again for passengers.   The old station is mostly so they can keep an eye on the people crossing the tracks at grade, I think.  I would expect them to move after the platform opens, though they might play hardball over rent or something dumb like that.  Don't be surprised if they reduce the staffing at SPG, though.

At Miami, Amtrak is simply throwing away revenue.  :shrug:  That seems to be Mr. Anderson's policy program: revenue reduction.

 

[lordsigma]

There will still be people crossing at grade - although once the platform opens depending on how they do it logistically you could minimize it to trains using tracks 2 or 2A. Obviously 448/449 would continue to be a train where people always have to cross as there isn’t a good way for them to stop at the new platform. I would assume once track 4 is back in service, track 2A usage will probably be mostly for equipment layovers.

As for staffing They haven’t changed it yet since the Boston section lost baggage at least From what I’ve observed anyway, but I have dealt with most of the agents there at one time or another and chatted with a couple and Im pretty sure at least one is very close to retirement so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them shuffle the staffing around when that happens and not replace the retiree.

 

[neroden]

The situation with 448/449 stopping at low-level platforms when there is a high-level platform isn't going to be tolerated forever.  Amtrak should be thinking about its ADA obligations a bit harder than it currently is...