fairviewroad
Engineer
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
- Messages
- 3,389
I noticed this sign at PDX last Friday. The public restroom is references appears to be a "Portland Loo", which is basically a jazzed up outhouse meant to give homeless people a place to legally relieve themselves. It's about two city blocks from the PDX Amtrak station. Generally the area is "safe" but I'm not sure that telling people that walking two blocks at night to use the restroom is for their own safety is really all that sensical. Obviously they are implying that the PDX train station cannot ensure the safety of its own, on-site restrooms.
That said, PDX is a fairly quiet place in the evening. There are no train departures after 7 p.m. There is one train arrival, one Thruway bus departure, and three Thruway bus arrivals. Generally speaking all of those services would have some sort of working restroom on board. But woe to anyone who skips using the toilet on the Thruway bus because they'd rather use a real bathroom at the train station. In that case, you'd better hoof it down to Glisan Street!
The station itself closes at 9:30 p.m. according to Amtrak.com but I suspect this is in error since the final train arrives at 9:45 p.m. and I'm not aware of any way to get from railside to streetside at PDX without passing through the station building.
That said, PDX is a fairly quiet place in the evening. There are no train departures after 7 p.m. There is one train arrival, one Thruway bus departure, and three Thruway bus arrivals. Generally speaking all of those services would have some sort of working restroom on board. But woe to anyone who skips using the toilet on the Thruway bus because they'd rather use a real bathroom at the train station. In that case, you'd better hoof it down to Glisan Street!
The station itself closes at 9:30 p.m. according to Amtrak.com but I suspect this is in error since the final train arrives at 9:45 p.m. and I'm not aware of any way to get from railside to streetside at PDX without passing through the station building.