ALN - Alton, IL Amtrak Station

[RRrich]

In a word, YES

We went by there today - looked like a nice suburban neighbor hood - a bunch of cars parked there - looked OK.

In July I plan on leaving our car there when we go to visit Mom for a week or so. Of course we have two cars and we will take the less valuable one. Why take chances??

 

[Sue in KY]

In a word, YES
We went by there today - looked like a nice suburban neighbor hood - a bunch of cars parked there - looked OK.

In July I plan on leaving our car there when we go to visit Mom for a week or so. Of course we have two cars and we will take the valuable one. Why take chances??

Oh, good -- I'm glad you were able to scope it out, Rich! We're leaving our car there in July and again in October.

Now, who knows about Galesburg? We're leaving from there in less than three weeks!

 

[MrFSS]

In a word, YES
We went by there today - looked like a nice suburban neighbor hood - a bunch of cars parked there - looked OK.

In July I plan on leaving our car there when we go to visit Mom for a week or so. Of course we have two cars and we will take the valuable one. Why take chances??

Oh, good -- I'm glad you were able to scope it out, Rich! We're leaving our car there in July and again in October.

Now, who knows about Galesburg? We're leaving from there in less than three weeks!

Sue - Galesburg is safe. I have left my car there and several others on the forum have told us they have parked there for a number of days without any problems. Galesburg parking is not protected but I think it is patrolled.

Now - if anyone is interested, we had a forum member tell us several years ago that another possible place to long term park is at University Park, IL.

This is the southern terminus of the Metra Electric Line which has service to downtown Chicago with easy connections to CUS. I haven't used this place, but the forum member says it is safe to park for a number of days. Beats driving into Chicago and it is about two hours north of Indianapolis.

 

[MikefromCrete]

In a word, YES
We went by there today - looked like a nice suburban neighbor hood - a bunch of cars parked there - looked OK.

In July I plan on leaving our car there when we go to visit Mom for a week or so. Of course we have two cars and we will take the valuable one. Why take chances??

Oh, good -- I'm glad you were able to scope it out, Rich! We're leaving our car there in July and again in October.

Now, who knows about Galesburg? We're leaving from there in less than three weeks!

Sue - Galesburg is safe. I have left my car there and several others on the forum have told us they have parked there for a number of days without any problems. Galesburg parking is not protected but I think it is patrolled.

Now - if anyone is interested, we had a forum member tell us several years ago that another possible place to long term park is at University Park, IL.

This is the southern terminus of the Metra Electric Line which has service to downtown Chicago with easy connections to CUS. I haven't used this place, but the forum member says it is safe to park for a number of days. Beats driving into Chicago and it is about two hours north of Indianapolis.

Since University Park is a commuter parking lot, I would check with village officials about multi-day parking. They may have some kind of long-term permit you can buy. The way it usually works is that you park in a numbered space, put your $1 in a box with a slot for each numbered space. The police check the lot to see if anybody's trying to park for free, so after the first day you could receive a ticket for every day you're there (other than the first one). Since the village operates the parking lots (there's one on each side of the tracks, the west lot is right by a busy highway, while east lot is more hidden from view), I'd made sure before hand of their multi-day policies.

 

[MrFSS]

Now - if anyone is interested, we had a forum member tell us several years ago that another possible place to long term park is at University Park, IL.

This is the southern terminus of the Metra Electric Line which has service to downtown Chicago with easy connections to CUS. I haven't used this place, but the forum member says it is safe to park for a number of days. Beats driving into Chicago and it is about two hours north of Indianapolis.

Since University Park is a commuter parking lot, I would check with village officials about multi-day parking. They may have some kind of long-term permit you can buy. The way it usually works is that you park in a numbered space, put your $1 in a box with a slot for each numbered space. The police check the lot to see if anybody's trying to park for free, so after the first day you could receive a ticket for every day you're there (other than the first one). Since the village operates the parking lots (there's one on each side of the tracks, the west lot is right by a busy highway, while east lot is more hidden from view), I'd made sure before hand of their multi-day policies.

Mike - don't disagree with what you say. I tried to find the post from several years ago where University Park was mentioned as a nice place to park. Can't find it right off.

 

[Sue in KY]

Sue - Galesburg is safe. I have left my car there and several others on the forum have told us they have parked there for a number of days without any problems. Galesburg parking is not protected but I think it is patrolled.

Thanks, Tom!

 

[PaulM]

Now, who knows about Galesburg? We're leaving from there in less than three weeks!

I probably set the record for Galesburg, if not all of Amtrak. I left our car there from last Nov 16 to Jan 29. On a GBB-DEN, DEN-WIP, WIP-DLD, JAX-GBB trip. The 12 year old Ford Windstar fired right up when we finally got back.

 

[Edgefan]

Now, who knows about Galesburg? We're leaving from there in less than three weeks!

Galesburg is safe, have used it multiple times as our jumping off point, have not set any records but our excursions are measured in weeks, not days!

 

[RRrich]

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING

No QuicTrak machine at Alton - you better get your tickets in advance!

 

[Sue in KY]

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
No QuicTrak machine at Alton - you better get your tickets in advance!

There are station ticketing hours, so we'll just pick up our tickets from the agent behind the counter, at least for the first trip we're leaving for from Alton. On the second trip for which we're leaving from there, though, the Texas Eagle arrives/leaves after 6 p.m., so Amtrak mailed us those automatically.

No worries — but thank you for warning me! I wouldn't have even checked, except that I wondered why Amtrak sent one set of tickets but not another.

 

[kentuckian1977]

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
No QuicTrak machine at Alton - you better get your tickets in advance!

There are station ticketing hours, so we'll just pick up our tickets from the agent behind the counter, at least for the first trip we're leaving for from Alton. On the second trip for which we're leaving from there, though, the Texas Eagle arrives/leaves after 6 p.m., so Amtrak mailed us those automatically.

No worries — but thank you for warning me! I wouldn't have even checked, except that I wondered why Amtrak sent one set of tickets but not another.

Hi Sue...from Kentucky here too, down in Berea in my case. I have been daydreaming and looking at potential Amtrak trips for awhile now, and hope to finally get to take some, job situation permitting, in the next year or so. Funny, I had already come to the conclusion that driving to either Alton or Galesburg would be a good option for taking one of the western trains, when and if I finally get to one of these days. Good to hear they are good stations.

 

[kentuckian1977]

WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING
No QuicTrak machine at Alton - you better get your tickets in advance!

There are station ticketing hours, so we'll just pick up our tickets from the agent behind the counter, at least for the first trip we're leaving for from Alton. On the second trip for which we're leaving from there, though, the Texas Eagle arrives/leaves after 6 p.m., so Amtrak mailed us those automatically.

No worries — but thank you for warning me! I wouldn't have even checked, except that I wondered why Amtrak sent one set of tickets but not another.

Hi Sue...from Kentucky here too, down in Berea in my case. I have been daydreaming and looking at potential Amtrak trips for awhile now, and hope to finally get to take some, job situation permitting, in the next year or so. Funny, I had already come to the conclusion that driving to either Alton or Galesburg would be a good option for taking one of the western trains, when and if I finally get to one of these days. Good to hear they are good stations.

Forgot part of what I intended to say here. As discussed here, and as I enjoy thinking of the several potential options for my future first trip on Amtrak (and others beyond the first one!) Galesburg seems to be a fine option for catching either the Southwest Chief or CZ. Alton would be great for the Texas Eagle. So, for those in the know about Illinois stations, what would you suggest as to a similiarly safe leave-the-car station with ample free parking for the City of New Orleans?

 

[Sue in KY]

Hi Sue...from Kentucky here too, down in Berea in my case. I have been daydreaming and looking at potential Amtrak trips for awhile now, and hope to finally get to take some, job situation permitting, in the next year or so. Funny, I had already come to the conclusion that driving to either Alton or Galesburg would be a good option for taking one of the western trains, when and if I finally get to one of these days. Good to hear they are good stations.

Forgot part of what I intended to say here. As discussed here, and as I enjoy thinking of the several potential options for my future first trip on Amtrak (and others beyond the first one!) Galesburg seems to be a fine option for catching either the Southwest Chief or CZ. Alton would be great for the Texas Eagle. So, for those in the know about Illinois stations, what would you suggest as to a similiarly safe leave-the-car station with ample free parking for the City of New Orleans?

Hi again (I introduced myself to you earlier, in response to your "new member" post) —

It looks to me (from peering closely at the "street view" in Google maps) that Effingham might fill the bill for the City of New Orleans — it's an hour closer to you in Berea than Alton, which you've already said you'd consider driving to for some connections. The only thing about Effingham is that it's an unmanned station, so you'd have to get your tickets mailed to you (no problem, although many members here would rather pick up their tickets the day of travel, not when they actually reserve the trip, for fear of misplacing or forgetting them if they're already in possession). Also, Effingham's a rather middle-of-the-night stop for the CONO — nearly midnight southbound, crack-of-before-dawn northbound!

But there's parking, certainly. And Effingham doesn't seem very crime-riddled, judging from the times we've driven through there.

(Centralia, IL, — also unmanned — and Carbondale, IL, — with actual ticketing hours and baggage check and everything, just like the grown-up stations! — are also possibilities, although with either of them, the CONO schedule is even middle-of-the-nightier ....)

 

[PaulM]

For complete details on Illinois Amtrak stations, including parking, go here.

 

[Sue in KY]

For complete details on Illinois Amtrak stations, including parking, go here.

That's a handy resource that I hadn't found in my Internet searches — thank you, Paul!

 

[kentuckian1977]

For complete details on Illinois Amtrak stations, including parking, go here.

That's a handy resource that I hadn't found in my Internet searches — thank you, Paul!

Yes, thanks Paul, I'll definitely save that for future reference.

 

[ScottP]

On Friday and Saturday, the only times I've been there, the parking lots were fairly full at the Alton station. The last two times I had to park down the road leading to the station to get a spot. As far as I can tell, parking on the side of the road is ok as I have never seen anyone with a parking ticket when returning from a trip.