Amtrak begins using Gateway Center in St. Louis

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RRrich

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ST. LOUIS -- Amtrak trains began using the new Gateway Transportation Center in downtown St. Louis early today, marking the end to the "temporary" buildings passengers used for 30 years.

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I'm surprised they only added 75 seats in the facility initially. STL is a farily large station for Greyhound....I'd imagine most of those seats would be used by the steady strem of long dog passengers throughout the day.

In NOL, which is also shared by both Amtrak and Greyhound, Greyhound's portion of the terminal has around 30 seats, and the Amtrak portion has more than 60, plus the extra seating in the Magnolia Room for Sleeper passengers.
 
I have a Chicago weekend trip planned for Jan 2008.

Anyone hear/know of overnight parking and the parking rates?

Is Amtrak going to reopen the free overnight parking lot in the future.

A nice new building with parking issues?

Thanks.
 
Do they separate the Dog and Amtrak waiting rooms at the new station? In FTW, which is served by a fairly new intermodal center, the Greyhound waiting room is off by itself and security is pretty good about keeping the groups apart.
 
I have a Chicago weekend trip planned for Jan 2008.
Anyone hear/know of overnight parking and the parking rates?

Is Amtrak going to reopen the free overnight parking lot in the future.

A nice new building with parking issues?

Thanks.

The current charge is $1 and hour, and you can only use change, so parking overnight could be quite expensive. Try parking at one of the metrolink stations further out and taking that to the station.
 
I'm glad that we now have a Metro Lounge but I hope that it will be open to ALL sleeping car pax, not just the ones who will be riding the Texas Eagle. I'm planning on catching the SWC (in a sleeper) out of KCI - I think I should I should be allowed in the Lounge
 
I'm glad that we now have a Metro Lounge but I hope that it will be open to ALL sleeping car pax, not just the ones who will be riding the Texas Eagle. I'm planning on catching the SWC (in a sleeper) out of KCI - I think I should I should be allowed in the Lounge
As long as it carries the name of "Metropolitan lounge" then it is subject to the same rules as all Metro lounges. That means that Select Plus members automatically gain access, and anyone traveling in a sleeper that day gains access to the lounge. That's true even if you aren't departing or arriving in a sleeper at St. Louis. So if you are catching a Lincoln Service train to Chicago to catch the SWC, then you get to use both the St. Louis lounge (assuming that it's open at that time of the morning) and the lounge in Chicago.

If you're catching the Mule to KCS, then you only get to use the lounge in St. Louis, since KCS doesn't have one.
 
rode KCY to STL over the weekend and spent some time in this new facility. THERE ARE NO LOCKERS! another major oversight is no arrival/departure displays. not one measly flat panel! with four rail tracks and nine bus bays (plus metrolink service right outside), you'd think this would have been an obvious amenity. and speaking of metrolink, you have to go outside and cross the light rail tracks to get tickets... an indoor ticket vending machine would have been another obvious amenity. i don't recall any signage indicating that there was a lounge for first or business class passengers.

basically, the new facility functions at a very basic level and is at least an improvement over the amshack.
 
rode KCY to STL over the weekend and spent some time in this new facility. THERE ARE NO LOCKERS! another major oversight is no arrival/departure displays. not one measly flat panel! with four rail tracks and nine bus bays (plus metrolink service right outside), you'd think this would have been an obvious amenity. and speaking of metrolink, you have to go outside and cross the light rail tracks to get tickets... an indoor ticket vending machine would have been another obvious amenity. i don't recall any signage indicating that there was a lounge for first or business class passengers.
basically, the new facility functions at a very basic level and is at least an improvement over the amshack.
Lockers aren't allowed due to 9/11 concerns, same rules as airports and storage lockers.
 
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rode KCY to STL over the weekend and spent some time in this new facility. THERE ARE NO LOCKERS! another major oversight is no arrival/departure displays. not one measly flat panel! with four rail tracks and nine bus bays (plus metrolink service right outside), you'd think this would have been an obvious amenity. and speaking of metrolink, you have to go outside and cross the light rail tracks to get tickets... an indoor ticket vending machine would have been another obvious amenity. i don't recall any signage indicating that there was a lounge for first or business class passengers.
basically, the new facility functions at a very basic level and is at least an improvement over the amshack.
Lockers aren't allowed due to 9/11 concerns, same rules as airports and storage lockers.
Then why does Chicago still have lockers? :unsure:
 
rode KCY to STL over the weekend and spent some time in this new facility. THERE ARE NO LOCKERS! another major oversight is no arrival/departure displays. not one measly flat panel! with four rail tracks and nine bus bays (plus metrolink service right outside), you'd think this would have been an obvious amenity. and speaking of metrolink, you have to go outside and cross the light rail tracks to get tickets... an indoor ticket vending machine would have been another obvious amenity. i don't recall any signage indicating that there was a lounge for first or business class passengers.
basically, the new facility functions at a very basic level and is at least an improvement over the amshack.
Is it at all possible that some of this stuff is coming (esp arrival/departure display)? If I were there, I might ask where the lockers are and see what answer you get! ;)
 
and speaking of metrolink, you have to go outside and cross the light rail tracks to get tickets... an indoor ticket vending machine would have been another obvious amenity. i don't recall any signage indicating that there was a lounge for first or business class passengers.
Even if there was an indoor ticket machine for Metrolink, you would still have to cross the track to get to the platform. I don't think it is that much of a major effort to walk from the Amtrak station to the Metrolink anyway. What is it? 100 yards?

When I was there the other week I did see a door with 'Lounge' on it, I think it was on the left as you come over the footbridge from the train.
 
The lack of a departures board certainly isn't unique to St. Louis. I noticed there wasn't one, for example, when I went through Emoryville earlier this year -- and that's a BUSY station, with lots of trains coming and going. There were loudspeaker announcements prior to the arrival of trains, but if you wanted to learn when a particular train was arriving, you either had to ask the ticket agent of call Julie. Pretty annoying!
 
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