The last couple days walking through CUS, I've noticed the status boards specifying trains that will be "boarding from the Great Hall", with handicapped and/or business class boarding from the normal gate.
Anyone know why that's being done, and / or how would that be done?
They do this with the Wolverine and other Midwest corridor trains on occasion. Basically, it means the various local trains are so full that the waiting room is going to get jammed.
In my experience, they rope off the Great Hall just past Metro Deli and then set up a podium near the clock with the screens under it. You check in at the podium, and they indicate which benches are Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Royal Oak/Pontiac, etc. You wait with your city.
Then, once it's boarding time, they do a kindergarten walk for every area. They start with one city and then work their way backward or forward. In my experience, Kalamazoo gets to board right away with Michigan City, New Buffalo, and Niles. Then they board the "mid-cities", and then they board the Detroit area in 2-3 groups.
It's actually extremely organized and a million times better than that god-awful line that snakes back from the gates, past security, past the info desk, etc.