Fort Madison questions

[cindylou]

Hi all! Planning a train adventure to LA next winter for another cruise. I think this time we'll drive to FMD(from central Iowa) and catch the SWC from there. It appears from what research I've done that FMD has long term parking (will leave our vehicle there for approx. 3 weeks). Is it a relatively safe area?

Also, is it true that there are no ticketing hours on weekends at FMD? We would probably be going on a Sunday, and don't really live real close to any other stations. And also, no Quik Trak machine? The website says no, the Amtrak Timetable says yes?? I've never used the QuikTrak before...makes me nervous. :giggle: Maybe will just have the tickets mailed.

Really looking forward to this trip...reading this site has us excited about riding the SWC to LA! Only been on it before between Galesburg and Chicago. Sounds like the scenery is great!

Any help will be appreciated!

Cindy

 

[pebbleworm]

It's a small town- when I lived there I hardly ever locked the door. I've seen cars sit at the depot for a long time. There is not much near the station, so your car won't be very noticeable.Amtrak shares the station with some BNSF operation so there are always people around as well.

 

[coachseats]

We had no problems when we left our car for four days a few years ago. Like others have said the station is in a fairly isolated area but busy enough with the BNSF crews in and out you shouldn't have a problem. Station agent was very friendly and helpful when we were there. One thing to check would be that eventually they want to move the station back to the "old" train station closer to downtown, so make sure you know where it is come trip time. If you are taking the SWC another small town station to look at would be La Plata, MO, which is about the same distance from Central Iowa if not a bit closer. It is a small town with a nice, quiet station, but it does not have an official ticket agent like FMD.

 

[PaulM]

A few years ago I left my car there for two weeks during January. When we got back, the battery was dead. The agent very quickly gave us, or arranged for an BNSF employee to give us, a jump.

There is a large lot; and it was a little hard to tell where Amtrak parking ended and BNSF employee parkng began. So your car won't stand out; and with a crew change every 5 minutes or so there is a lot going on.

I believe FMD is like MTP, no agent on week ends or during vacation time. They got rid of a second agent during the last round of cost cutting a few years ago. If it is like MTP, Amtrak.com will force you to have the tickets mailed if you are departing on a day no agent is on duty, even if you live within a mile of a quicktrak machine.

 

[cindylou]

Thanks so much for all the input. We did consider La Plata...probably about the same driving distance. Also considered Kansas City which is not a bad trip either, but didn't know the parking situation there. We tend to like the small town atmosphere better!

Speaking of leaving your vehicle for long periods in the dead of winter...the same thing happened to us a few months ago in Galesburg. We returned from a trip, and our car was dead from sitting so long in the cold. Also, the circular drive in front of the station, with cars on both sides of us, made it impossible for someone to pull up next to us for a jump start.

Talk about customer service! The young gal working in the station first tried to help us push our vehicle out far enough so she could reach us with her jumper cables. No go, so she rounded some more help to push. (Did I mention that it was 10 below??) No go, so she called a local garage (after hours) to get us started. And he refused to charge us extra for the after hours call. Got a nice tip, tho! Alot of nice folks in Galesburg!

 

[dart330]

I have been through both La Plata and Ft. Madison, while LAP is not staffed, it is run by very friendly volunteers that would help you jump a dead battery. Parking is free and it is a fairly large lot. The station is very nice and one of the neatest things is that they have a library of books that you are free to take for your journey. We would grab a couple books for our RT to CHI.

 

[ThayerATM]

We spent a few days in Fort Madison last summer. It's a very nice "little?" :huh: ? town. My cousin and her husband were driving us around, so I wasn't paying much attention to long term parking, but it appeared that the very large parking area they had there was being used by a lot more automobiles and pickup trucks than there were passengers using the SWC. I'd say that it's a perfectly safe place to leave a car, and the area appeared to be perfectly safe.

The station hours in FMD are 10AM to 1PM, then 5PM to 8PM, Monday thru Sunday. The inside waiting area is open during those hours, but there's not always someone there to handle the ticket counter. We arrived at about 6:30 PM, and there was no-one at the ticket counter.

If you're going to arrive at FMD on a Saturday, there will certainly be nobody there to ticket you, and there's certainly no Quik Trak machine. You'd better have your tickets mailed.

Since there's no checked baggage service at FMD, I don't know what to suggest for your luggage. I've heard tell that UPS or Fedex can ship your luggage from your local store to your destination hotel, but I've never had to try that. Certainly it would cost, and FMD isn't going to check anything through to LAX.

As for Amtrak switching back to the long ago abonded downtown station --- I don't think that there's much of a chance of that happening any time if the forseeable future. There's way too much work to be done for that to be feasable soon (read years).

One work of caution... Get to the station early. There are a couple of "through" tracks closer to town that the freights use to bypass the station. The frieghts are very long, and travel very slowly. They can easily block your path to the Amtrak station for quit a bit of time.

 

[cindylou]

I have been through both La Plata and Ft. Madison, while LAP is not staffed, it is run by very friendly volunteers that would help you jump a dead battery. Parking is free and it is a fairly large lot. The station is very nice and one of the neatest things is that they have a library of books that you are free to take for your journey. We would grab a couple books for our RT to CHI.

I think we'll start in La Plata! Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. Understand that there is no checked baggage, so will just plan on leaving our luggage in the sleeper storage area for the trip to LAX.

Cindy

 

[RailFanLNK]

One thing I have always done when parking a car somewhere for an extended amount of time is to back into the parking stall in case something with the engine goes wrong. (dead battery etc) That way its easier to get a jump. Don't care how small Fort Mad or La Platta is, but do this for simple sake: DO NOT have one single item in your car showing thats of ANY value. CD's, cassettes (yes, thats a word you don't hear much of) anything, just put it in the trunk. Small towns are safe but it only takes one meth head to see something of small value to steal it and resell it. You then have a car with a broken window and you feel violated. KCY is a large town but so simple IMHO, there's a Fairfield Inn where the crews of Amtrak stay but you will have to pay for parking which would crank the cost way up. Have fun on your trip, pack a pair of jumper cables, clean out the car with NOTHING visible and enjoy the ride!