Integrated Stations

[Bob Dylan]

Fort Worth, Texas intermodal station has Amtrak, (TE & HF) along with commuter rail (TRE) Greyhound, local buses (the T) and car rentals.

As a Follow up, Dallas Union Station (DAL) is the Terminus for TRE from Ft. Worth, also you can ride TRE to/from Midway Station where the shuttle Bus takes you to DFW Airport, and D,A,R,T., the Dallas Light Rail System ,runs all its Trains through here! While not @ the Station, the Dallas LD Bus Station is only two Blocks away and the Local Busses run on the Major streets Downtown around the Station! Rental Car companies will pick you up @ the Station when you call!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Syracuse, NY also has a Quasi Intermodel Station with LD Busses, Local Busses and Amtrak, but it's Location isnt the Best Place to Hang out in!

While not an Amtrak Station per se (the Maple Leaf turns into a VIA Train here) Niagara Falls, ON has the LD Bus station across the Street,(To/From Toronto/Buffalo etc.) the Local Shuttles to Downtown Run Past the Station and Taxis are avaialble out front. Some of the Hotels and Motels in Town by the Falls have shuttles also to pick you up! My understanding is that Rental Car Companies will come pick you up here if you call them but Ive never used one??

 

[AlanB]

How Intermodal are Penn Station and Grand Central Station?

NYP? Qualifies as an intermodal mecca. Amtrak, LIRR, NJ Transit, two subway stations for the 1,2,3 & A, C, E trains to get you all over NYC, PATH station a block away, taxis, car rental, Megabus and Boltbus near by, Madison Square Garden upstairs. and Manhattan outside.

Also a block away next to PATH are 7 more subway lines, namely the B, D, F, M, N, Q, and R. And hopefully one day soon, the underground tunnel that connects PATH and all those subway lines to NYP will be reopened.

 

[AlanB]

Airplanes at an airport - who woulda thunk it? :giggle:

They say the landing is a tad softer at an airport than in the Hudson River!

Depends on whether or not you have an aircraft carrier under your wheels.

But let's not get carried away. :lol:

 

[RRUserious]

One thing I liked about Chicago is there are so many services right there on the property. Pretty much in keeping with larger airports. I found it not hard to spend hours there. Considering I was captive to the vagaries of my reservations, I was glad I didn't have to hit the streets for entertainment. PDX Union Station, though elegant, was pretty bare. Union Station in Toronto resembled Chicago, though I had little reason to spend hours there. Every other station on my trips was pretty small. Not good for wasting time. In Buffalo, I bused to the nearest mall, Walden Galleria, saw a movie, had a good lunch (or dinner, not sure which).

 

[NW cannonball]

Airplanes at an airport - who woulda thunk it? :giggle:

They say the landing is a tad softer at an airport than in the Hudson River!

Depends on whether or not you have an aircraft carrier under your wheels.

But let's not get carried away. :lol:

IS ? there a penalty for egregious puns?

Like it.

 

[Guest]

There are a couple worth a mention in the east SF bay area...Martinez, CA's depot--opened in 2001, replacing one built in 1877--is served by the CS and CZ, along with Amtrak California's Capitol Corridor (Sacramento- San Jose) and San Joaquin (Oakland-Bakersfield) trains, plus AMtrak thruway bus service to much of inland northern California.

One stop west from Martinez is Richmond, where those long-distance & Amtrak California trains all stop, but that same depot is also on the BART system, so connections there are same-building easy (though a bit of a walk).

Plus, local buses also serve both stations at dedicated stops.

 

[benjibear]

Lancaster, PA - Train, intercity bus; Local bus right out front.

Harrisburg, PA - Train, intercity bus, and I think local bus right our front.

Baltimore, MD - Train and Light Rail

Future Middletown, PA (if it ever happpens) - Train and connection to buses and the airport.

I think we will see more in the future.

 

[RRUserious]

I was wondering if Seattle could build a tunnel from the bus and train tunnel to the rail station to make the combination more intermodal. Come in on a train, go through the tunnel, climb on the Link, ride to the airport, continue trip.

 

[afigg]

BWI also hosts am Amtrak/MARC station, connectivity to the Baltimore light rail and WMATA bus, but I think of it more as an airport with good transportation and not a true "integrated station" like some of the others being discussed.

The BWI Amtrak station certainly qualifies as an multimodal, if not intermodal, station. While the station is not at the airport terminal, there is a frequent shuttle bus service to the nearby BWI terminal. The airplanes are another mode of transportation, long range category. Like any medium to large commercial airport, it provides a car rental facility with a choice of vendors, secure long term parking facilities, and local transportation.

The WMATA bus at BWI to the Greenbelt Metro stop is of limited use for Amtrak customers because New Carrolton and WAS provide direct connections to the DC Metro system (as do Alexandria and Rockville). Checking the BWI website, it has Maryland Transportation, Howard Transit, and Montgomery county bus services to a number of places in MD. The Baltimore light rail line at the terminal provides access to stops south of Baltimore, through Baltimore to well north of the city and a spur line to Baltimore Penn Station.

That all qualifies BWI as a multimodal station. I expect that many of the Amtrak passengers using the BWI station shuttle bus to/from the airport terminal are not flying in or out of the airport, but using the airport for multi-day parking, car rentals, bus service to local destinations, and the light rail line. The advantage that train stations at airports or near airports (with a shuttle bus or light rail connection) providesis access to the local transportation, parking garages, rental car facility, and highways that the local governments have put a lot of money in the past 3 or 4 decades for their nice shiny local airport. The new stations under construction at the Miami airport and to be built at the Middletown PA airport will provide that, even if they will be at vastly different levels of scale.

 

[tomfuller]

The Greyhound station is/was on top of the Harrisburg station.

The New Orleans station shares the lobby with Greyhound.

Greyhound is less than 100 yards from the Portland Oregon station.

 

[Tumbleweed]

The renovated Denver Union Station will be pretty neat... http://www.denverunionstation.org/

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Fort Worth moved all ground transit, both local and long haul into the Ft. Worth Intermodal Transportation Center a little over 10 years ago. This serves Amtrak, TRE, the Hound, local buses and has a car rental counter as well. While the building itself is nice and everything is easy to access, it is a place you want to spend as little time as possible. The seats are more uncomfortable than your typical toilet stool and a security guard is constantly having to flush Hound passengers out of the Amtrak waiting area.

 

[the_traveler]

TF Green airport is not yet served by Amtrak, but nay be in the future. Right now, it is served by MBTA, car rentals (,in the station parking garage) and via a covered moving walkway not more than 1/4 mile away is the airport with all associated services.

And to the previous question regarding MKE, yes those are displays showing the flights at the airport, but they also show train arrivals and departures on the screens.

 

[VentureForth]

Albuquerque (ABQ) offers intermodal connections between Amtrak, NM Railrunner Express, the Hound, local busses, and international busses.

On the other hand, Savannah with a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of over 350,000 people and an Amtrak utilization of 200 passengers daily, offers a taxi stand.

 

[Mackensen]

I wonder if places like Chicago, Toronto, and Everett Washington just got started right.

That's an excellent point. KAL used to be solely Amtrak and Greyhound/other. They remodeled the area in front of the station to accommodate the city buses. Before that, the city buses parked downtown, meaning anyone using the train station had to walk 2-3 blocks to catch a bus or train. (It was also a pain the butt for traffic, since the buses often created major chaos and traffic jams.)

I'm not sure if the residents voted on it or if it was a city council measure. I was in ARB at the time. I was pleasantly surprised when I moved back to KAL and noticed the change.

Consolidating the city buses was part of the grant; I don't remember if we had the opportunity to vote on it or not. The real trick was luring Greyhound/Indian Trails back from the airport after the renovation finished. I remember that the city had to do some arm-twisting but I don't recall the specifics.

 

[Texan Eagle]

One day in the future if and when it gets made, San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center will be a truly integrated facility. The plans envision a bus level for Greyhound, Amtrak Thruway connections for long distance buses and AC Transit and MUNI for local service, a train level with six tracks serving Caltrain commuter rail and the much-hyped California High Speed Rail, an upper level serving BART subway trains after second Transbay Tube construction, a common concourse and a rooftop garden and recreational space. Grand plans, no idea what will see the light of day.

Transbay Transit Center

 

[the_traveler]

Subway tracks on a level ABOVE the concourse? :blush: Weird! :wacko:

 

[trainman74]

The Thruway bus between LAX and LV is a Greyhound bus that stops at LAUS, but the actual Greyhound terminal is quite far away.

About a mile and a half down Alameda Avenue -- obviously not within convenient walking distance, but in terms of everything else in Los Angeles, a mile and a half is not "quite far away."

 

[BCL]

There are a couple worth a mention in the east SF bay area...Martinez, CA's depot--opened in 2001, replacing one built in 1877--is served by the CS and CZ, along with Amtrak California's Capitol Corridor (Sacramento- San Jose) and San Joaquin (Oakland-Bakersfield) trains, plus AMtrak thruway bus service to much of inland northern California.

One stop west from Martinez is Richmond, where those long-distance & Amtrak California trains all stop, but that same depot is also on the BART system, so connections there are same-building easy (though a bit of a walk).

Plus, local buses also serve both stations at dedicated stops.

The walk from BART to Amtrak is not what I'd consider "a bit of a walk". I recently tried it, and it was about 30 feet from the BART fare gates to the entrance stairs to the Amtrak station. I'd say it's "right there".

http://bart.gov/stations/rich/map.aspx

 

[Texan Eagle]

Subway tracks on a level ABOVE the concourse? :blush: Weird! :wacko:

No, I meant upper level compared to Caltrain and HSR tracks. Look at the diagram I posted. Lowermost level will have Caltrain and HSR. One level above it will have BART. Ground level will have concourse. Second floor will have bus terminal. Third floor will be garden.

BTW this Transbay Transit Center is also a great example of epic short-sighted development. Existing Caltrain terminal at 4th & King has 10 tracks. The new terminal will have only 6 tracks and that too shared by Caltrain and HSR. Great.

 

[RRUserious]

One day in the future if and when it gets made, San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center will be a truly integrated facility. The plans envision a bus level for Greyhound, Amtrak Thruway connections for long distance buses and AC Transit and MUNI for local service, a train level with six tracks serving Caltrain commuter rail and the much-hyped California High Speed Rail, an upper level serving BART subway trains after second Transbay Tube construction, a common concourse and a rooftop garden and recreational space. Grand plans, no idea what will see the light of day.

Transbay Transit Center

Gotta admit, that's futuristic.

 

[Anderson]

Subway tracks on a level ABOVE the concourse? :blush: Weird! :wacko:

No, I meant upper level compared to Caltrain and HSR tracks. Look at the diagram I posted. Lowermost level will have Caltrain and HSR. One level above it will have BART. Ground level will have concourse. Second floor will have bus terminal. Third floor will be garden.

BTW this Transbay Transit Center is also a great example of epic short-sighted development. Existing Caltrain terminal at 4th & King has 10 tracks. The new terminal will have only 6 tracks and that too shared by Caltrain and HSR. Great.

It depends on what the operational plan is for storing, turning, and/or servicing the trains. If they can run through to a yard of some kind, 6 tracks is all I think you could need in SF with a de facto two-track line into downtown (even with sidings for the HSR trains, it's still two tracks). Assuming a 15-minute run-through time to load/discharge (since I don't think checked baggage will be an issue for more than a few trains per day, if that, and you can just schedules those outside of peak hours for the most part), that would give you a train every five minutes in each direction. Assuming that CAHSR hits their long-term goals of a train every 15 minutes, that would be 4 HSR trains and 8 Caltrain trains every hour going each way...and you can probably push that a bit further if you can "flip" a fourth track to the dominant direction. But I really can't see much more being needed given the geography of the Bay Area.

 

[Blackwolf]

It depends on what the operational plan is for storing, turning, and/or servicing the trains. If they can run through to a yard of some kind, 6 tracks is all I think you could need in SF with a de facto two-track line into downtown (even with sidings for the HSR trains, it's still two tracks). Assuming a 15-minute run-through time to load/discharge (since I don't think checked baggage will be an issue for more than a few trains per day, if that, and you can just schedules those outside of peak hours for the most part), that would give you a train every five minutes in each direction. Assuming that CAHSR hits their long-term goals of a train every 15 minutes, that would be 4 HSR trains and 8 Caltrain trains every hour going each way...and you can probably push that a bit further if you can "flip" a fourth track to the dominant direction. But I really can't see much more being needed given the geography of the Bay Area.

Here's a bit more information on the proposed layout of the tracks and platforms for the SFTC, as designed.

Sorry about the large size... I don't know how to scale images imported from other sites.

The North platform (at the top of the image) is supposed to be dedicated to the HST system, while the South platform is for CalTrain. The middle platform is for mixed use. As built right now, the station will be a stub and all trains will enter and leave to/from the south via the extension tunnel. As an aside, there is no stated plans I can find that the new SFTC will replace the current CalTrain station in the SoMa neighborhood, but rather supplement it. As such, all those tracks in place will remain, with the exception that a number of them will become 'run-through' to the new terminal via a tunnel.

*EDIT*

Additional reading has turned up plans that, while buried in documentation, state quite clearly that there are intentions to have the High-Speed Rail platforms accessed through "airport-style passenger security screening" and as such, won't be cross-pollinated with CalTrain very easily.

I don't know about you, but I read this to be a clear indication that the CAHSR system will feature "TSA security theater" rather prominently.

 

[Nathanael]

It's well worth writing to the CHSRA, and while you're at it to your government representatives at all levels, to tell them you do NOT WANT SECURITY THEATER. It is by no means a "done deal".