Parking at South Bend IN Amtrak station

[river]

Yay! I just reserved our next Amtrak trip in a roomette~decided I can't wait any longer, so we are going to Washington DC on the Capitol Limited in September. We did this trip about 2 years ago and absolutely loved it so we are doing it again. Even staying at the same hotel near Union Station in DC. I have decided it would be easier to drive to South Bend and board there rather than have a long layover in CHI. We will have to park our car at the South Bend station for about 5 days. Hoping the parking is free and safe there. Is it? Comments welcome!

 

[SBN Guest]

Parking is free, however it is not in the greatest neighborhood. It might be worth a call to the station agent to ask how many problems they have had reported in the past.

 

[walker]

We made this trip a couple of years ago driving from Grand Rapids to the South Bend station too. I asked the station agent at the time about the safety of the parking lot and he didn't think there was much of a problem. He said some people parked their cars there for months at a time with no problem (snowbirds who spent months at a time in Florida) and he pointed out that there was a staffed guard shack for a neighboring factory a little ways away within sight. Not that the guards were there to watch the Amtrak lot but he thought their presense helped keep bad folks away. Just to be safe we drove our oldest least attractive car there with no valuables inside. Except that it a little more remote, I'd say the South Bend station's neigborhood is comparable with the neigborhood around the Grand Rapids station.

 

[river]

Thanks for the info. Sounds safe enough for me. I am thinking the Elkhart stop is in a safer neighborhood and actually closer to GRR, but we want to have dinner in the dining car. This would more likely happen I think, if we boarded in South Bend as we board a little after 8:30 pm there. We would board in Elkhart closer to 9 pm.

We do own an older car--good idea to take that one.