The more modern Amtrak Stations

[xyzzy]

Georgia DOT and the Georgia General Assembly have been painfully slow in promoting passenger rail. Only now, after over 30 years of Amtrak service with a woefully inadequate station at Atlanta, is there a firm plan -- still not yet under construction -- for a replacement station. So if anything positive happens in Savannah, the City will have to do it themselves.

I suspect the taxi drivers in Savannah are pressuring the city not to increase bus service to the station.

One good thing about the station: it has plenty of parking.

It's true that the Brunswick (Ga.) airport has gotten a lot of improvements in the past 10 years. Nevertheless it has not attracted a second carrier... and Delta threatens to pull out periodically. SAV and JAX are just not that far away.

 

[Shortline]

How about most unique combination of Classic AND Modern? Anyone remember KC Station in the 80's? The great hall had a "bubble" put up insde, so you walked into an air chamber, into the old station, but were enclosed in a big white pressurized amshack inside the station. Can't recall how long that lasted, most of the 80's I imagine, until they re-did the station as a museum/station combo. Was a creative way to re-purpose the existing station, without having to heat/cool the whole monster. It looked horrible, on the inside, but it worked, and kept the classic station usable.

 

[Nathanael]

Indeed, a little research has revealed that only two "300A" stations were built: MSP and MIA! So, these two stations are identical in every way when originally built.

Looking online, it would seem as if the following applied to "AmShacks" of the 1970's:

• 300A: 300+ passengers at peak times. Two stories, full-service with a "red cap" first-class lounge and commissary for train provisions. Examples built are Minneapolis-St. Paul and Miami.
• 150B: 150-300 passengers at peak times. Single story, full-service but no lounge or commissary. An example would be Rochester, NY or the old Albany, NY.
• 50C: 50-150 passengers at peak times. Ticket agent and baggage service. An example would be Buffalo-Depew, NY.
• 25D: 25-50 passengers at peak times. No ticket agent. No baggage service. Only a waiting room. Example would be the AmShack (unused) at Salt Lake City, UT.

This information is kind of awesome. From what I can tell, most of the 150B stations now exceed that capacity at peak times, which is one reason they're being demolished as fast as they can be replaced. The same is true of the 50C stations, and the 25D stations -- long-term demand was underestimated in most of the places where Amtrak built new stations. Minneapolis and Miami have only survived as long as they have due to overestimation of travel demand. Both are relocating due to being in the wrong places.

 

[Nathanael]

Anyone able to dig this information up? I'm guessing the first one will turn out to be in the 1980s, since this trend of municipalities building "intermodal stations" for Amtrak really got going in the 1990s.

Trivia question to which I do not know the answer. What is the first train station building built by a municipality or municipal agency (as opposed to by Amtrak) for the benefit of Amtrak train service? It's a common thing now -- but when and where did it start?

 

[crew]

I'm a big fan of ATSF's Midcentury Modern stations, some of which are still in use, such as Lawrence, KS (beautifully restored, too) and La Junta, CO. I believe there is still one in Woodward, OK, which may come back into use if the SWC is rerouted.