Ispolkom
Engineer
There will be tours of SPUD on Saturday, National Train Day. It's a chance to see how the restoration is going.
I'm sure that a Minneapolis station would have been restored instead of SPUD, if any still existed in usable condition. But any new Minneapolis station would either a) be located in a desolate, industrial area no better than the present Midway Station, or b) would be on a spur line requiring each train to back into the station. Located on the east side of the metropolitan area, SPUD is also a more reasonable terminus for high-speed rail, since no high speed tracks are ever going to be built through St. Paul.Guest said:It's too bad that the new station stop will be further away from the higher population concentration of the Twin Cities which is on the Minneapolis side.
Holday travel seems like a poor time to make the move, dead of late January will probably inconvenience/catch off guard the least number of passengers. Half a dozen walkable hotels from SPUD, but not regularly under $100.When I was at the MSP station last week, one of the station managers advised me Amtrak won't be moving to SPUD until December 20, 2012 at the earliest... however... with the harsh winters we have here in the Upper Midwest... it would probably be more likely early Spring 2013.
When #8 rolled by, I noticed they were putting up the platform shelters.
I am sure SPUD will be a welcome change from what I've seen -- but I hope they are some affordable hotels near the new station -- I like the reasonable rates Days Inn Midway has and how you can walk there from the Amtrak station.
Nope... will not happen. Midway will be gone when they move to SPUD.I hope Amtrak keeps the Midway station as a stop as well. The free parking and not having to drive into a congested downtown area are both incentives to take Amtrak.
Where is that estimate coming from? I'm guessing that Amtrak may cover some or all of the parking cost if you have a train ticket. Even if they didn't, I can't imagine parking will be more than $5-$10/day. (It's not going to be $69 per night, unless you park on the street illegally and get booted and towed. Nowhere close...even Chicago only charges $20/day for parking at their book rate at Union Station, and parking is much, much more expensive there.)Anyone who thinks you can park for free in downtown St. Paul has never been to downtown St. Paul. My estimate is to park the car for a one week trip will cost about $485.00. There is public transportation if you live in Minneapolis or on the west side of St. Paul. Even on the east side of St. Paul, where I live, one cannot get public transport to downtown except during rush hour.
So it is back to the airport for me.
Is that a daily fee or based on the hours? I remember seeing $5 mentioned somewhere when I went there to visit, but I don't remember if it was a flat daily rate or not.My wife and I went to check out the SPUD on new years day. We could not find any where to park downtown, other than in the depot. We were not in there more than 2 hours, there was not more than 10 cars in the place. The charge to park there for less than 2 hours was $5.00. The next day I called the SPUD office and asked why so much, they said that is what it will be.Also talked with the ticket agent at the midway station, he said that he and all the Amtrak people will have to pay to park when they move to SPUD.
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