Winona, MN to become unstaffed soon

[OBS]

That would be good. Train side luggage check in seems like a program which should be expanded at lower-ridership stations.

I'm just curious as to the mechanics. Obviously there are scales and measuring devices at staffed stations. Will they need portable scales or will they just make a guess by lifting.

All Conductors were issued a portable scale...not that you will ever see one used... Most are probably on Ebay...

 

[fillyjonk]

That would be good. Train side luggage check in seems like a program which should be expanded at lower-ridership stations.

I'm just curious as to the mechanics. Obviously there are scales and measuring devices at staffed stations. Will they need portable scales or will they just make a guess by lifting.

All Conductors were issued a portable scale...not that you will ever see one used... Most are probably on Ebay...

Heh. And the way my luck goes, the one time I try traveling with a 52 pound suitcase carry-on will be the one time I get a conductor who loves his scale and loves using it!

 

[PaulM]

That actually gets to a good question - what level of ridership (per train, I suppose) warrants full checked baggage service, and what level should have the trainside luggage check?

If I'm not mistaken, so far the trainside luggage check has been offered at a few stations with ridership in the 15,000-20,000 per year range.

I don't know what the criteria were; but the stations I know about are Mt. Pleasant, Ft. Madison, Newton, and Galesburg (a special case). The first three dropped baggage service when a second agent was eliminated, meaning no weekend or vacation time service. Galesburg's excuse, despite 8 trains per day (4 LD) and multiple agents was a lack of space. My gripe was that for years there was no baggage service between Chicago and the Missouri River (Omaha and KC).

At the same time as track side baggage check was invented, Galesburg baggage service was brought back. The time I used it, the agent tagged your bags at the ticket counter and had you put them on the wagon in the porch just outside the door. I wonder how much they paid some brain to come up that obvious solution to a non-problem.

 

[Eric S]

Ok, so maybe my 15,000-20,000 guess was a bit high.

Fort Madison has bounced around 7,000 the last 5 years

Mount Pleasant - around 12,000

Newton - around 13,000

Galesburg has much higher ridership, but as you mention also serves 8 trains/day.

Maybe if I'm bored later I'll dig into which stations have checked baggage service versus their ridership levels.

 

[Eric S]

OK, so I did a little math.

- If a station sees about 30 riders per train per day (ons and offs combined), it almost always has checked baggage service. The only exceptions are Lakeland FL and Minot ND.

- If a station sees about 15-30 riders per train, there's a little under a 50/50 chance it has checked baggage service.

- Fewer than 15 riders per train per day - very few stations have checked baggage service, with almost none when ridership is lower than 10/day.

EDIT TO ADD: 30 riders per train is a bit under 22,000 passenger per year, assuming 1 daily train. For tri-weekly-only stations, it's about 9,000 passengers per year.

(For this, I only looked at long distance trains, not any regional/corridor trains which also may have baggage service. Also, I ignored all stations that are also served by regional/corridor trains - for example, I included Cleveland but not Pittsburgh. And I took the average ridership over the last 5 years, hoping to smooth over any serious service disruption that may have significantly affected a year here or there. So for a typical station served by one long distance train per day per direction, the yearly ridership is divided by 730. For a station served only by a three-day-per-week train, the yearly ridership is divided by 312.)

 

[Thirdrail7]

I think it also has to do with if there is express (or back in the day, mail) service available for the station.

Speaking of stations, it looks like the end of the year came early for Winona.

I believe a quick track kiosk is landing there.

 

[neroden]

OK, so I did a little math.

- If a station sees about 30 riders per train per day (ons and offs combined), it almost always has checked baggage service. The only exceptions are Lakeland FL and Minot ND.

- If a station sees about 15-30 riders per train, there's a little under a 50/50 chance it has checked baggage service.

- Fewer than 15 riders per train per day - very few stations have checked baggage service, with almost none when ridership is lower than 10/day.

EDIT TO ADD: 30 riders per train is a bit under 22,000 passenger per year, assuming 1 daily train. For tri-weekly-only stations, it's about 9,000 passengers per year.

(For this, I only looked at long distance trains, not any regional/corridor trains which also may have baggage service. Also, I ignored all stations that are also served by regional/corridor trains - for example, I included Cleveland but not Pittsburgh. And I took the average ridership over the last 5 years, hoping to smooth over any serious service disruption that may have significantly affected a year here or there. So for a typical station served by one long distance train per day per direction, the yearly ridership is divided by 730. For a station served only by a three-day-per-week train, the yearly ridership is divided by 312.)

Thanks for doing the math.

Minot and Lakeland both have checked baggage service, so I think you made an error?

 

[Eric S]

Haha, guess I shouldn't have relied on just the individual route timetables. On those, neither one has checked baggage service. Looking at the list of stations at the front of the national timetable, it shows Lakeland as having baggage but not Minot. And looking up each station on the website, both are shown has having baggage. I'll edit my original post.