RMEI am not sure why we keep getting OPs that don't take the time to follow up with actual source material, for example this Amtrak fact sheet on the Passenger Concourse Modernization Project:
The internet is full of posters that refuse to do research. Thats why we have not really resolved a whole host of issues in this country that should be relatively simple to fix.
My favorite article this past week was on the TOW Missile defeating tanks in Syria (I am a former TOW gunner). The article was written by a GWOT Marine Infantryman that did his homework and reported it was the BGM71 TOW.......you have all sorts of idiots reporting the missile was useless as it only damaged the Russian tank. Including all sorts of over confident Russians boasting about their reactive tank Armor. Well the BGM71 TOW stopped being used by Active Army Units in the early 1980's. The TOW they use now is two generations later and is called the ITAS TOW. The fact that a early 1980's missile damaged a modern Russian tank that it no longer operated was a important fact lost on 90% of the readers of the article (hopefully Russian intelligence is better for our deterrence to work). You even had some saying the U.S. gave the missiles to the ME rebels.........also not possible since the missile is no longer in the U.S. Inventory.....obviously it came from another ME country like Saudi Arabia.
This is why I think we need to add a critical thinking or news media analysis course to our educational system as a requirement. Even when given enough facts, a large portion of Americans will outsource their thinking to an author or news commentator instead of arriving at their own conclusion after some thinking and digesting / research of the news article. I wonder what that GWOT Marine Infantryman is thinking when he reads the comments to his article.......has to be demoralized or at least rolling his eyes.
If in the pre-computer days, the railroads were able to assign cars and seats to coach passengers, why is Amtrak not doing so now? This was done even on the trains that ran over two or more railroads.
Johnny
http://www.cincinnativiews.net/images-3/Train%20Concourse-looking%20west.jpg
I expect romance when I travel by train like something otta a Humprey Bogart Film-
http://www.cincinnativiews.net/images-3/Train%20Concourse%20full%20view.jpg
I tired of everything and everywhere looking alike you think we would have learned from the 1970s
The Amtrak experience is entirely different for first class and coach class passengers and that's a shame. I think the solution to the awful situation decribed by JPS1 is for Amtrak to do what works all over Europe: assign coach seats by number. No matter how much cost and effort this would take on the company's part initially, in the long run it would be productive in many ways, not least in customer satisfaction and repeat business.
It should be no surprise that Washington Union Station and Penn Station are already at or over capacity, since they were planned and built at a time when the population was a fraction of what it is now. The 160 million Americans of my high school years are now some 310 million or so. Who in 1905 could have built that kind of capacity into their stations?
Perhaps cities like these ought to build more Amtrak and commuter railroad stations; after all, in Europe every big city has several stations. Prohibitively expensive, you say? What is the long term cost of trying to use an inadequate early 20th century station in the later 21st century? Does China have just one big central station in their major cities?
America needs to think along the lines of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect of DC's lovely and impressive station, and
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."
For a start, could we simply have a ticket with a seat number on it so we can know which car we're looking for and not have try to muscle our way on board?
Deggesty Apparently I have really missed something for the past thirteen years when traveling out of Washington, for I have had the use of the first class lounge every departure but one since then; I have had no difficulty in boarding.
Apparently I have really missed something for the past thirteen years when traveling out of Washington, for I have had the use of the first class lounge every departure but one since then; I have had no difficulty in boarding.
The overwhelming majority of Amtrak's passengers don't travel first class.
On my last trip from Philadelphia to New York, which was business class on a NE regional train last year, everyone lined up at the top of the stairs. The line snaked around the stairwell.
Approximately 10 minutes before the train was due, we were released to go down to the platform. Where we had an opportunity to stand in line again until the train arrived!
Only a government run passenger railroad with little sense of customer service would lay this off on its customers and continue to get away with it.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
CJtrainguy Trying to board a train there is ridiculous with lines stretching halfway through the concourse for a NE Regional.
Trying to board a train there is ridiculous with lines stretching halfway through the concourse for a NE Regional.
The lines are a mess at D.C.'s Union Station. They are not much better at 30th Street, Philadelphia or Penn Station, New York.
Having business class passengers line-up at 30th Street like they were in the chow line at MCRD Paris Island made me wonder if my DI retired and got a job figuring out the boarding process for Amtrak's trains?
Amtrak could manage the lines better with assigned seating or at least by group boarding. Group boarding works pretty well for Southwest Airlines.
Even Megabus has figured out the assigned seating issue for passengers willing to pay a small surcharge for an designated seat.
CMStPnPI agree the concourse is too narrow and hard to get through the crowds and honestly looks similar to the artists rendering today.
I am not sure why we keep getting OPs that don't take the time to follow up with actual source material, for example this Amtrak fact sheet on the Passenger Concourse Modernization Project:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwj73KvggvDLAhUFbiYKHScADDYQFggwMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.amtrak.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F10%2FWAS2C-Concourse-Modernization-Factsheet_FINAL.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHoUavnmlOMi8JMiCZYk6ZrTE1O0g&cad=rja
(the URL betrays how I found it; it's clickable even though the color isn't there, some quirk of the new Forum programming, perhaps...) - This contains an illustration of what will be replaced by the 'new and improved' modernization. A very logical place to follow up for more details would be the architects involved (who are listed in the Amtrak sheet).
It is hard to tell but it looks like the lobby remains intact. The concourse expands north with more natural lighting.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
I agree the concourse is too narrow and hard to get through the crowds and honestly looks similar to the artists rendering today.
I think the Original Poster was thinking more about the Lobby part of Washington Union Station which like other Union Stations has a barrel vaulted ceiling and done in the Roman classical style.
Have you been to Union Station in Washington? There's nothing classical to desecrate in the current concourse area. Me thinks anything they can do to improve the crowded conditions there is a good thing. Trying to board a train there is ridiculous with lines stretching halfway through the concourse for a NE Regional.
Please contact your congressperson to stop this desecration of our temple
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2016/03/amtrak-unleashes-plan-to-expand-cramped-union.html#i1
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