Greenville, SC

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Joined
Jul 16, 2010
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Greenville has a small station and no checked baggage any more. The one restroom (with a broken lock) is open when the sole Crescent comes through at about 5AM southbound (always seems to be on time) and 11PM northbound (but always seems to be 2 hours late). There is a ton of parking and the fact that it is an NS crew change point means there are people around even at those late hours so one feels safe even though the area is not well lit. There are no signs telling one where sleeper or coach passengers should board and no agent there to help any more.

Tons of free parking and a $20 Uber ride to the airport means one can conveniently park there, Uber to airport to fly out then return by train at lest cost than parking at the airport.

An all-night clean, bright QT gas station with tons of cheap snacks and better hot food than Amtrak's cafe is a 15 minute (.7 mile) walk or a quick(?) ride (over multiple speed bumps).

No car rental places are nearby and not open at that hour anyway.

For those going to the mountains (Asheville, Hendersonville), it's about 45 minute to 1 1/4 hour ride but that's only useful if someone is coming to pick you up.

There is a local bus stop just a few blocks away. 6:15AM is over an hour wait for the first bus and 7:30PM is way early for the last one.

Taxis can be called but they are likely to be the typical not-well-regulated ones with dirty cars, unknown pricing with irregular use of the meter and not reliable.
 
I've been through Greenville a couple of times when the station was still staffed. The waiting room was well-lit and there always seemed to be enough seats for the people waiting. Taxis were waiting, and I found them to be as well-regulated as anywhere else and willing to use the meter. I would come from the north, and take a taxi to downtown (a five minute ride, well under $10) to my hotel. Once, they actually let me check in at 5 AM (OK, more like 6 AM by the time I got to the hotel), the other time, they held my bag until check-in time. I would meet my colleague who had the rental car for breakfast, and then we'd go about our business. For the trip home, the hotel stored my bags and let me hang about the lobby, spending money at their cocktail lounge, until train time, and then the hotel courtesy van took me to the train station. Now that the station's unstaffed, I might check with the online train-tracker before I called up the courtesy van. All-in-all it wasn't a bad way to go.
 
I've been through Greenville a couple of times when the station was still staffed. The waiting room was well-lit and there always seemed to be enough seats for the people waiting. Taxis were waiting, and I found them to be as well-regulated as anywhere else and willing to use the meter. I would come from the north, and take a taxi to downtown (a five minute ride, well under $10) to my hotel. Once, they actually let me check in at 5 AM (OK, more like 6 AM by the time I got to the hotel), the other time, they held my bag until check-in time. I would meet my colleague who had the rental car for breakfast, and then we'd go about our business. For the trip home, the hotel stored my bags and let me hang about the lobby, spending money at their cocktail lounge, until train time, and then the hotel courtesy van took me to the train station. Now that the station's unstaffed, I might check with the online train-tracker before I called up the courtesy van. All-in-all it wasn't a bad way to go.

Greenville is a great place to visit (and live as I now do) but the Crescent’ times are inconvenient especially heading North since when late, as it usually is, gets really late (early in the morning!).
 
Some big things that would be inexpensive but dramatically improve Greenville:
There should be letter or number designations for where one should be to board coach or sleepers.
There is an electronic sign but it gives no info like whether coach is at the front or back of the train. Coordinate this with the above mentioned letters or numbers would be a big plus. It also makes lots of canned announcements but needs to show expected train arrival updated whenever the Amtrak app is updated.
A security camera and an alarm button should be located in the waiting room. The alarm button would notify local police and automatically bring up the camera front and center to an Amtrak person who could monitor multiple stations remotely.
A camera/local screen/audio could be used to talk to a remote Amtrak agent which would provide help on issues. This would reduce the need for a local agent.
 
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