Kingman, AZ Status

[greatcats]

Yesterday, returning from a car trip to California, I was enroute from Death Valley to Flagstaff and drove through downtown Kingman. For a number of years the station building has been closed and marked " Under renovation " with the station facilities being in two storefronts across the street. I had been on the eastbound train about seven weeks ago, but had been asleep. This time the station looked all fixed up and the platform looks new. Stimulus money at work? Does anyone know if the building has been reopened or are the storefronts still in use? I was going to stop, but was going to see my chiropractor in Williams. I will be passing again through Kingman in a few days on the way to my summer job in Alaska. Give me a holler if any of you come through Ketchikan.

 

[the_traveler]

I haven't been past the station since 2000 (when I moved out of the area), and it was scary the way it looked then. Anything has to be better!

BTW: Aren't the storefronts used by the shuttle operator to LV?

 

[greatcats]

Since the responses to my question were less than overwhelming, I found out for myself today while driving between Flagstaff and Las Vegas enroute to Alaska. The Kingman Amtrak station has indeed been refurbished, with a colorful paint job, including the color orange, on the exterior. The east end of the building is vacant, but on the west end, although most of the blinds were drawn, is a waiting area and the ticket office area appears to be the crew register area. The two storefronts a half block away that served as the waiting room and crew room are vacant, the crew room definitely so. When Googling this subject, I could not find any stories about when it reopened, just that the work was authorized in 2010 after about eight years of delays.

 

[GlobalistPotato]

Since the responses to my question were less than overwhelming, I found out for myself today while driving between Flagstaff and Las Vegas enroute to Alaska. The Kingman Amtrak station has indeed been refurbished, with a colorful paint job, including the color orange, on the exterior. The east end of the building is vacant, but on the west end, although most of the blinds were drawn, is a waiting area and the ticket office area appears to be the crew register area. The two storefronts a half block away that served as the waiting room and crew room are vacant, the crew room definitely so. When Googling this subject, I could not find any stories about when it reopened, just that the work was authorized in 2010 after about eight years of delays.

Eight years of delay just for a little station? Geez Louise...

Well I'm glad to hear that it's been renovated! One less crappy station along the Sunset's route.

 

[greatcats]

That's the route of the Southwest Chief. Upon further resaearch, this occurred with a grant from the Arizona Dept. of Transportation. The City of Kingman owns the station. It really looks nice. Eight years? How I love bureaucracy!

 

[Casinocim]

I was in Kingman on March 27, the new station wasn't open yet. It looked ready and looked nice inside. This will be much better than passengers having to walk across the street to the train.

 

[afigg]

That's the route of the Southwest Chief. Upon further resaearch, this occurred with a grant from the Arizona Dept. of Transportation. The City of Kingman owns the station. It really looks nice. Eight years? How I love bureaucracy!

Did you see a new platform at the station? Checking the Amtrak 2010 ADA Accessibility Compliance report, it shows that Kingman got or will get a new 550' long 8" ATR concrete platform and wheel chair lift. A little further digging shows that this was/is funded by the stimulus funding with the new platform budgeted at $358K.

It may be that while Amtrak was arranging to replace the platform, they were able to nudge the city of Kingman and AZ DOT to get off the dime and fix up the station, possibly in part to bring it into ADA compliance. The stimulus money and the ADA compliance funding that Amtrak has received in the past several years is being used to fix up platforms and the stations for many of the small town stations used by the LD trains.

BTW, the ADA compliance report has a table showing ownership and responsibility for all the Amtrak stations, because the headache in bringing stations into ADA compliance is figuring out who is responsible for what and then Amtrak having to negotiate with all the parties. For the Kingman station, the table shows BNSF as the owner of the station, platform, and parking facilities while the City of Kingman has the responsibility for the station.

 

[Casinocim]

Did you see a new platform at the station? Checking the Amtrak 2010 ADA Accessibility Compliance report, it shows that Kingman got or will get a new 550' long 8" ATR concrete platform and wheel chair lift. A little further digging shows that this was/is funded by the stimulus funding with the new platform budgeted at $358K.

While it was dark when I was in Kingman, the platform did look new. I did not notice a wheelchair lift, not sure I would know what a train wheelchair lift would look like.

In the dark, the whole area, station, parking and platform looked very nice.

 

[greatcats]

Yes, there is a new platform. I did not see a wheelchair lift. There were no cars parked in the parking lot. There is not ticket agent here, butI do know that it is a crew change point for crews coming from Los Angeles and Albuquerque.