L' Enfant Plaza - flag stop?

[jis]

FWIW, The Alaska Railroad operates the Hurricane Turn, a train that operates on a flag stop basis and will stop anywhere along its route. I'm not sure how that jibes with ADA regulations.

Anybody that is able to trek or sled across wilderness should not be left out in the cold to freeze. Consider it a rescue mission

Actually even the Winter Aurora will stop anywhere to pick people up or set them down upon request between Talkeetna and Hurricane. I have seen it done while traveling on it while outside temps were in the -20F range.

But all that is a completely different environment from the midtown station of L'Enfant Plaza in Washington DC, with connections to the Metro, which is the subject of this thread.

 

[RebelRider]

FWIW, The Alaska Railroad operates the Hurricane Turn, a train that operates on a flag stop basis and will stop anywhere along its route. I'm not sure how that jibes with ADA regulations.

That is not a valid comparison. Stopping randomly in the middle of the wilderness to pick up hikers/off-gridders walking out of the woods is not the same as a flag stop in the middle of civilized downtown Oakridge, OR.

 

[George Harris]

Flag stops in small towns isn't going to happen. You'd still have to have a proper ADA platform. Not going to happen for a location with ridership so low the train only stops on demand. Amtrak is still working to get proper ADA-compliant platforms at all the regular station stops.

I do not think this is altogether true. Don't know what the current situation is as I do not have a current timetable at hand, but the October 2020 schedule for the City of New Orleans lists more flag stops than regular stops. It listed six regular stops and eleven flag stops. Plus, the schedule showed three town names, all in Illinois, with no times listed.

 

[Ryan]

I don't think that the existence of current flag stops in any way disproves the assertion that new flag stops aren't forthcoming.

 

[RebelRider]

I do not think this is altogether true. Don't know what the current situation is as I do not have a current timetable at hand, but the October 2020 schedule for the City of New Orleans lists more flag stops than regular stops. It listed six regular stops and eleven flag stops. Plus, the schedule showed three town names, all in Illinois, with no times listed.

Adding a new station stop, flag or regular, will require new construction. New construction is expensive. Can't just slap down a 20 foot patch of asphalt with an Amtrak sigh by a road crossing and call it a flag stop. Any existing flag stops still must be brought up to ADA standards, it's just a very slow process. As noted here many times, there are often multiple competing owners/jurisdictions that have to agree to upgrades.