Needles, California Amtrak station

[Haley]

Okay so, I'll be using the needles Amtrak station soon and I want to know if it's a safe station to be at.

Advice and pictures would be awesome

 

[WhoozOn1st]

The Amtrak station/waiting area at Needles is adjacent to a BNSF office building in a trackside industrial area similar to those found in a number of southern California desert towns. People's ideas about safe areas vary, but there's nothing overtly hazardous about the location; warehouses, storage, small businesses. No marauding bands of gila monsters or tortoises or anything like that.

A couple photos found online (never bothered to take my own):

 

[the_traveler]

NDL used to be my "home station" for 7 years, but I moved away - so it is safe now!

Really, there is no inside waiting room, but because it's in the middle of the Mohave Desert, and is the middle of the night, it is 80-90 and dry. I never had problems at all.

 

[trainman74]

Really, there is no inside waiting room, but because it's in the middle of the Mohave Desert, and is the middle of the night, it is 80-90 and dry.

Not if the SWC is running hours late! (I, for one, have seen Needles by daylight from aboard #3.)

 

[Anthony]

It's safe even late at night. The BNSF freight "yard" is active 24/7 and there are usually some employees milling around. The train stops in the yard and you just follow the crowd past the BNSF buildings and onto the train.

Just make sure you don't wait at the old "El Garces" Harvey House next door (the former Santa Fe hotel and passenger station, a large, imposing white building with a big lawn in front) -- it's closed indefinitely for renovations and the Amtrak crew won't be looking for you there. :lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Garces_Hotel

 

[rusty spike]

Amtrak/BNSF Needles

The above link is to another screen shot from Google Earth as I was doing a virtual tour of the immediate vicinity around the Needles Amtrak Station with the El Garces Hotel (the old Santa Fe staton) in the background.

Needles is not Beverly Hills, but the area around the depot appears to be OK. Common sense would tell me I shouldn't be wandering too far away, if it is unfamiliar territory.

Just an off-topic side note: The old El Garces Harvey House looks rather elegant even in the middle stages of renovation. Hope they can get it done. It's been years in the works.

Have a good trip.

 

[fillyjonk]

I'm guessing Snoopy's brother Spike doesn't pose a threat? :giggle:

(That's what I always think of when I think of Needles California.)

 

[TinCan782]

Here's the El Garces...photographed from the SWC last October...in the middle of the night!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frensicpic/6293745606/in/set-72157627883429105

 

[the_traveler]

It looks the same as when I moved from there in 2000! Even the fence! I don't ever expect it to be renovated - but I hope that I'm wrong!

 

[CHamilton]

It looks the same as when I moved from there in 2000! Even the fence! I don't ever expect it to be renovated - but I hope that I'm wrong!

Bringing back this thread to say...yep, you were wrong!

Ribbon cut for El Garces

Colleen Garcia,...Fort Mojave Indian Tribal Council Secretary, and Linda Kidd, Needles City Councilwoman, cut the ribbon May 3 celebrating restoration of the El Garces as an intermodal transportation facility. The event included a farmers’ market, an open house for the Needles Chamber of Commerce, an antique car cruise and special hours at the Needles Regional Museum....



Approximately 400 people attended the ribbon cutting ceremony outside the building adjacent Santa Fe Park. That doesn’t include all the folks who came and went for the farmers’ market, the Needles Chamber of Commerce open house, and the special hours at Needles Regional Museum, all held in conjunction with the ribbon cutting ceremony....

Residents, visitors and more walked around the front of the building near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway tracks, taking in all the sights they could.

The crowd gathered around to get a first glimpse inside the building. Marc Richards, city public works director, opened the doors to the building and everyone filtered in, wanting to see what the El Garces looked like after years of being closed....

The project completed the downstairs portion of the building. There are plans to have portions of the building leased to various businesses to fill in the rest of the building.

Currently, the city is in negotiations with BNSF and Amtrak to get offices in the intermodal transportation facility. Needles Area Transit will also have an office in the building.