Return to Denver Union Station

[Steve4031]

Nice line up of stores and restaurants. Hopefully they'll be up and running by July when I go through there.

 

[neroden]

Any talk or plans for a Metro Lounge or First Class Waiting Area for Amtrak Passengers?

No.

The Great Hall is going to be mainly for Amtrak passengers, however. Due to public outcry, the hotel "lobby" was moved elsewhere; the RTD "Commuter Rail" lines will be frequent enough that most people will wait on the platform; the buses have their own waiting room in the underground bus facility; and the light rail passengers will be waiting way off three blocks north. This means that the Great Hall will be almost entirely for Amtrak passengers.

Which is a more luxurious environment to wait in than most of the Metropolitan Lounges, let alone the "standard" waiting rooms at places like Minneapolis/St. Paul Midway or Penn Station NY.

It's worth remembering that most of Amtrak's First Class Lounges are at Amtrak train-to-train transfer points, where many first class passengers may be sitting around waiting for a long time for their connecting trains. (Raleigh seems to be the exception?) Denver's busy, but it isn't a transfer point of this sort.

As for having the dispatchers in a tower... yeah, I'm sure they'd love it, but $$$ -- the upstairs levels of the buildings in that area are all taken by higher-priced uses than a dispatching office. The basement, on the other hand, isn't in super high demand... except for model railroad clubs (a sore point)...

 

[eblkheart]

The basement, on the other hand, isn't in super high demand... except for model railroad clubs (a sore point)...

You're not kidding sore point... *grumble*

 

[railiner]

Any talk or plans for a Metro Lounge or First Class Waiting Area for Amtrak Passengers?

No.

The Great Hall is going to be mainly for Amtrak passengers, however. Due to public outcry, the hotel "lobby" was moved elsewhere; the RTD "Commuter Rail" lines will be frequent enough that most people will wait on the platform; the buses have their own waiting room in the underground bus facility; and the light rail passengers will be waiting way off three blocks north. This means that the Great Hall will be almost entirely for Amtrak passengers.

Which is a more luxurious environment to wait in than most of the Metropolitan Lounges, let alone the "standard" waiting rooms at places like Minneapolis/St. Paul Midway or Penn Station NY.

It's worth remembering that most of Amtrak's First Class Lounges are at Amtrak train-to-train transfer points, where many first class passengers may be sitting around waiting for a long time for their connecting trains. (Raleigh seems to be the exception?) Denver's busy, but it isn't a transfer point of this sort.

As for having the dispatchers in a tower... yeah, I'm sure they'd love it, but $$$ -- the upstairs levels of the buildings in that area are all taken by higher-priced uses than a dispatching office. The basement, on the other hand, isn't in super high demand... except for model railroad clubs (a sore point)...

Why would the tower have to be in a surrounding building? I don't recall, but isn't there a pedestrian bridge built over the new platforms? If so, a tower would fit in very nicely above it.....

 

[Sactobob]

Any talk or plans for a Metro Lounge or First Class Waiting Area for Amtrak Passengers?

No.
The Great Hall is going to be mainly for Amtrak passengers, however. Due to public outcry, the hotel "lobby" was moved elsewhere;

I may be coming to Denver this fall and might stay at the hotel upstairs. Out of curiosity, just where will the hotel lobby be located?

 

[railiner]

Good question....is there a floorplan of the station posted online yet?

 

[PRR 60]

This Site has some interior renderings and floor plans. Hotel registration will be on the second floor.

 

[railiner]

This Site has some interior renderings and floor plans. Hotel registration will be on the second floor.

Okay, that explains it....the hotel registration will share the open part of the second floor area over the old ticket office with the new "Cooper Lounge"...

 

[neroden]

Be aware, if you're looking at those floor plans. The floor plans on the Inhabitat page are still correct as far as I know *for the upper levels*. But the ground floor layout was rearranged to put the Amtrak operations in the south wing.

http://denver.eater.com/archives/2013/05/29/union-station.php

(It seems from the plans so far that RTD will not have a staffed office or counter, which is quite surprising given that Market St. Bus Station, which is closing to be replaced by the Union Station bus station, has a staffed counter and office. But the plans seem to change pretty often so maybe an RTD counter will reappear by the time the building opens.)

 

[neroden]

FWIW, some of the stuff coming out of the Fastracks newsletters makes me think they've decided to locate the dispatching center in the maintenance facility. (It'll be crowded there.)

Unfortunately, their new Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility is inaccessible by rail or bus. This has been a sloppy design choice of a lot of systems lately, forcing transit workers to drive to work. It creates bad attitudes among the employees, if you think about it.

 

[SubwayNut]

Might the maintenance facility be served by special employee only stops from passing Commuter Trains? These stops are quite common. PATH has about five serving their yard, CSX's intermodal yard and a number of other almost random locations, there tiny platforms and they open one door in the font of the train. LIRR has at least two (Hillside has full length high-level platforms). The RiverLINE has one for its yard. NJT has at least one serving the Meadowlands where their operational HQ are.

There defiantly more.

 

[greatcats]

Employee platforms are often full of defiant employees, like this poster used to be. Hehe.

 

[neroden]

Might the maintenance facility be served by special employee only stops from passing Commuter Trains?

You know, I was thinking that that wouldn't be sufficient because the dispatchers would have to get there before the trains start running and leave after they stop running....
....but it looks like Denver may be running essentially 24-hour service, which they do on several of the light rail lines. In which case it could work! (Though not for the very first dispatcher ever to go on shift!)

24-hour service, awesomely good idea. I wasn't expecting it because it's *so* rare in the US. There's something like a 2 hour gap between last train and first train on the light rail, which means to me they must have dispatchers for that around the clock.

 

[CHamilton]

Denver Transit Hub Is a Test Case for Funding
Financial Backing Comes From Two Little-Known Federal-Loan Programs

DENVER—When this city takes the wraps off its redeveloped mass-transit hub in May, the project will bring hundreds of thousands of passengers downtown by connecting multiple rail and bus lines there.
Behind the scenes, Denver's revamped Union Station transit hub is venturing into unfamiliar territory: It is among the first such projects to draw much of its financial backing from two little-known federal-loan programs aimed mostly at other forms of transportation such as freight rail and highways....
The loans came from the Federal Railroad Administration's Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program, or RRIF, and the Transportation Department's Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA.
Typically, transit systems have financed expansion by relying heavily on special-district bonds or grants from a Federal Transit Administration program. But the bond market has been challenging for issuers, and Congress in 2012 required the FTA to rein in the amounts it grants each project.
So Denver turned to TIFIA and RRIF, and now other cities are wading in. San Francisco is using a $171 million loan from the TIFIA program to help finance the first phase of a $1.9 billion transit center connecting 11 transit systems downtown, and the city said it might pursue a RRIF loan for the second phase. In Florida, officials behind a planned Orlando-to-Miami rail system said they are considering using RRIF financing, which oversees light-rail and bus operations in the Denver area.

 

[getbent]

Figure while I'm here...

There is no good place for passenger drop off from Wynkoop. We got dropped at the spot reserved for the Amtrak bus and crossed the road. I imagine once construction is done it will be better.

Bathrooms are in the basement, which is creepy and cool at the same time. This really is a neat old station.

Waiting room is very small. Good practice for the roomette.

 

[afigg]

Article with a bunch of photos on the grand opening of the bus terminal concourse in Denver Union Station: Denver Union Station: Transit Center Grand Opening Part 2. One very nice looking bus terminal concourse with a lot of capacity.

 

[railiner]

Thanks so much for that link....I guess I'll have to 'slip over' to see it for myself. Looks very elaborate, but I have to see how the bus operation works....don't see any 'queue's' set up either inside or on the platform for passenger's to line up at each gate. I wonder what the overhead clearance is for buses....could high-level intercity coaches fit?

I wonder if they made some provision's for newstands or snack bars/concession's in the concourse, whatever....

Guess I'll just have to go see it.....

 

[ABDeh88]

I was there today checking it out! Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier or I would have taken more photos. I'll get a few pics up ASAP.

 

[eblkheart]

May I present, the Great Hall at Union Station. Damn pretty. This was taken today, I think.

(photo credit: Colorado Rail Association)

 

[railiner]

Awesome photo, thanks for posting!

The first thing that jumps out at me is the vast improvement in the 'chandeliers' over the former square flourescent fixtures.... The lobby looks very plush and comfortable, but too bad they didn't preserve at least some of the original benches////

 

[railiner]

I notice the name of the elegant "Terminal Bar", which is where the ticket office used to be. Sure is a lot fancier than the local 'gin-mill' called The Terminal Bar and Cafe a block up 17th Street was...

 

[neroden]

Another photo I found on Facebook

( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102657669700473&set=a.10100823446887693.2807130.6232754&type=1 )

shows that traditional "railroad station" benches are now set up on the other end of the station, nearer to the trackside door (behind the photographer, or maybe where the photographer is standing). These seem to have replaced the "Amtrak blue" chairs.

It looks like Denver Union Station is really open. Apparently there's still punchlist construction going on and the "grand opening" was postponed to July 26th. But it looks like the waiting room, the hotel, and all the restaurants are open as of yesterday, and it's just odds and ends being finished up.

(No news about what's in the basement; poor model train societies.)

 

[eblkheart]

If I have time later this week, I'll swing by and get pics for the group. Have to say though I am very very happy with the look.

 

[railiner]

Another photo I found on Facebook

( https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102657669700473&set=a.10100823446887693.2807130.6232754&type=1 )

shows that traditional "railroad station" benches are now set up on the other end of the station, nearer to the trackside door (behind the photographer, or maybe where the photographer is standing). These seem to have replaced the "Amtrak blue" chairs.

It looks like Denver Union Station is really open. Apparently there's still punchlist construction going on and the "grand opening" was postponed to July 26th. But it looks like the waiting room, the hotel, and all the restaurants are open as of yesterday, and it's just odds and ends being finished up.

(No news about what's in the basement; poor model train societies.)

Thanks for that shot. Those benches do resemble the original, but are not quite as substantial...the original were higher, had light fixture's built into the tops, and had radiator's in the space between the two sides....here's a link with some photo's of the old ones....https://www.google.com/search?q=denver+union+station+interior+photos&tbm=isch&imgil=l8JZGI7JcsUz1M%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcRQ2-12X1N00-ulyrcZqRWFc9EBCHymCwRWSnRhnXnW3S40LD_U%253B5184%253B3456%253BVXOdVk3axR9B4M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fretracingjackkerouac.com%25252F2011%25252F11%25252F25%25252Fwhats-all-this-browness-of-light-in-the-railroad-station%25252F&source=iu&usg=__80mk9JgfDgzj6raHaZgNjwd9gDo%3D&sa=X&ei=nX3DU5yPLYiRyASeqIKQCw&ved=0CCsQ9QEwBg&biw=1440&bih=813#facrc=_&imgdii=l8JZGI7JcsUz1M%3A%3Bg-ol3pNaUxhndM%3Bl8JZGI7JcsUz1M%3A&imgrc=l8JZGI7JcsUz1M%253A%3BVXOdVk3axR9B4M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fretracingjackkerouac.files.wordpress.com%252F2011%252F11%252Fimg_3668.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fretracingjackkerouac.com%252F2011%252F11%252F25%252Fwhats-all-this-browness-of-light-in-the-railroad-station%252F%3B5184%3B3456

 

[neroden]

Ah yes, I've seen that type in Sacramento. (Though the Sacramento ones have massive amounts of "Southern Pacific" decorative detail.) The in-bench radiators are pretty much obsolete tech now and expensive to run, which explains the replacement.