Staffed stations with early morning hours

[BCL]

With the discussion of train times at Elyria, I was thinking of staffed stations where the only trains would be coming in while most people were sleeping. I randomly looked up a station on the CZ (Lincoln, NE) and found out that it's open from 11 PM to 6:30 AM. Omaha seems to be 9:30 PM to 6:30 AM. Any others like those?

I haven't really been to a station like that. All the ones around where I live might have hours from maybe 5 AM to 11 PM. Must be tough for the employees who only work a swing shift.

 

[amtkstn]

My home station of Newton Kansas has hours Mon-Fri from 12 AM to 8 AM to serve both the eastbound and westbound Southwest Chief. It is the station in Kansas with the most boarding due to being close to Wichita. It also serves the area north and passenger that live in Oklahoma. One agent does takes care of the station during those times during the week. On the weekend a caretaker open up the station for a few hours when the trains come in and close up when the last train leaves.

 

[JayPea]

The ticket office hours at Spokane are from 10PM to 5:30 AM. I have been there waiting to board a several-hours-late EB to Seattle and on that occasion, the EB didn't depart from Spokane until after 8 and Portland a few minutes later. The office stayed open until then on that occasion. The station itself is open 24-7; the building is home to Greyhound and other intercity bus services as well.

 

[Train2104]

How does staffing work when it's open 1 shift a day 7 days a week and the next staffed station is hundreds of miles away? Can't have one person work 7 days a week, 2 people would lead to part time jobs unless they have 2 people in the office

 

[A Voice]

With only overnight trains, Columbia, South Carolina also keeps nighttime hours: 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

 

[BCL]

How does staffing work when it's open 1 shift a day 7 days a week and the next staffed station is hundreds of miles away? Can't have one person work 7 days a week, 2 people would lead to part time jobs unless they have 2 people in the office

I suppose they can have some station agents on call like they have conductors and engineers? Or perhaps they can ship someone in and out via the train and put them up in hotel rooms? That's how they handle road personnel. However, I've asked a station agent how he got a particular assignment, and he said they periodically send out requests for assignments and the personnel place bids for particular locations. However, I'm guessing there are popular locations as well as less popular ones, and seniority likely wins out. Even so, people get sick or injured, and there has to be a means to have substitutes - even far away from a hub city.

I looked up Newton, KS, and they list the station as closed on weekends. So perhaps a caretaker opens the waiting room, but there won't be any services.

 

[Bob Dylan]

San Antonio, a staffed Station, is open from 9PM-8AM 7 days a week to serve 4 Trains, The Daily Texas Eagles #21/#22 and the three times a week Sunset Ltd. #1/#2.

There are two agents on duty, plus the switching crews but I'm not sure how the work schedule is set up for the crews?

 

[EB_OBS]

How does staffing work when it's open 1 shift a day 7 days a week and the next staffed station is hundreds of miles away? Can't have one person work 7 days a week, 2 people would lead to part time jobs unless they have 2 people in the office

Spokane has a Station Agent, Customer Server Agent, Relief Agent, a baggage person and one extra board position. There is usually three employees working some nights four.

 

[greatcats]

Many years ago I drove into Rugby, ND and visited the station agent, whose name was Clint Davis, who I am sure is now long retired if he is still around. He worked an eight hour day Monday through Friday, and four hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday. He seemed quite content, and drove about 50 miles from Bottineau, a small town up on the Canadian border. I see that station is now open seven days a week, three hours in the am and three in the pm. Probably a relief person comes over from Minot. Grand Forks was recently closed. I can't speak for how they handle all these remote locations.

Here in Flagstaff our ticket office is open from 3:30 am to 10:45 pm. ( For those skeptics, remember that this is a pretty busy university town. ) There are four employees who work here, four ten hour shifts, Monday through Thursday and Thursday through Sunday. On Thursday there are two on duty and one may be called in extra if there is a heavy load of baggage to handle. There was an extra list person until not too long ago who was based out of Maricopa. I only met him once. That job was abolished recently.

 

[MSP_Train_Hopper]

Rugby is only staffed by one person - I believe his name is Duane. He works all the shifts that the ticket office is open, but the office is closed each week from the end of his AM shift on Friday to the start of the PM shift on Sunday. Friday PM, all day Saturday and Sunday AM the station is opened and closed by a caretaker.

There is no relief agent brought in when he takes vacation or other time off. When I was visiting my in-laws out there last year he was on vacation and the ticket office was closed - just had the depot maintained by a caretaker during that time.

 

[xyzzy]

Greenville, SC is another (9:30 pm - 7:30 am). It would take some effort to identify all of them, but I suspect there are many.

So the next question: what's the smallest city whose station is open 24x7? Suburbs of large cities don't count. For example there is Rocky Mount, NC, population about 60,000.

 

[MARC Rider]

Greenville, SC is another (9:30 pm - 7:30 am). It would take some effort to identify all of them, but I suspect there are many.

So the next question: what's the smallest city whose station is open 24x7? Suburbs of large cities don't count. For example there is Rocky Mount, NC, population about 60,000.

You don't have to be a small town to have a station that closes at some time during a 24 hr period. Even a busy place like Baltimore is closed from 1:30 AM to 3 AM. (and the baggage desk doesn't open until 6 AM.)

 

[BCL]

Greenville, SC is another (9:30 pm - 7:30 am). It would take some effort to identify all of them, but I suspect there are many.

So the next question: what's the smallest city whose station is open 24x7? Suburbs of large cities don't count. For example there is Rocky Mount, NC, population about 60,000.

You don't have to be a small town to have a station that closes at some time during a 24 hr period. Even a busy place like Baltimore is closed from 1:30 AM to 3 AM. (and the baggage desk doesn't open until 6 AM.)

However, that post was talking about 24 hour stations. There aren't that many, and Rocky Mount has one. Most are the big city stations like NYP or LAX. I noticed that Greensboro, NC has a 24 hour station. I don't know how that gets justified unless there are trains arriving at all hours.

My original idea of this thread was stations that don't operate during daytime due to train schedules.

 

[xyzzy]

Greensboro sees 8 trains a day... 12:22 am, 3:37, 8:18, 8:35, 1:18 pm, 1:32, 6:32, and 6:47 (the last of which, the southbound Carolinian, is notoriously late).

 

[BCL]

I got curious if there were any other trains on the same routes and found High Point, NC. Not a staffed station per se, but with a waiting room apparently open in three shifts.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=am/am2Station/Station_Page&code=HPT

Makes me wonder why they don't just keep the waiting room open 24 hours.

 

[gaspeamtrak]

Buffalo, NY (Depew) is open 24/7 with at least 2 agents + more maybe when I have used it. Last time I used it in April. Can any of our Buffalo friends confirm this???

 

[neroden]

Cleveland is open 11 PM to 9:30 AM, because CL and LSL only go through in the wee hours.

Buffalo and Syracuse are open 24/7, Rochester is only closed 1 AM to 5 AM, because Empire Service has four trains a day each way.

 

[Montreal Ltd]

Fargo, train 7 at 0330, train 8 at 0213 and two hours late this am. (I am just east of Portage WI right now). Agent and baggage handler. Do not remember exact hours.

 

[nshvlcat]

Memphis is open from

5:45 am until 11 pm.

 

[BCL]

Memphis is open from

5:45 am until 11 pm.

That wasn't quite what I was thinking of. Those are similar hours to the stations around here. I was really thinking of stations that are open only at late night hours due to train schedules. I figured it must be tough when a station pretty much only has a graveyard shift.

 

[Montreal Ltd]

Fargo midnight to 8am.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

San Antonio, a staffed Station, is open from 9PM-8AM 7 days a week to serve 4 Trains, The Daily Texas Eagles #21/#22 and the three times a week Sunset Ltd. #1/#2. There are two agents on duty, plus the switching crews but I'm not sure how the work schedule is set up for the crews?

According to Amtrak.com SAS is open from 9:15 until midnight. Then it reopens again from 1:00AM until 7:00AM. The Quick-Track apparently opens fifteen minutes earlier, closes fifteen minutes later, and doesn't need a one hour break at midnight.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The Station in SAS is Open during the Agents 12-1am "break" Chris, but the metal grill is down on the ticket counter with all other facilities accessible.

Usually the agents are outside by the baggage area if the weather is nice, in the crew room @ the end of the Station. If it isn't.

There is also a Rent-a-Cop now that patrols the outside areas during Station Hours.

 

[The Journalist]

Salt Lake City is open 10 PM-5:15 AM, more or less the opposite of a "normal" work shift.

 

[PVD]

Flagstaff opens at 3:15 in the morning for the Eastbound, closes after the Westbound arrives. (Station is scheduled to close @ 10:45P, but has checked baggage so someone needs to be there) My last trip through it had one agent who did both tickets and baggage.