Trip Report to Grand Junction

[Willbridge]

I-70 tunnel entrance from train near Glenwood Springs. Got to see the massive backups on the freeway due to landslide as we rode by on outgoing trip. This pic was from return.

One could spend hours looking at the ever changing scenery.
That "thing" outside and at the edge of the steep decline towards the water below shows, in fact, the helmet and face of a rail worker near the edge of the track. There were 3 of them within a few feet of the track and each other.

Denver has to be organized due to the commuter train activity, especially on the A-Line to Denver International Airport. Before the pandemic our ColoRail holiday volunteers must have all had the experience of people heading for "the train" at DUS. Rail passengers saw airport travelers with luggage pushing and shoving onto the A-Liners and ignored signage. Air travelers have been known to wait in the long coach queue for the CZ. If Amtrak passengers are expecting to find Car 631 they're less likely to end up at the airport.

The Grand Junction meal stop is wonderful but it's hard to replicate. Everything is in its favor and it has a good operator. It's similar to the reasons that Portland has a station newsstand, snack bar and fine restaurant and Seattle does not. [Conflict of interest notice: a school days friend sometimes is the jazz keyboardist in the restaurant.]

 

[MikefromCrete]

View attachment 25396 This is what they had in Denver. It's our car number. Makes it so easy for a passenger to figure out where to go but why is Amtrak unable to have signs like these at all major stations (at the very least), or better yet, use electronic ones that can be changed? Such incompetence!
View attachment 25397 View attachment 25398Store attached to Grand Junction Amtrak station. Run by a restaurant a few feet away. They had EVERYTHING you can imagine you'd need at reasonable prices. Refrigerated, packaged fresh veggies to fresh fruit to drinks to medical stuff to sugar-free "sweets" and more. So sad they couldn't do that in more places if they could do it in a town with 2 trains a day.

The store must get a lot of local business. I can't imagine how they could survive on passengers from two trains a day.

 

[neroden]

Note that right after we arrived, while we were waiting for a redcap, the LSL pulled in on the same platform so now we had lots of passengers from both trains that needed assistance. Then someone came by and told us all that it would be a long wait because there was only one redcap available.

I complained about this understaffing several years ago. It's an ADA violation. It unduly discriminates against people with difficulty walking and standing for long periods -- particularly since there are no seats on the Chicago platforms to wait for the Red Cap!

I am disturbed that Amtrak STILL has not fixed it.

 

[Willbridge]

The store must get a lot of local business. I can't imagine how they could survive on passengers from two trains a day.

That's one of the secrets in keeping that service in Grand Junction and in Portland. Ditto with a lot of European station convenience stores and restaurants.