San Diego Santa Fe Depot is so close an the Trolley serves both. Wasted added stop to me.
Why did Amtrak Surfliner add Old Town as a passenger stop? San Diego Santa Fe Depot is so close and the Trolley serves both.
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Saves a few minutes for anyone who lives further north. I've seen quite a few people get on and off there. So it doesn't seem like much of a waste to me.
west point
Engineer
Good location to catch San Diego at Old Town light rail north and east.
Also nearby parking much better.
That would be bad for business travelers, it's right by downtown.
Ryan
Court Jester
Having staying in Old Town while in Sandy Eggo last week for work (and traveling there int he before times quite a bit), they're both useful stops. The trolley connecting them is slow.
It's like saying "Why does Amtrak stop at WAS and NCR, you can take the Metro between them". Perfectly "logical" looking at a map, completely impractical in practice.
It's like saying "Why does Amtrak stop at WAS and NCR, you can take the Metro between them". Perfectly "logical" looking at a map, completely impractical in practice.
Having a "suburban station" a short distance from the downtown terminal has always been a good idea for the convenience of those that start or end their trips from that side of town. Besides the little bit of time saved not having to ride the train into and out of downtown, a lot more time is saved not having to get to those downtown terminals. And the ability to provide ample and sometimes free parking is another big benefit. Historically, sometimes the suburban station served two or more lines from downtown that diverged from the suburban station, so it offered a 'shortcut' for those transferring between routes, even making connections possible that otherwise wouldn't be...
Exvalley
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Or Boston and Back Bay.
tricia
Conductor
And you can easily walk to/from a rental car office nearby. Or at least could do that pre-Covid.
Southbound Surfliner in 2019 had plenty disembarking at both San Diego stations. Having two or more stations in a large city is common worldwide. VIA trains to/from Toronto on the east side stop at either Oshawa on the edge of the Greater Toronto Area or at Guildwood (actually in Toronto) in addition to Union Station. To the west they also serve suburban stations. Others have addressed the common-sense reasons, like parking and population density. All these stations have multiple transit options -including other trains - that are much slower and/or less convenient.
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Even New York has New Rochelle, Yonkers, Newark, Newark Airport and Metropark.
When GCT was served 125th St. used to be a stop.
Currently there are proposals floating around to add a stop at Secaucus Junction for few select trains. There is a proposal for adding a stop around 125th St. on the Empire Connection, and a stop near Pelham on the Hell Gate Line, presumably at one of the 4 MNRR stations to be built on that line.
Larger the city more the number of peripheral stations and further out they may be, as the urban area spreads out further.
When GCT was served 125th St. used to be a stop.
Currently there are proposals floating around to add a stop at Secaucus Junction for few select trains. There is a proposal for adding a stop around 125th St. on the Empire Connection, and a stop near Pelham on the Hell Gate Line, presumably at one of the 4 MNRR stations to be built on that line.
Larger the city more the number of peripheral stations and further out they may be, as the urban area spreads out further.
Maybe they should add a stop around Ditmars Blvd. in Queens, where they cross high above the end of the 'N' subway line, and near Grand Central Parkway, for easier access to those driving in from Long Island. One problem with that is the height of the structure at that point, approach to the Hell Gate Bridge, so maybe a little further where it gets near ground level...
Here in Austin, we have the Amtrak Station downtown ( ex Mo-Pac/ Free Parking), 20 miles Northeas in Taylor is an unmanned Stop for the Eagles @ the Old Mo-Pac, now UP Region HQs,( Free Parking)and 30 miles South is the Unmanned Stop in San Marco's, ( No Parking)where there used to be a Katy and a Mopac Ststion on parallel lines through town.
Around here we call them the Central,North and South Austin stops, since traffic is so bad here and the Amtrak Station downtown is hard to find and hard to get too!( with Central Texas growing so fast , 1 and 1/2 Million People,and predicted to Double in 15 years)
Around here we call them the Central,North and South Austin stops, since traffic is so bad here and the Amtrak Station downtown is hard to find and hard to get too!( with Central Texas growing so fast , 1 and 1/2 Million People,and predicted to Double in 15 years)
Berlin has gradually developed a scheme thought up long ago in which long-distance and regional trains stop at an outer urban S-bahn station on their way to and from the new Hauptbahnhof. During my visits there I rarely used the Hbf as the South and East stations cut off time and crowding.
It can be confusing for newcomers as some of the outer urban stations are large. On an ICE train we took a detour for construction that delayed us by 15 minutes. The conductor kept apologizing in German, natürlich, that we couldn't make up the time. As we arrived at the outlying Berlin-Spandau station a group of young Chinese women scooped up their belongings and started to head for the door.
Luckily one of them was near me and spoke English. Sure enough, our delay put us into Spandau at the time we were due in the Hbf. They were going to be off at the wrong station. She and I were able to intercept them. Had they alighted at Spandau their experience could have ranged from future amusing anecdotes to miserable memories, depending on who they ran into in the station.
Spandau is way out on the left side of the map.
It can be confusing for newcomers as some of the outer urban stations are large. On an ICE train we took a detour for construction that delayed us by 15 minutes. The conductor kept apologizing in German, natürlich, that we couldn't make up the time. As we arrived at the outlying Berlin-Spandau station a group of young Chinese women scooped up their belongings and started to head for the door.
Luckily one of them was near me and spoke English. Sure enough, our delay put us into Spandau at the time we were due in the Hbf. They were going to be off at the wrong station. She and I were able to intercept them. Had they alighted at Spandau their experience could have ranged from future amusing anecdotes to miserable memories, depending on who they ran into in the station.
Spandau is way out on the left side of the map.
SubwayNut
Conductor
Having multiple stations in larger metro areas and even smaller ones can make sense.
There's a stop downtown for passengers wanting to leave the station on foot and a stop on the edge of town for people driving in from a larger catchment area. In the UK and Ireland these are known as "parkway" stations, designed for car access and not in Central places.
Nowhere is this more true than the non-downtown stations many Amtrak trains make (include some Acelas) at stations built in the 1960s through 1980s along the Northeast Corridor:
New Carrollton (Greenbelt originally until it was I believe moved and rebult) for DC
BWI Airport Rail Station for Baltimore
Metropark for Jersey suburbs of NYC
Route 128 for Boston
Chicago used to have one for trains going East (Western trains all stop at suburban Metra Stations) at Hammond-Whiting that until the early 2000s nearly all East Coast Long-distance trains stopped at before Northfolk Southern made Amtrak reduce service to because it was interfering with freight operations (the reduced Michigan Services schedule has suspended service to it.
There's a stop downtown for passengers wanting to leave the station on foot and a stop on the edge of town for people driving in from a larger catchment area. In the UK and Ireland these are known as "parkway" stations, designed for car access and not in Central places.
Nowhere is this more true than the non-downtown stations many Amtrak trains make (include some Acelas) at stations built in the 1960s through 1980s along the Northeast Corridor:
New Carrollton (Greenbelt originally until it was I believe moved and rebult) for DC
BWI Airport Rail Station for Baltimore
Metropark for Jersey suburbs of NYC
Route 128 for Boston
Chicago used to have one for trains going East (Western trains all stop at suburban Metra Stations) at Hammond-Whiting that until the early 2000s nearly all East Coast Long-distance trains stopped at before Northfolk Southern made Amtrak reduce service to because it was interfering with freight operations (the reduced Michigan Services schedule has suspended service to it.
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Ryan
Court Jester
The OG station there was "Capitol Beltway", and it was just a short bit further north of today's NCR. Greenbelt is over on the WMATA Green Line/CSX/Camden Line.
SubwayNut
Conductor
Whoops I mixed them up! Thanks.
west point
Engineer
Atlanta could really use 2 Suburban stations.. One NE at the Doraville Dekalb county MARTA station serving NE ATL Fulton county and Gwinnett county. Best Marta connection .Duluth might be better but no future Marta station planned. Best connection Second NW at Austell in Cobb county serving all Cobb and western Fulton county.
IMO these stops are not needed unless Amtrak makes the consists of the Crescent much longer. There is really an unmet potential as the Peachtree station location is as much as one hour from these locations. Not counting longer times further out. However the change in station time at ATL will reduce those travel times somewhat.
IMO these stops are not needed unless Amtrak makes the consists of the Crescent much longer. There is really an unmet potential as the Peachtree station location is as much as one hour from these locations. Not counting longer times further out. However the change in station time at ATL will reduce those travel times somewhat.
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SubwayNut
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A separate project will build a station accessable to Metro-North and LIRR trains in Sunnyside Yards. Construction won't begin until East Side Access is up and running.No new stops in Queens. All in the Bronx.
Adding stations in Queens on the Hell Gate Line would be good. I think the main issue is the engineering and community impact challenges since the viaduct is so high up.
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There is a design and space set aside for it in the ESA project but the actual construction of the Sunnyside station is not funded and it is not clear when and if it will be funded and by whom. The station is not in the Sunnyside Yard but on the main line alignment around where F interlocking is. It is present in the track diagram for the modified Harold and F track layout incorporating both ESA, Amtrak bypass tracks and modified Sunnyside Loop access resulting from ESA..
west point
Engineer
Am not completely familiar with this area. Instead of extending the third rail toward gate why not change the 25 Hz to 60 Hz toward Harold as far as possible ? Seems that would cost less and not need another DC substation that is on the plans ? I have no idea how far the 25 Hz for Sunnyside goes but IMO this extending the 60 Hz is in line with finally converting SSY to 60 Hz ?
jis
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Gate is as far as it is possible and it is already 60Hz upto Gate. Converting all of Harold Interlocking to 60 Hz is way more expensive than adding third rail on two tracks from Harold to Gate. Sunnyside is unlikely to get converted to 60Hz in the foreseeable future. There are more important things to spend funds on.
