East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations in Mi

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jrgerber
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by jrgerber »

December 23, 2016 Lansing State Journal article

Some Think Parking Too Pricey in East Lansing

Some Lansing, Michigan, region Amtrak passengers are grousing about the cost of parking at the East Lansing station.

Amtrak 4It used to be free to park there, but that has not been the case since Amtrak began using the new Capital Area Multimodal Gateway last January.

Capital Area Transportation Authority charges $10 a day with a $50 maximum charge per week. The facility also serves local and intercity buses.

A CATA spokesperson told the Lansing State Journal that the parking fees at the facility were similar to those of other Lansing area parking facilities.

The City of East Lansing charges $15 a day in garages and $20 in surface lots. The City of Lansing charges $10 a day in its parking garages and Capital Regional International Airport has a $12 a day fee in short-term parking lots and $10 a day in long-term lots.

But when compared with the cost of parking at other Amtrak stations in Michigan, East Lansing is pricey.

East Lansing is served by the Chicago-Port Huron, Michigan, Blue Water and parking is free at Amtrak stations on the route in Port Huron, Flint, Durand, Battle Creek, Dowagiac, Niles and New Buffalo.

There is no parking at the station in Lapeer and in Kalamazoo Amtrak passengers are directed to use a city lot that charges $9.70 a night on weekdays and $3 on Saturdays. Parking is free in the Kalamazoo city facility on Sunday.

On Amtrak’s Wolverine Service route in Michigan, parking is free in Dearborn and Ann Arbor.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the passenger carrier is a tenant in East Lansing and has no say over parking fees at the station.

Magliari said it is not unusual for parking at or near Amtrak stations to come with a fee.

Although parking used to be free at the former East Lansing Amtrak station, problems arose when Michigan State University students who were not traveling would park there.

The CATA spokewoman said Amtrak passengers who don’t want to pay parking fees can ride a bus home or get a lift from a taxi or Uber driver. Passengers can even have friends drop them off or pick them up.

The parking rate in East Lansing, though, must seem like a bargain to Chicago residents who pay $26 a day to park at Chicago Union

railrod1949
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by railrod1949 »

jrgerber wrote:December 23, 2016 Lansing State Journal article

Some Think Parking Too Pricey in East Lansing

Some Lansing, Michigan, region Amtrak passengers are grousing about the cost of parking at the East Lansing station.

Amtrak 4It used to be free to park there, but that has not been the case since Amtrak began using the new Capital Area Multimodal Gateway last January.

Capital Area Transportation Authority charges $10 a day with a $50 maximum charge per week. The facility also serves local and intercity buses.

A CATA spokesperson told the Lansing State Journal that the parking fees at the facility were similar to those of other Lansing area parking facilities.

The City of East Lansing charges $15 a day in garages and $20 in surface lots. The City of Lansing charges $10 a day in its parking garages and Capital Regional International Airport has a $12 a day fee in short-term parking lots and $10 a day in long-term lots.

But when compared with the cost of parking at other Amtrak stations in Michigan, East Lansing is pricey.

East Lansing is served by the Chicago-Port Huron, Michigan, Blue Water and parking is free at Amtrak stations on the route in Port Huron, Flint, Durand, Battle Creek, Dowagiac, Niles and New Buffalo.

There is no parking at the station in Lapeer and in Kalamazoo Amtrak passengers are directed to use a city lot that charges $9.70 a night on weekdays and $3 on Saturdays. Parking is free in the Kalamazoo city facility on Sunday.

On Amtrak’s Wolverine Service route in Michigan, parking is free in Dearborn and Ann Arbor.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the passenger carrier is a tenant in East Lansing and has no say over parking fees at the station.

Magliari said it is not unusual for parking at or near Amtrak stations to come with a fee.

Although parking used to be free at the former East Lansing Amtrak station, problems arose when Michigan State University students who were not traveling would park there.

The CATA spokewoman said Amtrak passengers who don’t want to pay parking fees can ride a bus home or get a lift from a taxi or Uber driver. Passengers can even have friends drop them off or pick them up.

The parking rate in East Lansing, though, must seem like a bargain to Chicago residents who pay $26 a day to park at Chicago Union
Parking is also free at the Amtrak station in Pontiac, MI.

Buster Manning
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by Buster Manning »

There is free parking at the Lapeer station....wondering how the "writer" of this story came up with their info for this story

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by GP30M4216 »

While E. Lansing has certainly been one of Amtrak's Michigan success stories (greatly increasing ridership, new, expanded and modern depot facility, etc.), it is understandable that this unstaffing is taking place. A single morning departure means most of the agent's time is spent when no passengers are due. The evening arrival requires little work other than helping passengers disembark and maybe calling for a taxi for older folks with no cell phones or Uber. Passengers for the Toledo connection Amtrak Thruway bus are ably handled by the bus driver; no train agent is needed.

However, if I had just built a new depot building with facilities for a station agent and 3 years later said agent is removed, I'd feel like I've wasted my money and been misled about Amtrak's intentions. Much how I'd be pissed if I was along the Lake Shore Limited route, knowing new Viewliner II diners with full kitchens were just delivered after years of delays, to find that Amtrak had just cut kitchen staff and was only going to use them to serve cold meals. From experience, I know the agent on duty at the Dearborn Station answers quite a few questions in addition to helping with boarding/alighting and other services. Nothing has the feeling of emptiness like a dark ticket window with a crappy hand-written "Closed" sign feebly stuck to the window. Except perhaps a boarded up depot building beside a lonely platform. It's too bad agents can't tag team to keep stations like EL where there is only one meaningful train departure per day open during the 1-2 hours when needed open. For example, agent starts their morning at EL, then finishes their shift at Battle Creek (or Jackson, if it were still open).

YES, a knowledgeable caretaker can be an asset. They can answer some questions like "how much luggage can I bring?", "which end is business class?", "where's the snack car?", etc., but many people especially on morning Chicago-bound trains are making connections to other Amtrak services, and many are first-time users.

I thought Port Huron had been fairly recently de-staffed (along with Jackson, Niles, and Flint, recently)? If so, this leaves Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Detroit, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo as staffed ticket windows.

As for the paid parking at EL, yeah, it's annoying. Take a CATA bus there and no parking to deal with.

jrgerber
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by jrgerber »

As relates to the parking issue lets remember that CATA didn't put one dime to build this facility it came out of Mr. and Mr's taxpayer's state and federal taxes. For local county residents that actually live here they pay a milleage to support CATA's operations which should include the intermodal facility that didn't cost CATA a dime to build. So I assume CATA charges Amtrak as tenant and charges for Amtrak passengers for parking. Nice triple dipping on CATAs part. At least one would think CATA could either (1) drop Amtrak's rent to fund a full time Amtrak agent or (2) devote some of the parking charges to support a full time Amtrak agent. At least Mr and Mr's taxpayer would get something in return for the parking fees while they take the train.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by MiddleMI »

There you go again.

It's not as if CATA is responsible for the maintenance of the property or anything.

Seriously, I'll be glad when you're done complaining about the parking situation. It's a station that is and has long served students, and it's working out for them just fine. You're hard-up on long-term parking costs; call a cab, and uber, take the bus, have a friend drop you off, whatever. Sorry.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by jrgerber »

CATA was run with questionable accounting practice so why give me them more of the public money via parking fee?
Let CATA pay station maintenance out the property tax milleage they already recieve.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by PatAzo »

NS3322 wrote:How do you all feel about this?
What is the essential need for an agent? I worked in Germany last year and watched trains stop hourly in each direction at an unattended station. I've ridden Metra to and from unattended stations. Nice to have sure but essential to the service no.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by Schteinkuh »

SD80MAC wrote:IIRC East Lansing is also a shared stop with Greyhound.
Yeah, it's not been noted here that Greyhound and other bus lines stop here ALL the time.
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by Stinger4me »

Throwing money at public institutions makes as much sense as handing drugs to drug addicts, alcohol to alcoholics and $$$ to prostitures. There is no point to it and you will see little or no return for your efforts. Maybe MSU can use the money for the Nasser, Engler fiasco. Just my $.02

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by MiddleMI »

Schteinkuh wrote:
SD80MAC wrote:IIRC East Lansing is also a shared stop with Greyhound.
Yeah, it's not been noted here that Greyhound and other bus lines stop here ALL the time.
Yeah, it's literally called the Capital Area Multimodal Gateway Center. It has always been advertised that this isn't just a train station but a transportation center. Greyhound, Amtrak Thruway, and Indian Trails stop there multiple times a day.

BTW, spare us the tired, lazy and ignorant anti-public bull. There are things we do together and thinsg we do apart. Transit is something that can (and should) be done both ways.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by Saturnalia »

MiddleMI wrote:BTW, spare us the tired, lazy and ignorant anti-public bull.
#TaxationIsTheft

Really though, all of this should be a local issue. If all y'all wanna throw down, keep it in Lansing. :lol:

...Grand Rapids has our own transportation problems... #backupmove :roll:
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by jrgerber »

Going back to the original beginning post, I haven't heard clear explanations from either Amtrak or MDOT as to taking the manned station to a caretaker status. Using the MDOT criteria of 40,000 boardings and Ann Arbor as similar college community one would think East Lansing still should have a station agent. I bring parking fees into it because if its a revenue problem the Amtrak passengers are paying more to park to take the train and that revenue could be used to find an agent or lower Amtrak's rent as a tenant to fund the agent. To the poster who brought Germany into the discussion, heck yes I be all for removing all Amtrak station agents if we could in return get the same quality of trains and passenger service here in America as they do in Germany. to the poster who said don't give government agencies more revenue heck yes especially if you read the Lansing State Journal and read about all the audits and findings regarding CATA and what the former CEO of CATA was up to, lets say if these types of things were done in a private business the matter would have been referred to law enforcement. Why yes as a resident of the greater Lansing area it hasn't gone unnoticed to me that Greyhound and Indian Trails and their $1 per year state funded buses use the terminal as they did the former Amtrak crackerbox. One would assume although I don't know that Greyhound and Indian Trails and Amtrak as CATA tenants pay some type of lease payments for maintenance and use of the station. This is on top of the property tax milleage Greater Lansing residents pay to support CATA's operations which I imagine includes operation and maintenance of the new facility paid by state and federal tax dollars. Of course as property tax values rise so will CATA's "take" from the millage. Plenty of $$$ in my opinion to fund the new facility without charging for parking. In fact when passenger pushed back on paying for parking here's what the CATA spokesperson said in a December 20, 2016 Lansing State Journal article:

Magliardi said Amtrak doesn’t set the parking fees. It’s a tenant at the East Lansing station. But he said parking fees do exist at stations across the country

“It is not unusual, and the fact is it’s a much better facility,” than the old one, he said of the East Lansing station.

Robison said the parking lot is about two-thirds full in general but at capacity during certain times of the year. She said, in the past, the free parking was used by students and others who weren’t traveling. The lot was frequently full.

“It precluded transit customers from conveniently accessing the parking lot and transit services,” she said in an email.

Please note she didn't say the parking revenue was necessary for either the operation or maintenance of the facility.

Both explanations are lame, most of the time there was plenty of parking at the old station except for holidays and they had an overflow lot. Those students who were parked there without a parking pass were ticketed or towed by MSU police. Well, Magliardi it is unusual in Michigan. Yes it a better facility but why should a agency that didn't spend a dime to build the facility be able to charge for parking at the facility?

Here's a link for the entire article:

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/sto ... /95646416/

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by PatAzo »

Maybe parking can have it's own thread. It's about killed this one.

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by Saturnalia »

jrgerber wrote:Using the MDOT criteria of 40,000 boardings and Ann Arbor as similar college community one would think East Lansing still should have a station agent.
Ultimately if this is even the policy, those are always guidelines and subject to change. Just because that's the way it has been, doesn't mean that's the way it is always going to be.

Also if you think parking in Lansing is bad, I suggest you go try to park in Chicago. Have fun, with that.
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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

Unread post by NS3322 »

Saturnalia wrote:Also if you think parking in Lansing is bad, I suggest you go try to park in Chicago. Have fun, with that.
It's not bad on Sunday. :lol:

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Re: East Lansing to join list of unstaffed Amtrak stations i

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