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mahatmakanejeeves

(61,659 posts)
Wed Jul 15, 2015, 10:59 AM Jul 2015

These Are the Saddest Amtrak Stations in America

Hat tip, the Virginia RailFan Discussion Yahoo! group

These Are the Saddest Amtrak Stations in America

Some of the nation’s train stations don’t make a great impression. That won’t change until Congress truly funds passenger rail.

Kriston Capps | @kristoncapps | Jul 8, 2015

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Where nobody’s waiting for a train. Seriously, no one. Welp. Time for a drink.

Train stations in America span all the styles of architecture this nation has to offer. There’s the the gorgeous Italianate train station in Jackson, Michigan. The Amtrak station in Raton, New Mexico, is a beautiful example of Mission Revival. Even the humble lil’ train station in Mineola, Texas, has got some flair. Whatever you might think about Orlando’s train station, it no doubt looks historic.

The stations I want to talk about are not those train stations. These are not the Art Deco transit hubs that look like vintage monuments to the future, or the Spanish Colonial stations that summon visions of desperados waiting for a train.* These are the other train stations—the ones that make you wish you’d left the house a little later so you’d have to spend that much less time waiting at the station.



Eric Brasure ‎@ericbrasure

Here is the Amtrak station in Detroit, which appears to be a disused Sizzler restaurant.

The station that shall not be named



The original façade of the you-know-which station. (Library of Congress)

Yes, I didn't have to ask which station that was. What a tragedy that it was torn down.

*
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These Are the Saddest Amtrak Stations in America (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Jul 2015 OP
yeah, sometime around 1978 we decided "fuck, let's fire all the architects and designers" (pic-heavy MisterP Jul 2015 #1

MisterP

(23,730 posts)
1. yeah, sometime around 1978 we decided "fuck, let's fire all the architects and designers" (pic-heavy
Wed Jul 15, 2015, 01:33 PM
Jul 2015

Detroit then:


Buffalo then:


St. Louis then:


Cincy then:


Louisville then:


maybe HSR in the next few decades to replace short-hop flights can save us from poo architecture, but even half of CA would rather piss its pants or get lost in the CGItis daydreams of some LaRouchites than have proven, safe, reliable, somewhat profitable service

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