Watching the new station go up little by little each day, it occurs to me that the structure accross from the metrolink platform sure looks eerily like . . . a trailer! A big steel framed double wide. Is it intentional irony? I mostly care about how the station will function, but the look makes me chuckle.
Nora wrote:Watching the new station go up little by little each day, it occurs to me that the structure accross from the metrolink platform sure looks eerily like . . . a trailer! A big steel framed double wide. Is it intentional irony? I mostly care about how the station will function, but the look makes me chuckle.
A trailer IS transportation.
The new Bill Clinton Presidential Library kind of looks like a trailer, too. And if Hilary becomes the next president, they'll make it a doublewide.
Gary Kreie wrote:The new Bill Clinton Presidential Library kind of looks like a trailer, too. And if Hilary becomes the next president, they'll make it a doublewide.
I don't know if this has been covered or not, but...weren't the arguments against Union Station being used as a viable train station again was because trains would have to back in or out of the station?
So the designers take that information and design a station that trains have to back in or out of. I guess I don't get it. Someone help me understand this.
Trains will not have to back into the new Multi-modal station. The station platforms are of a pull-through design. The train will come in from one direction,east from chicago for instance, and continue in the same direction to the next destination.
I am mistaken. Sorry and thanks for the explanation. From the design it looks as if the portion that backs up to the city parking lot and the Metro stop are the "ends of the line".
No need for an apology, the design is by far not the easiest to navigate, due largley to the constraints of the highway above. If I am understanding you correctly, I believe you are mistaking the Greyhound bus terminal and taxi stand for the rail platform. The trains will arrive and depart at the two platforms at the south of the building served by the escalators. The elevated walkway serves as a bridge over the tracks eliminating the at-grade pedestrian crossing that there is at the current station.
Anybody know whether or not the station is going to have raised platforms to facilitate level boarding of Amtrak trains? Or will it remain necessary to climb huge steps to board each train from ground level?
I've been by this several times on MetroLink and can't make heads or tails of the design. It looks like it will be a whole lotta space for food vendors.
My thinking all along was that it would tie in MetroLink and MetroBus also but I've been mistaken.
How on earth is this going to be anything more than a $35 million bus station (and looking like one in 5 years)?
The intercity bus concourse doubles as a sheltered pedestrian concourse for walking between the Civic Center MetroLink station and the Multi-Modal Center. The central lobby will have shared ticketing areas, restrooms and concessions for both the intercity bus concourse on the center's north, as well as the new concourse to Amtrak trains on the center's south. The pedestrian connection to intracity buses, or MetroBus, will remain as it is today, an outdoor walkway across and up from the Civic Center MetroLink station to the 14th/Spruce transfer center.
If you ask me, the Civic Center Metrolink and Metrobus station is much more deserving of a floating glass roof than the airport. Let's take that design and adapt it to this site connecting the Metrolink and Amtrack stations
As one transit patron who frequently uses the Civic Center Metrobus and Metrolink Station, the new Multi modal center will really be quite usable. The restroom and food court are very close to the train station and not much further from the Metrobus facility.
This entire project was reworked over the past five years to get a budget which was unfundable. Previously this project was going nowhere. We now have a beneficial project that will actually happen.
The Metrobus facility was actually constructed as the first as part of the full multimodal entire project. The original design that I saw had Spruce Street extended over the Metrolink Station to the west. There was no Metrobus facility, but the extended Spruce had space for Metrobuses on the side of the bridge over the station. Buses would sit on a 5 % grade. It was not very workable and really a terrible message to bus riders. We now have 2,700 daily bus boardings at or adjacent to the Civic Center Station on a weekday. That's comparable ridership to many downtown Metrolink Stations.
The designer of the current Metrobus facility also did the structure now being constructed. The city pulled Metro's portion out of the Amtrak Station package allowing Metro obtain a facility several years before the Multimodal project was done and negotiated with AMTRAK, MODOT, and Greyhound. I think the previous project (pre-redesign) would have cost $50 million. The city didn't have half that money.
Early ideas of the design did consider a pedestrian bridge crossing from the Metrobus facility to the Metrolink Station and the Multimodal center. I think the cost was pretty much out of sight and not a very practical design. You would have had to fit elevators and stairs in between the catenary poles. The current grade crossing and sidewalk and ramp approach, while requiring more walking, certainly is much more practical.
Perhaps if someone has a $1 million or more dollars, you could cover the walkway up to the train station and continue it up the stairs to the Bus facility. I will carry an umbrella until then.
I, for one, am thankful that there will now be a downtown Metrolink Station & Metrobus center adjacent to this intercity transportation hub with accessible rest rooms and food businesses very close by.
I wonder how much attention the designers gave to the possibility of cars flying off of Hwy. 40 into the new terminal building. Has that ever happened on the elevated stretch of 40? I don't remember it if it has, but it seems a possibility.
^I thought about that too, but the truth of the matter is.....cars crash through buildings all of the time. I've seen footage of cars and trucks crashing through stores and businesses from parking spaces close to buildings.
The good thing is that I don't recall any cars falling from the highway in that area - ever.
Someone help me understand this.
