Saint Paul Union Depot

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
mulad
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 5th, 2012, 5:12 pm

Local railroad photographer Steve Glischinski was able to get a preview of the waiting room. This first shot and a few others I've seen from news reports are pretty striking because of the polished floor -- it had only been seen in early and intermediate stages of refurbishment during tours, and hadn't been polished. Seems to add another dimension to the space, at least in pictures.

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Before and after at SPUD by steve55126, on Flickr

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SPUD Amtrak gate by steve55126, on Flickr

seanrichardryan
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby seanrichardryan » December 6th, 2012, 8:56 am

Is that an unattended bag in the corner? Security!
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

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Andrew_F
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Andrew_F » December 6th, 2012, 12:14 pm

If you see something, say something.



I see poor choices in furniture.

mattaudio
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mattaudio » December 6th, 2012, 12:28 pm

I see a lack of intercity trains.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Yourpalborno » December 6th, 2012, 3:37 pm

Those chairs are UGLY! No wooden benches?

ECtransplant
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby ECtransplant » December 6th, 2012, 4:22 pm

Those chairs are UGLY! No wooden benches?
I like the ones on the right a lot more than the colored ones on the left

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Andrew_F
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Andrew_F » December 7th, 2012, 2:16 am

The colored ones are just out of place in the depot. The ones on the right are just plain ugly. I don't think anyone should ever build a piece of furniture like that. On one hand you have an overly simplistic ikea bench, on the other little loopy armrests, with no visual continuity between the two, yet with no visual separation either. Make the vertical stuff match, or make something strongly horizontal between the two. Either one, but the way it is is just visually off-putting.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 7th, 2012, 9:35 am

I bet someone was just working with a standard interior design palette there -- green and orange tones like that were used at the office for my last job, but most of the walls were kind of tan or yellow, partway in between the walls and ceiling in the waiting room.

One commenter on the Trains news wire article on the depot mentioned that he liked the new furniture:
Very handsome! You can almost hear the old arrival and departure announcements. I like the way the preservation designers kept the 1920s appearance but with contemporary furniture. (Remember those ugly, hard "church pew" waiting room benches across the US? How did they ever become railroad station furniture in the first place?)
Yeah, how did those become the standard? Well, I suppose this seating should really be compared with what's currently being used for seating at Midway station and the bus stations around town. Folks should probably just be happy that there's padding...

Anyway, that article also had some notes about the cost breakdown for the $243 million budget:
  • $124.3 million came from "transit and federal stimulus funds".
  • $13.7 million came from state bonding.
  • Remainder of the budget ($105 million) came from Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority.
  • Construction and restoration (just of the building?) was $148 million.
  • $95 million went into "acquisition, environmental work, railroad improvements, and site improvements".
The article mentions that Amtrak is ready to move from Midway as soon as the platform tracks are connected -- the main negotiations at this point involve Canadian Pacific, Union Pacific, and BNSF. I'm not sure if BNSF is directly affected, so I presume they're involved because UP and CP may have to reroute trains as switches get spliced into the track.

Finance & Commerce had a bunch of interesting stats as well:

http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/in- ... plexities/

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 7th, 2012, 10:42 am

I did made a crop of and did a little tweaking of this aerial image from 1923 which shows the Union Depot under construction:
saint-paul-union-depot-1923.jpg

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spectre000
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby spectre000 » December 8th, 2012, 1:35 pm

A few pictures from the opening today. I thought there be a crowd, but had no idea it'd be soooo packed. What a turnout!

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stp1980
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby stp1980 » December 8th, 2012, 2:49 pm

hell of an opening! made me very proud to be from saint paul and the crowd today was huge!!!!

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 8th, 2012, 11:23 pm

I was pleasantly surprised by the crowds, so hopefully that means good things for the future. It reminded me a bit of the crowds at the Hiawatha Line opening in 2004.

Nobody told me that Mystic Lake and Treasure Island buses would be operating on opening day! I can understand why, of course. But for some reason, there was a Treasure Island schedule display that seemed to have more accurate departure times than the Metro Transit system did (only route 21 was showing up even though route 54 buses were showing up, and the 65 should go there too). When the Jefferson Lines information screen was displayed, they showed a date of January 14, 2013 for the start of service.

There were some interactive touchscreens showing maps of the building and downtown Saint Paul (including a bus system map as well as another screen with restaurants and hotels marked out), though I thought I only saw them in the Amtrak/Jefferson Lines circulation tower.

I wandered into the parking area under the train deck, which is kind of a silly thing, but it's more interesting than an average parking lot... I think I found part of the path that Amtrak's baggage handlers will take to bring items between the train and the retail space (which includes a small luggage carousel). There are also two EV chargers, in addition to the two next to the depot headhouse on Wacouta Street.

The bike trail along the north edge of the train deck doesn't go very far yet -- there's a fence blocking the way just on the east end of the bridge over the driveway ramp at Broadway Street. It'll be blocked at least for a while as Lafayette Bridge construction continues. I'm not sure where the trail is supposed to end up, though -- my guess is that they'll try to get it to extend to 4th Street, where the road narrows down to a single lane to squeeze a bike path under the short rail bridges at the north end of the Division Street wye.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Tcmetro » December 8th, 2012, 11:55 pm

Route 54 only serves Union Depot on Weekdays. It was probably a special service extension for opening day.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 9th, 2012, 12:48 pm

Yeah, you're probably right about that. Ugh, that's one of my big issues with Metro Transit, though -- routes can change at certain times of day or certain days of the week, even if they consistently show the same route number and terminal letter (if there is one, which there isn't for the 54). I had poked at the schedule page for the 54 a couple of days ago, but it wasn't clear on the issue -- I believe the schedule timepoint for the Union Depot was missing on both weekday and Saturday/Sunday pages. There might be some bugs in the preview mode I was viewing it in at the time.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Wedgeguy » December 9th, 2012, 2:15 pm

I was to the openhouse yesterday also. I think that eventually when they get routes figured out and the Amtrak running thru there it will make things happen down there. The place was packed with people looking at the place. They did a very good job at getting it ready for it's new calling.

I was amazed by the number of people that I saw both in the Depot and those that took the opportunity to check out the Lowertown. About noon we stopped into the Bulldog for lunch and I asked the bartender if this was a typical Saturdday and he said no. Asked what was going on. I feel if this is any indication of what the baseball will do for the businesses in lowertown then it will be a boom for them.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby David Greene » December 9th, 2012, 4:31 pm

As others have said, the crowd was MUCH larger than I expected. We only spent about an hour there but we had a great time. A number of people were interested in the historic stairway, which I found encouraging.

For me the most disappointing part of the design is the location of the ticketing. I understand why it's at the Kellogg entrance but that's very inconvenient for anyone coming in through the front door or via the skyway. Are there plans to have additional ticketing areas?

We'd been on one of the construction tours so it was nice to see things polished off. I particularly like the retrofit of the kiosks with modern lighted signage and big LCD screens. At least I assume they're refits and not new wood construction.

The whole thing was very tastefully done, bringing just the right amount of modern amenities to a historic space. Kudos!

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Le Sueur
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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Le Sueur » December 10th, 2012, 1:05 am

Great to see the place open and packed! And the buses out on the deck give a new realistic perspective.

Thanks for the pics Mulad. Love the guy sitting reading the paper in the last pic. Maybe he's waiting for a train? :)

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mulad » December 10th, 2012, 6:43 am

Make that spectre000 -- I did bring my camera along, but I haven't posted any pictures yet.

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby Didier » December 10th, 2012, 12:41 pm

It's interesting to note that the people in the pictures appear to be predominantly older and white. Assuming that the picture accurately reflected the group, does that reflect the expected clientele of Union Depot?

I have no idea what the dynamic for bus transit is like in downtown St. Paul, so I'm curious if the large crowd is a reflection on what's to come or if it was more of a nostalgia group?

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Re: Saint Paul Union Depot

Postby mullen » December 10th, 2012, 12:50 pm

i think it was just a lot of people who love rail and that appreciate the renovation of this great building. it was a fun day to experience this building coming to life again.

i have no idea as to what the future holds. certainly the intentions are wonderful but very long term and speculative.


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