posted
VP Biden's pride and joy is well into its complete restoration. On our recent Cardinal trip we had a chance to see the progress. First, don't take a train from Wilmington until its completed - scheduled for the end of the year.
There is a temporary station, if you can call it that, built of plywood under one of the highway overpasses. Not nice. But it does give you access to all tracks. Track one, nearest the station, has recently been completed. Extremely well done. There is a high level platform at one end with the older lower level boarding at the other. I think that will be used for SEPTA trains. We used this service after dropping our car off at PHL then the airport train to 30th st and the local to Wilmington. All the architectural details have been preserved and enhanced.
The high level center platform is so far little changed, except new paint (it has access to tracks 2 and 3). Work has begun on the platform for track 3. A new parking garage has been nicely blended in behind the station, with the towers for the stairs similar in design to the towers on the station. I'll be anxious to go back to see what they do with the interior of the station when it's completed.
While not nearly as impressive or grand as 30th st., it is a good choice for boarding trains. Conveniently placed benches on the platform allow for good viewing of all trains and easy boarding for the Cardinal (or Silver service trains). No waiting in a long line at the top of the stairs to charge down the escalator for a good seat.
Very pleasant on a nice summer day. Your tax dollars at work.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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I was last in the Wilmington station in about 1993 or 94....I forget the date but I remember the circumstance. I was in grad school at the University of Maryland and Amtrak was testing a German ICE trainset in revenue service.
I wanted to sample the ICE and, being on a graduate student budget, DC to Wilmington was as far as I could afford to go on the Metroliner priced ICE. I rode up in a plush window seat of a very impressive high speed train, spent an hour in Wilmington, rode back to Baltimore on a bumpy, smelly, standing room only conventional corridor train, walked a couple of blocks and caught the light rail down to Camden Station where a MARC train took me directly to the College Park stoop...... a strip of concrete with a bus shelter adjacent to the new Metro station. It wasn't pretty but it was just two blocks from my apartment. That was a fantastic daytrip.
Ohhhhh...... and my impression of the Wilmington station was "What a dump. I hope somebody decides to give this place the Washington Union Station treatment before it's too late."
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I think it was already somewhat improved since then, David. I got off there on my way north from Washington, DC, to meet a friend with a car, one time. I thought the reddish stone pretty attractive, and the place wasn't so bad. I did not stay long though.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Wilmington received some kind of "make-over" as part of the 1976 NECIP program.
If you REALLY wanted to see a dump, how about having paid the place a visit such as I did in the latter PRR days, circa 1966, when I was stationed at Dover AFB.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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I took the train in and out of there for my whole NRHS Convention Trip while the station was under construction last month and rented a car there with no problems at all.
Chris
Posts: 711 | From: Santa Ana | Registered: May 2003
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I have noticed improvements every time I have traveled thru there on my way to NYC. I'm looking forward to when they finish, then I may get off and explore it and the town, and maybe finish the distance with an Acela or Septa then Acela.
Posts: 465 | From: elgin (s-line) | Registered: Dec 2008
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The most impressive thing about Wilmington is the large Robert Wyland whale mural on a downtown building, which I believe is visible from the AMTRAK station.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by RRRICH: The most impressive thing about Wilmington is the large Robert Wyland whale mural on a downtown building, which I believe is visible from the AMTRAK station.
posted
I very much enjoyed Brandywine and Longwood Gardens when I visited (that is why I got off the train here--I met a friend and we went to both those places). As for Wilimington being "best avoided," Palmland--I am not sure. I think downtown Wilmington looks OK from the train; there seems to be a riverside park, a market, and several nice buildings and places to walk. I have a friend who stayed there for a wedding and she said it was OK. Many banks have HQ there because of the good credit card HQ deals . . . and of course it is a main Amtrak HQ. So I would not dismiss a visit--though thus far I have not visited.
What has mainly stopped me is that the other places I most wish to seem Winterthur and NEw Castle, seem to require a car. New Castle (which you forgot to mention) adjoins Wilmington; the area I want to see would be the street or more (I'm not sure) of restored colonial buildings. I believe this was the original New Sweden (the part of New Amsterdam where the Swedes settled) but I would have to check.
So Wilmington is definitely on my list!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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