"There is also the option for a Friends of the Depot group to raise money for further renovations as well as expansion of Amtrak’s use of the facility".
Also, “ As ridership grows for Sandpoint, I have hopes someday that we can move back into the old waiting room and expand that,” he said, “So as ridership grows, there are options.”
I thought that the renovated depot would be a truly working Amtrak station, with waiting room, ticket office, baggage check, etc. But, I get the impression, from the article, that's not the case. Anyone know more?
It's too bad the Sandpoint train station doesn't have more convenient EB arrival times; 11:49 PM westbound and 2:35 AM eastbound. Better arrival times, I think, would make Sandpoint a great jumping off point for a number of popular vacation destinations.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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Richard, good to hear the station will be improved. This photo was taken 2 years ago when we spent the night there. Beautiful town with the mountains and lakes around and lots of rail activity.
But, no comparison to the days of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern when six trains each way stopped there. Best we could hope for is a state supported seasonal train from Seattle to Whitefish or East Glacier. Actually that would be a good route for a Rocky Mountaineer type train: Cascade mountains, high plains, Idaho lakes, and the Rockies.
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Lake Couer d' Alene is beautiful. I was held out over the weekend twice during my MILW career doing work at both St Maries and Avery. As consolation, they cared less where I drove the rented car (Ford Pinto on one, AMC Gremlin on the other). If my at the time, "squeeze" was there, I could have really "dug" the scene.
Unfortunately, I suspect for you Richard, but "Yahoo" for both Smiths around here, the place has become a biker and six shooter mecca.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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GBN, not sure what you have in mind, but there were quite a few bikers, the hearty outdoor types pushing the pedals. Hunting and fishing is of course also popular, something that I'm sure has been around a long time. Lots of upscale second homes too and boats of the all types on the lake. Great vacation spot.
I did find it interesting that many of the bike trails are abandoned right of ways of the NP and Milwaukee, as described here.Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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Well, to tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind if Sandpoint is a biker and six shooter mecca. Compared to a lot of other towns and cities I could mention, it's probably quite safe. It is a great area for outdoor activities. Mr. Norman, I really want, one of these days, to get to Couer d' Alene and the lake. The panhandle area of Idaho has lots of great spots. I talked, a while back, to a ham radio operator who was telling me about the great fishing at Priest Lake.
Another little town I would like to visit, a little further east, is Libby, Montana. Have been there several times, on the train, but never on foot. There is a little museum, there, with a Shay steam locomotive on display.
Mr Palmland, I concur with you regarding how great it would be for a US version of the Rocky Mountaineer train. How about Portland-Spokane/ Seattle-Spokane the first day. Then combine the train to Sandpoint, Whitefish, and West Glacier the next day. Iowa Pacific, possibly?
I e-mailed the woman who wrote the article in my link, above. She said you can use the renovated station as an enclosed waiting room. However, no station services until they can get an "acceptable tenant" for the station, in their words.
Also referring to the article, an interesting statement:
"Keeping passenger service at the depot’s currently location is a critical access point for the railroads, serving east-west traffic but adding the option for future north-south travel".
I wonder what they mean by that? Someone thinking of a future passenger train on the Montana Rail Link?
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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The Sandpoint/Coeur D'Alene/Priest Lake area would be very popular with passengers if the train arrived at anytime other than the middle of the night. I guess it might work best as a seasonal extension of the frequently proposed (but never funded) Seattle to Spokane via the old Northern Pacific Stampede Pass route.
Posts: 831 | From: Seattle | Registered: Jan 2011
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Vincent, I don't know. Maybe Sandpoint, but Priest and CDA are still quite a way from that station and no way to get there. I'm doing the math from the article Richard provided: 8400 passengers is 4200 each way (probably most are going toward Spokane and Seattle) at 365 days a year means about 6 passengers on/off in the middle of the night every night. Pretty impressive.
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I once bicycled the "Route of the Hiawatha" trail from I-90 milepost 5 in Montana to Avery, Idaho, on a bike I rented in Whitefish and transported in a rental car. It was a foamer's delight. Historic detailed info displays about the Milwaukee Road are placed every mile or so covering subjects like the Little Joe Locomotives, the Silk Trains, and even the fine China in the diner and where the chefs came from. http://www.ridethehiawatha.com/
The St. Paul Pass tunnel, under the MT/ID border is so long there is zero trace of light anywhere when you turn your (required) bike light off. To add to the ambiance, there is the sound of rushing underground water everywhere. It was an easy one day round trip, even for a geezer like myself. Of course I came by train.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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Along a curve of mountain road in far northern Idaho, there’s a dinged and rusted guardrail above the tiny town of Sandpoint. The rail is a bit of practicality on a two-lane stretch with hairpin turns; its dings attest to the lives, or vehicles, saved by blocking the way.
But stand there for a while, turning your gaze in any direction at a landscape mostly empty of human imprint, and it’s easy to see that little ribbon of highway metal as a perimeter fence. Sandpoint huddles at the bottom, its 7,500 people squeezed together in a tight embrace. The West, writ large, splays out sky and earth in every other direction.
In some ways, it’s the perfect place to see hard Western reality — the geographic and economic isolation that has crushed countless hamlets like this one, including new ghost towns in the making from Oshkosh, Neb to Pedro Bay, Alaska.
Times journalists do not always have the "best of it" leaving their "digs" at 620 Eighth Ave, as inferred within this Gail Collins column:
Right now you are probably asking yourself: “What would it be like to live in a place with an unemployment rate of 1 percent?”
Me, too! So I went to Williston, N.D., to find out. There are certain things that journalists do as a public service because you, the noble reader, are probably not going to do them for yourself — like attending charter revision meetings or reading the autobiography of Tim Pawlenty. Going to Williston is sort of in this category. The people are lovely, but you’re talking about a two-hour drive from Minot.
I have to wonder if The Times' travel desk even knew of the Empire Builder. Pretty safe to say her flight NY-Minot was "uh, not exactly" non-stop and West of MSP, a "puddle jumper".
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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