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Does anyone know how you become a station volunteer? Is there a program with Amtrak? Or do u just ask the agent if you could volunteer? The agent down here in El Paso said she was all for the help, and just wanted to see if there was someplace i had to apply to.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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There is a volunteer station host program here in California. It was started by an acquaintance of mine named Doras Briggs. Perhaps if you contact them they could steer you to something in your area, or help you start something from scratch. See http://www.stationhost.org/
PaulB Member # 4258
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Mr. Toy,
Do you know if that station host program involves unstaffed stations? I thought Amtrak ran a volunteer program for unstaffed stations. For example, there is a gentleman who helps passengers at the Grover Beach Station. He's been there for a long time, and always has a scanner with him. He meets each Surfliner that stops there and assists passengers. I don't know if he's with an organization, or does this on his own.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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Paul, as far as I know it does not. The California station host program serves the busy northern California corridors.
There was a year when the Salinas station was closed for two days a week as a cost cutting measure. I contacted our county rail planners to see if we could work out some sort of volunteer program here so passengers could have access to the rest rooms and not be locked outside on cold nights with no idea when the trains would actually arrive. They gave it some serious consideration, but ran into some bureaucratic problems when Amtrak and the city of Salinas (which owns the building) pointed out that there was no way to lock up the ticket counter separately from the indoor waiting area. I didn't give up on the idea, and some solutions were looked into. But fortunately Amtrak solved the problem by returning to 7-day staffing.
You might contact your local transportation departments (city and county) to see what might be workable in your area. First and foremost, you would need to work with whoever owns the station property, be it city, county, Amtrak or whatever.
PullmanCo Member # 1138
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Here is the volunteer page for the Kirkwood Missouri station:
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