Passenger Trains > Revival of Tampa Union Station

These seems like a worthwhile accomplishment.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/nov/21/stnewso11-union-station-from-deteriorated-to-on-di-ar-570873/

Unfortunately, the photos accompanying the article are not very helpful. Perhaps one of you could post interior and exterior photos of the station.

Thanks. Now it needs a train to Ft. Meyers, and a few eastbounds.

To: RuleG

I don't have any pictures, but I've visited the station several times, and here is what I observed.

. The interior has been nicely restored. It's attractive, and very busy when the Silver Star arrives twice a day. The exterior appearance is pleasing, but nothing special.

. Beyond the station, the platform area and tracks look rather dilapidated. Amtrak uses basally one track, and the others are in disrepair.

. The location of the station is quite a distance from downtown Tampa; it's in a rather seedy area, and wedged underneath highway overpasses. Parking is very poor, and traffic on the narrow streets surrounding the station is a hassle at train time.

. I wonder why the SAL built the station so far from downtown Tampa; but in today's world it probably doesn't matter, because the Tampa Bay area is so spread out, it would require a drive no matter where the station was located.

. The real drawback is, trains are required to make a long (a mile, at least) back up movement to reach the station. There are many street crossing along this backup route, so naturally train speeds are a slow affair.

I hope I've done justice to the Tampa station situation, and you find it interesting.

Joe

interior file photos from June 19, 2011

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exterior file photos from June 19, 2011

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Beautiful photographs! I last saw the station just prior to its closing. The local historical society was just starting to try and stimulate public interest in its preservation by having a large, two day open house. We brought both the Silver Crescent (CZ dome-lounge-obs) and the Ferdinand Magellan (US Presidential No. 1). One of the local Tampa policemen looked at us askance when he learned that several of us were planning to sleep on board the cars, citing the hazardous nature of the surrounding community. He was mollified when we showed him the armour steel plate and 3# bulletproof windows on the Magellan!

Thank you floridajoe2001 for your commentary and chuchubob for your photos. Your posts helped me understand a station that I previously knew nothing about.

The Tampa Union Station is an attractive building, both inside and out.

That just sucks only 1 train stops there though, be nice if they added 2 or 3 or how Amtrak used to do, split the Silver trains, one set goes to Tampa while the other goes to Miami! Why did Amtrak eliminate that!

ProAmtrak Wrote:
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> That just sucks only 1 train stops there though,
> be nice if they added 2 or 3 or how Amtrak used to
> do, split the Silver trains, one set goes to Tampa
> while the other goes to Miami! Why did Amtrak
> eliminate that!

There's still a lot of merit in that suggestion. Splitting the train at Orlando (or Sanford?) could have time savings, better use of crews, etc. Maybe even drop the long haul diner / sleepers for service, etc. and add a Florida diner for the Miami section.

Jacksonville had all the service stuff, that's why they did the Meteor there and until they quit it, the Star for a bit, it worked and yeah time consuming, but it worked, and the cars got serviced and checked out! There's a lot of thing Amtrak should do, but from one of the recent posts, yeah most of Ammanagment don't care, like when Warrington and his bozos were running the show!