Passenger Trains > Old Is New Again In Fort Madison

Train 3, the westbound Southwest Chief, passes the old Santa Fe — soon to be new Amtrak — depot in Fort Madison, Iowa today.

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Interesting photo! On-line pictures I've seen show that the currently used depot has platform access to both tracks - that doesn't seem to be the case with the renovated Santa Fe depot unless a between the tracks platform has yet to be built. If only track 1 has platform access, I'm guessing there will be times when the SW Chief and BNSF trains will be held up outside the station while traffic clears due to BNSF crew changes, river bridge openings, and the need to get Amtrak to/from the platform track. And hopefully trains on the K line don't stop at this station access road for any length of time.

Thanks for posting the picture.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/21 02:38 by JPB.

The K Line is on the other side of the renovated depot. Cars have to cross the K Line to get into the parking lot for the renovated station.  And you are correct about the lack of passenger access to Main 2 in front of the soon-to-be depot.

Bruce

There's bidirectional power crossovers on the east end of the bridge (Niota) and on the west end (before Fort Madison yard) to keep things moving.   I've seen some really bad single-platform access situations on Amtrak but this one looks like you can get into and out of the new FMD easier and get things around it easier than most.   Stopping on main 1 isn't much harder than Main 2 would be, and Main 2 would stop Main 1 for pedestrian safety.

I  believe  they are  required  to syaff  this  facility. Something the  city  FOTGOT  when  doing  the  insude!1  When this  opens  and  hpefully  the  Hotel Greenwood  survives  quite  a  railfan  meca!!