Saint Paul Union Depot

[Wedgeguy]

I am curious about the parking. I don't mind paying but I usually leave my car at Midway when I take the Empire Builder to Chicago for the weekend.

You can now find a place to park in the Midway and take the light rail or bus to the station!

[Silophant]

I've gotta assume that SPUD will get some type of long-term parking setup when Amtrak moves in, but at the very least, you could probably do the Ramp-Ride-Fly thing at the ABC ramps for the Empire Builder as well.

[mulad]

There are 3 different grades of parking at the depot as things stand today, and I would bet that Amtrak has set up the contract so that they can have customers to keep their cars on site for a fairly low price, but probably not free. As things stand today for regular random folks, I think things range from $3 or $5 per day for the uncovered Lot C area east of Broadway Street to around $10 per day for the covered parking under the train deck (Lot B). There is "premium" covered parking in the headhouse (Lot A), which I think runs more like $20 per day.

[web]

I am curious about the parking. I don't mind paying but I usually leave my car at Midway when I take the Empire Builder to Chicago for the weekend.

You can now find a place to park in the Midway and take the light rail or bus to the station!

hmmmm the walk from university to midway station is a couple blocks.....with bags may be a little far in winter

[mattaudio]

I don't think wedgeguy meant you could actually park at the existing Amtrak station. More that you can park in a place that's convenient in the Midway (or anywhere) and take a bus.

When wife and I have used Amtrak, we do leave our car at the Midway station since it is free. But once it moves to SPUD, we'll just end up taking the bus or paying for parking if it's a short trip and time is a factor. Same as we do, and I bet same as many others do, when we fly out of MSP.

[talindsay]

I don't think wedgeguy meant you could actually park at the existing Amtrak station. More that you can park in a place that's convenient in the Midway (or anywhere) and take a bus.

When wife and I have used Amtrak, we do leave our car at the Midway station since it is free. But once it moves to SPUD, we'll just end up taking the bus or paying for parking if it's a short trip and time is a factor. Same as we do, and I bet same as many others do, when we fly out of MSP.

I *always* use the bus/light rail to get to the airport but I always drive to Midway station since it's so poorly served by transit. That might be more ironic than most Alanis Morissette lyrics (do the kids even know who she is anymore?). I expect that when Amtrak moves to Union Depot I'll always take the bus/light rail to it just like the airport. I hate leaving my car anywhere other than my garage overnight and I hate paying for car storage but the current Amtrak station pretty much necessitates it. I can't imagine taking bags for a trip on the 16, jostling with passengers to get off the bus, and coming home after the trip to have repeat the same thing again. Union Depot will be drastically better.

[uptowncarag]

I don't think wedgeguy meant you could actually park at the existing Amtrak station. More that you can park in a place that's convenient in the Midway (or anywhere) and take a bus.

When wife and I have used Amtrak, we do leave our car at the Midway station since it is free. But once it moves to SPUD, we'll just end up taking the bus or paying for parking if it's a short trip and time is a factor. Same as we do, and I bet same as many others do, when we fly out of MSP.

I *always* use the bus/light rail to get to the airport but I always drive to Midway station since it's so poorly served by transit. That might be more ironic than most Alanis Morissette lyrics (do the kids even know who she is anymore?). I expect that when Amtrak moves to Union Depot I'll always take the bus/light rail to it just like the airport. I hate leaving my car anywhere other than my garage overnight and I hate paying for car storage but the current Amtrak station pretty much necessitates it. I can't imagine taking bags for a trip on the 16, jostling with passengers to get off the bus, and coming home after the trip to have repeat the same thing again. Union Depot will be drastically better.

The only problem might be when you take the PM trip back from Chicago. Depending upon delays you get back around 11 PM and I am not sure who late the light rail will run?

[Silophant]

The Blue Line runs until ~1am on weekdays, and later on weekends. I could be wrong, but I'd assume the Green Line will run that late as well.

[uptowncarag]

The Blue Line runs until ~1am on weekdays, and later on weekends. I could be wrong, but I'd assume the Green Line will run that late as well.

Nice, I don't mind a cab but it would be nice to have the option to take the light rail home or park on-site and drive.

[FISHMANPET]

If nothing you'll still have the night owl 16 right there, instead of a half mile walk in the dark.

[Tom H.]

I'm pretty sure that the Blue Line stops operating at 2am, and starts again at 3:30am. I'd expect similar service for the Green Line, so there's really only likely to be an hour to half-and-a-half gap on any given night.

[Scott Wood]

The Blue Line at Target Field runs from 4:02 AM through 1:13 AM Sunday through Thursday, so a three hour gap is quite possible. If the gap on the Green Line were really only an hour, they wouldn't need to fill it in with the overnight service on route 16 (which currently runs once an hour).

[FISHMANPET]

I just took an overnight Greyhound from Minneapolis to Chicago, and I gotta say I'm really disapointed that Greyhound chose Minneapolis as their base in the Twin Cities and are skipping St Paul. I'd much rather wait in the Depot waiting room than sit on the floor with my bags at the Greyhound station Downtown.

[MNdible]

In my experience, when the buses stopped at both Greyhound stations, 40 people would get on the bus in Minneapolis and 5 people would get on in St. Paul. I think the market made it pretty clear as to where they should be stopping. And the Minneapolis bus station is pretty nice.

[Wedgeguy]

There are actually two different greyhound routes thru the twin cities. My last trip in the bus, Jefferson, when we got to Burnville, they had to transfer to a bus route that would take then to St. Paul, and then to areas up to Duluth. While the MPLS bus went to Hawthorne and then to areas like St. Cloud, Bemidji, Brainerd and the like. There are buses that go to St. Paul and those that go to MPLS. So I believe that you would go to which ever city you want on a bus that is going specifically to your city.

[FISHMANPET]

Hawthorne is too small with not enough seating. There does seem to be more demand in Minneapolis, but previously the St Paul station was just a little dump on University Ave. If I'd had a choice last night between Hawthorne and Union Depot, I'd have chosen the Depot.

[Silophant]

Amtrak's starting date will be announced next week.

As mentioned in the Green Line thread, don't read the comments. They're extraordinarily vile, even by online commenting standards.

[RailBaronYarr]

So much stupid in that comment section. Wow.

[mulad]

Megabus will move their St. Paul stop (currently in a desolate Midway parking lot) to Union Depot effective January 29th. https://twitter.com/UnionDepot/status/4 ... 5863904256

[MSPtoMKE]

That's good to hear, I didn't even know Megabus stopped in St. Paul. So the question is whether the stop will be at the bus terminal, or a street adjacent to Union Depot.