Strong words of disapproval for the Amtrak station changes from Heckasac, a frequent Capital Corridor rider. Sounds like a massive fail at least for some riders.
I too was struck by spokespeople comparing the size of the new tunnel to the size of much larger stations. It’s a small train station with 2 platforms. Though it is apparently one of the busiest Amtrak stations. Seems like further expansion might be called for.
The Sac Rag 
This is what you get when you have history weenies driving public policy and insisting that the all future transportation in Sacramento must be connected to an irrelevant old train station. As Becky notes, most frequent train commuters don’t go in the station anyway.
Better idea: The historic central shops are right alongside the tracks (on the other side – use a portion of these as a commuter waiting area / ticket window when that area gets developed.
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I think the problem is that the train tracks are not connected to the old train station. Why you would make the tracks a 10-minute walk from where they currently are for no reason other than some future “development” that probably won’t happen.
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UP owns the tracks. The old alignment next to the depot had an S curve that impeded freight traffic. So now the tracks are in the right place, but the depot is not!
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The distance from the platform to the station is irrelevant. The distance to parking and transportation is very relevant, and that has gone from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in the best case.
The main tunnel is not bad – not as wide as it should be, but will be OK when it’s finished – but the main tunnel is not the problem. When you get to the platform, there’s one very long ramp up to the train, and it is only two people wide. It also has little effective cover, so when the rainy season comes there will be lots of people forced to stand in the rain. There will be injuries on that ramp because of its poor design and inadequate capacity.
Someday, there will be two ramps and a staircase, but at the moment, there’s only that one ramp. The main tunnel is also not fully open. Why were they allowed to open the new platform area before it was ready?
The path to the platform, besides being mostly uncovered, is very roundabout. Instead of being a straight line, it meanders around unnecessarily. And there’s now only one path, instead of the two at the old platforms.
It would interesting to follow the money trail here. I suspect this design is another result of corruption in Sacramento government.
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Actually, Amtrak trains regularly use both (2) tracks, and the third – a dead-end storage track that is not owned by UP – also frequently holds longer passenger trains that are in the station overnight.
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@CJ: Here are some facts to back up your city corruption idea.
Union Pacific is a beneficiary of the move. Guess who owns a big stake in UP (49%)? Phillip Anschutz. Yes, that Anschutz, of AEG and one of KJ’s biggest friends and contributors. Once you learn that the whole thing makes a lot more sense.
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are you sure he owns 49%?
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=UNP+Major+Holders
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@Cogmeyer: My mistake apparently he divested himself of quite a few shares. Regardless, he is still the largest shareholder in Union Pacific with a 6 percent stake.
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I can’t find any evidence that he even has 6% share of UP.
But your larger point is valid, part of UP’s interest in moving the tracks was certainly to make the land more useable and valuable. While Anschutz association with UP probably influenced some of the land use decisions they made, he has quite a track record with identifying real estate opportunities.
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Pretty easy to find: link1 link2
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