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Anyone familiar with the new Sacramento station setup? Longer distance to the platforms? Redcap electric carts available to carry us? More than one or two? My wife and I will be doing a round trip there on the Calif.Zephyr. Thanks.
Posts: 17 | From: central Florida | Registered: Apr 2009
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This link should help answer your questions. It is quite a hike, but apparently assistance is provided. Might want to allow some extra time just in case.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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That's a good link that palmland posted. All I can add is that, YES, it is a VERY long walk from the station out to the platform. If you are elderly, disabled, or have trouble walking distances, this will be definitely be a problem for you. There is red cap assistance available when the Zephyr comes through there, but I've never used it. I think a good thing to do would be to go to the ticket counter a good time before the train arrives so that you can let him/her know that you and your wife will definitely be needing assistance. If they call "All Aboard!!" when you are in the station, even if you're a gold medal winning sprinter, you'll still miss the train. It's a long haul out there.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I really have to ask 'What's the big deal?'; one should have seen my hike last Thursday at KORD. Since I was on the flight, that means it departed from E 24 - as far as you can walk within United's area. Showing up here at KATL (I've never seen an airport so 'owned' by one airline), where United is a 'two bit player', their gates are 'uh, not exactly' the most convenient.
No really, for a guy who walks two miles a day, that should not have been a 'biggie', but the problem was I was wearing a new pair of dress shoes, and that has brought on the ouch'.
I realize at 73, my time without mobility issues will soon expire, but for the moment, I'll enjoy it while I got it.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Seem to recall doing some long-distance hiking a few years back changing planes at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, Terminal 4. Kept hearing the music "On The Trail" playing in my mind while we were trudging along; all we were missing were the mules.
Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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I really have to ask 'What's the big deal?'; one should have seen my hike last Thursday at KORD.
I presume that the difference here (not really a "big deal") is simply this: In airports, we expect and anticipate long walks because we know that airplanes are big with wings and can not fit neatly into lots of little towns and cities. They have to go specific gates at specific airports, and all major airports always have red cap service (or similar) available very easily. However, with trains, I think it's a great idea to ask because, as well all know, trains are not airplanes----and trains can and DO pull into all sorts of little towns (and even some whistle stops!). Normally, the platform is right there at the track and there is almost no walk to the train because you are "right there". But in some train stations, the walk is quite hefty for a train station and people need to plan for this in advance, especially because Red Cap (or similar) service is not always as readily available as it is in airports.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I'll take boarding at Sacramento any day over the aerobic event of dealing with the mass chaos and multiple stairs that await those at NYP, even tho a shorter distance.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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I absolutely detest what has been done to the Sacramento Amtrak boarding platforms. SO unnecessary and cruel to the many people who cannot easily walk that far!
And what if there are only, say, 6 Red Cap (or similar) carts but, say, 9 or 10 people who need to use them for the same train? Is Red Cap (or similar) service) available for all trains at Sacramento? If not, why not?
Mr. Norman -- I am very glad to read that you realize that, at your age, your unimpaired mobility may, more than likely sooner, rather than later, come to an end. (You walk 2 miles a day? wow.... I am impressed!)
Smitty195 -- Thank you very much for the great explanation about why no one expects to walk a long distance between a train station and a passenger train, and for being so understanding about the needs of disabled (mobility-impaired) people.. Very well said!. And I love you pointing out that it is so doggoned far from the station to the new platform that no one -- not even a gold-medal sprinter -- could make a departing train once the "All Aboard" is called if you are still in the station!
To everyone -- Disabled people are (I think) the biggest single demographic group in the world -- and the subset of those who are mobility-impaired is a group that one can join in an instant. One day, one is hale and hearty, and the next? All it takes is one drunk driver or one stroke (which can happen to anyone at any age, BTW), or any one of a number of crippling injuries or diseases -- and, boom! You are now disabled -- and the crippling event may not be quick or even permanent (if you are lucky) but you would still find the very long distance you have to walk between the station in Sacramento and the new platform to be a huge problem.
I think those who planned this change in the platform were incredibly rude and thoughtless. Shame on them!
The tracks and platforms for passenger trains must be put back the way they were -- ASAP. Nothing less is acceptable.
Posts: 211 | From: California | Registered: Dec 2004
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Yes the new platform in SAC is a long way from the station, but I would rather walk that than walk between say concourse C and say concourse E, at O'Hare between flights (I've made that trek before!)
Sacramento advice -- get there early, and begin walking (or redcapping) to the platform well ahead of time. On my trip 2 years ago, in SAC, I walked out to the platform at what I thought was about 15 minutes before the CZ arrived, but when I got to the platform, the CZ was there already!
In my opinion, the walk is not as far as the walk from the LAUPT station out to the furthest tracks, and in LAX, after you walk out to the right track through the tunnel, you still have to walk UPHILL on a ramp.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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The Denver Airport is horrible and was one of the newest built. Too bad but try having to walk from B 3 to B97 for a connecting flight. I will take Sacramento any day of the week.
Chris
Posts: 711 | From: Santa Ana | Registered: May 2003
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Here's a 'clip' from an Atlanta Journal Constitution article:
LONG AND WINDING WALKS
.6 mile
The length passengers must walk to get to Customs from their gate after arriving at Atlanta’s new international terminal.
1 mile
The length passengers must walk to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
3 miles
The distance visitors must walk to see the entire collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art
While none of these hikes were exactly mine (I have been to MOMA maybe 60 years ago when it was simply a six story building on 53rd St), for those more familiar with KORD and KATL than am I, at KORD the hike was from the CTA to Term 1 TSA then to Term 2 Gate E-24. At KATL, from Gate T-15 to MARTA.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by chrisg: The Denver Airport is horrible and was one of the newest built. Too bad but try having to walk from B 3 to B97 for a connecting flight. I will take Sacramento any day of the week.
Chris
Interestingly enough, the last time I was in the Denver airport was changing planes en route to Sacramento!
And Chris is right...... I think it may have been terminal E rather than B BUT my incoming flight arrived (20 minutes late) at one end of the terminal and I had just time to make it to the opposite end of the terminal for my connecting flight when they started calling the names of the passengers they were still looking for.
The new platforms in Sacramento make for a pleasant stroll in nice weather but - seriously - most passengers are not interested in a pleasant stroll.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by chrisg: The Denver Airport is horrible and was one of the newest built. Too bad but try having to walk from B 3 to B97 for a connecting flight. I will take Sacramento any day of the week.
Chris
Interestingly enough, the last time I was in the Denver airport was changing planes en route to Sacramento!
And Chris is right...... I think it may have been terminal E rather than B BUT my incoming flight arrived (20 minutes late) at one end of the terminal and I had just time to make it to the opposite end of the terminal for my connecting flight when they started calling the names of the passengers they were still looking for.
The new platforms in Sacramento make for a pleasant stroll in nice weather but - seriously - most passengers are not interested in a pleasant stroll.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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