In last night’s post I noted a friend’s complaint about upkeep at Charlotte’s Amtrak station on North Tryon Street, but I wasn’t sure who was responsible for maintenance. Got this response at 5:19 a.m. from Patrick Simmons, head of the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Rail division:
Norfolk Southern owns the station and Amtrak is the responsible tenant. … Thank you for sharing the rider/reader report. By copy of this e-mail I will pass it along to our Amtrak contacts and ask that they address the issues promptly. … Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
And here’s a note of clarification: The photo I used was of the historic old Seaboard Coast Line station. It’s on North Tryon Street but closer to uptown than the not-so-majestic Amtrak building we now must use. I couldn’t find an Observer file photo showing the current Amtrak station, which is not what you’d call photogenic. The historic old station is now used by the Urban Ministry Center.
I intended for the photo of the historic station to refer to the link I posted to an article about majestic train stations all over the country, many of them demolished years ago, like Charlotte’s Southern Railway station on West Trade Street. I have a drawing over my desk from the late Jack Boyte depicting the old Southern terminal. I couldn’t find a usable photo of it, either.