LANSING, Mich. — East Lansing, Michigan’s fourth-busiest Amtrak station, will soon join the list of Amtrak ticket offices in the state to close.
The stations in Niles, Jackson and Flint, Mich., became unstaffed earlier this year by attrition (the lone ticket agent at each station retired and was not replaced). In all cases, the Michigan Department of Transportation, which pays for all three Amtrak routes operating in the state, has hired caretakers to open and close the recently de-staffed stations at train times.
“There are plans for full-time caretakers at East Lansing,” MDOT Communications Manager Michael Frezell tells Trains News Wire. “Currently, there is a caretaker only on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are working with the Capital Area Transportation Authority and Amtrak on this.”
Amtrak has eliminated agents at a number of locations nationwide this year, but decisions on staffing in Michigan are made jointly by Amtrak and MDOT. Amtrak justified other ticket office closures by claiming it is uneconomical to staff stations that see an average of fewer than 40 passenger boardings per day, particularly in light of a shift to online ticket purchases. An Amtrak source now reports that a minimum threshold of 40,000 boardings per fiscal year may be in use.
According to Amtrak’s figures, over 68,000 passengers boarded trains at East Lansing in fiscal 2017, almost 10,000 more than the number that boarded at Detroit, which is retaining its staffed ticket office (along with Dearborn, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, which all saw higher patronage than East Lansing in 2017). The other Michigan stations that remain staffed are Battle Creek and Port Huron, which each handled fewer passengers in 2017 than East Lansing.
Employing caretakers “allows the stations to be open to the public when the trains arrive and depart, which is a benefit to the customers,” Frezell says. “With a vast majority of tickets being purchased online, having tickets purchased at the station has significantly reduced over the past year.”
“Amtrak customer experience and the financial performance of the network is always under review,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. “If and when ticket windows are closed, ticketed customers are advised and notices are posted on Amtrak.com. There is no such notice posted for [East Lansing.]” Magliari would not comment on whether Amtrak uses a specific threshold of patronage when deciding whether to retain ticket agents at a given station.
De-staffing of stations is just another part of the on going program to degrade Amtrak services so that fewer people will be able or want to use their trains. The increasing scarcity of places that accept checked baggage is just one problem of many.
STEVE I actually know why Lansing became the capital of Michigan. My point is that after Cow College had its name changed to MSU (I think around 1960), the capital should have been moved back to Detroit.
Charles- As the article states, Marc Magliari is Amtrak’s spokesman. Wikipedia’s article on Lansing explains why it became the capital.
What if you get on the train and plan to buy your ticket? And, the train is sold out? Throw you off the train?
CLARENCE – I don’t know who Marc Magliari is, and as far as I know Sara Huckabee isn’t from Lansing. On the day of his death I found out that Burt Reynolds was born in Lansing. As was Malcolm X. I’ve been to Lansing a couple of times and I don’t think much of the place, it’s pretty dreary compared to Grand Rapids or K’zoo or Ann Arbor. Don’t know why it’s the capital of Michigan. It isn’t even the county seat of Ingham County. As for East Lansing, well, we of polite company don’t mention the college that’s there.
Detroit has far fewer boardings than East Lansing which has one-third the number of daily schedules. It’s easy to see what’s happening. Detroit has three beautifully located suburban stations for Amtrak: Dearborn, Troy – Birmingham, and Royal Oak. The New Haven Railroad opened Route 128 station (Westwood, Massachusetts) in the 1950’s, way ahead of the curve on tapping suburban markets for intercity trains.
So let’s see…they are leaving the station unstaffed because nobody (or virtually nobody) buys tickets at the window any more, it is all done on line…what would they do if you show up to buy a ticket and get on the train, can’t buy a ticket because the station is unstaffed, get on the train and try to buy a ticket from the conductor?
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Go find your own damn lawyer.
And the beat goes on, la-de-dah-de-dah, and the beat goes on.
Just for grins I would like to see Marc Magliari and Sarah Sanders Huckabee trade places for a while.
I thank you for bringing this topic to the public’s attention, Mr. Kenton. I didn’t need to refer to your Port Huron error as “sloppy reporting.”
Sloppy reporting by Trains– Port Huron was de-staffed in summer 2016. Also, the article misses the chance to address the giant gulf between MDOT’s and Amtrak’s statements. Frezell says plans are in the works for caretakers, while Amtrak’s Magliari won’t even admit that the station is closing. Does Magliari plan to deny and obfuscate until the day of the agent’s final shift, hoping people will be too dumb to notice what’s going on?