To the editor:
Mr. Phil Wilke's article (The Mag, Aug. 26, 1999) prompts this Amtrak rider's comment. My wife and I travel on Amtrak from Lawrence's Seventh and New Jersey streets station to both east and west coasts each year. We always phone Amtrak's customer service number (800-USA-RAIL) for the latest Lawrence arrival times (prior to retiring for the evening, as both east and west trains have Lawrence scheduled arrivals during the night). I have been reluctant to address the lack of station amenities as outlined in the article (Mr. Wilke did not mention the lack of Amtrak's checked baggage service found at many stations) for fear that Amtrak will close Lawrence's station, forcing travelers to drive to Topeka or Kansas City for rail passenger service. Perhaps after we as a community have dealt with the Lawrence Arts Center relocation and the Hobbs Park Memorial project in East Lawrence, we will address the current Amtrak depot located in the 1950s vintage Santa Fe Railway Depot with featured lobby murals for a renovation project similar to the former Union Pacific Depot in North Lawrence (mentioned as the "on-time" route in the writer's article).
Looking forward to our fall Amtrak journey to the National Preservation Conference in Washington, D.C.
James C. Dunn,
Lawrence.
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