Your attention please, Amtrak Train No. 6, the California Zephyr, is scheduled to arrive at 8 p.m.
Living near Denver’s Union Station, we have listened to that announcement with a mixture of reverence and amusement for well over 10 years. The delivery — originally a doleful liturgical drone, later a melodious Southern twang and most recently a gray newscaster neutral — is variously encouraging, admonishing or simply instructive, depending on the mood and character of the person at the mike.
Please remain in the station until a boarding announcement is made.
Today it sounds simply cheerless because on Tuesday, Amtrak moves its Denver operations to a temporary facility at Wewatta and 21st streets, behind Coors Field. Known locally as the light bulb building (from its former use), the place has been renovated to support all of the activities that previously went on in front of and inside of Union Station.
It signals the beginning of a three-year upgrade and conversion of the venerable landmark structure — originally built in 1880 and expanded in 1914 — to the multimodal transportation hub envisioned by RTD and the city over many years of planning and securing of funds.
Passengers will be called for check-in by group number. Please, make yourselves comfortable and remain seated until your group is called.
This summer, the light rail and mall bus stop now located at the west side of the station on Wewatta Street will move further west to a new location adjacent to the Millennium Bridge. On Tuesday, the tunnel under the tracks connecting the east and west sides of the station will also close, so all of the activities previously occurring at the drive-through plaza on Wynkoop Street — passenger pick-up and drop-off, taxi queuing, baggage handling, bus line staging and commuter scurrying — will abruptly end. In three years or so, when the project is completed, RTD’s Market Street station will close and all transit operations — Amtrak, Free Mall Ride and light rail station — will be reunited on the west side of Union Station around the new RTD underground “bus box.”
Ladies and gentlemen, Amtrak Train No. 6, the California Zephyr from San Francisco, Emeryville, Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Fraser and Winter Park is now arriving on track No. 1.
The Superliners appear from behind the Ice House parking structure, backing slowly, silently to a halt under the canopy. The arriving passengers emerge and file along the platform down to the tunnel and into the station.
A modern industrial tug attached incongruously to a line of antique, steel-wheeled luggage carts lumbers back from the baggage car just behind the locomotive, and into the side of the station.
Group No. 1, please check in on the right side of the conductor’s desk.
All along the Wynkoop Street drive-through plaza, departing passengers mill about in that awkward moment of goodbye hugs, kisses and handshakes, then slowly but purposefully turn and trudge through the heavy wooden doors and into the station.
Amtrak train No. 6, the California Zephyr, is now ready for boarding.
The action reverses and the departing passengers proceed out to the train while the tug tows its perky little caravan back to the baggage car.
Last and final call for train No. 6, the California Zephyr departing for Chicago and all intermediate connecting points. All aboo-ooard.
The locomotive horn sounds twice, then slowly the procession pulls away from the station and out of sight. We raise a toast to the end of one era and the start of the next.
As we have come to appreciate, Lower Downtown Denver is an enviable melding of historic preservation with relentless ongoing renewal.
Andy Youtz lives in Lower Downtown Denver and works in sales and marketing.
