Success! Amtrak Commits to Improve Bike Parking at 30th Street Station

No more lonely or improvisational bike parking at 30th St

Your voice was heard! As we reported earlier this month, bike parking at Amtrak's third busiest station has been seriously constrained. Spurred by the 184 people who signed our petition, we have been in a dialogue with Amtrak staff about the issue. Amtrak recently made the following comments and commitments:

First, Amtrak explained that bike parking is "not ideal....[due to] two major improvement projects happening at the station right now – West Plaza Project and Installation of a Sidewalk Canopy System. The two projects are limiting the amount of space that we have around the station for bike parking."

Amtrak then committed take the following actions:

• When the West Plaza Project on the 30th Street side is completed in November, it will include spaces for at least 80 bikes. They will accomplish this by installing ten new racks (each rack can hold 8-10 bikes). 
• For the 29th Street side of the station, Amtrak will install six bike racks that each hold 8 bikes, for 48 total spaces. (Special thanks to the Mayor's Office of Transportation and Utilities, aka MOTU, for providing Amtrak with the six racks.)
• MOTU and University City District (UCD) will assist Amtrak in the removal of abandoned bikes.
• To address the incidences of Vespas and motorcycles parking at the bike racks, the Amtrak Police Department is stepping up enforcement and will ticket or tow them if they can’t get the owner to move the motor vehicle.

We thank Amtrak for being responsive to bicyclists' concerns and pledging to improve bike parking at 30th Street Station. A big thanks also to MOTU and UCD for stepping in to help Amtrak remedy the problem. We are looking forward to seeing these improvements implemented shortly, we hope in time for the Thanksgiving travel weekend.