30th Street Station Is Cool
We went down to Philly by train when my dad was in the hospital and again for his funeral. We took Amtrak from Mount Joy then switched over to Septa at 30th Street Station. Actually I think we were able to take Amtrak straight to Cornwells station on the way down because there are certain Keystone trains that stop there on the way to New York.
On the way home each time we had to take SEPTA’s regional rail from Cornwells to 30th Street Station. It was cool to revisit that old building again after being there so many times back when I was in high school for mobility and learning to use public transportation and get around the city with my visual impairment and stuff.
I had really forgotten how cool that building is with the the high ceiling and massive room. I think the windows themselves are something like five stories tall if I am remembering correctly. The floor is all marble with large chandeliers for lights up on the high ceiling.
It’s one of those buildings that you have to be in it to really experience it. The way the sound echoes just from the business of so many people going all directions makes it all the more interesting. We usually wind up with an hour or so to spare while we are waiting for our train back home.
It’s always made my my wander just wondering what everyone there’s story is. Where are they going? Where are they from? It definitely makes me wonder too what this place would have been like when train travel was the way to go. Back when cars were too expensive and unreliable and planes weren’t common rich people took the train.
The board changing is really cool too. It’s great how it makes the sound as it’s physically changing so you know to look up. I’m surprised that they have not yet replaced with with something fancy and pretty that’s really nothing more than big monitors. It would click as the information is flipping. I think it was called a Solari board or something like that.
I hope that we can come through here more often in the future both to visit my family and of course geocaching trips into Philly itself would be nice. I couldn’t live in a big city but I don’t mind visiting. It’d be great to find a good cheese steak when we’re here with more time and less depressing reasons. Honestly I wouldn’t mind taking the train up to New York, DC or Boston sometimes to stay and cache. For us at least it would be just so convenient with the train station being within walking distance from our house.