 Cleveland, OH | Lake Shore Limited | Buffalo-Depew, NY  |
Eire, PA is the only intermediate station on the 187 mile stretch between Buffalo-Depew and Cleveland of the Lake Shore Limited not shared with Capitol Limited or Empire Service Trains. Erie sees service from the Lake Shore Limited and has always been served by just the Lake Shore Limited in the Amtrak era, including during the Lake Shore's suspension between 1972 and 1975.
Due to the on-again off-again nature of train service in the early years and the disrepair of Union Station, Erie (a city of about a hundred thousand) has never been a staffed station, and consequently never had checked baggage service. The station has always just been opened and closed (as it is to this day) by a caretaker working the graveyard shift between Midnight and 7:00am for the middle of the night Lake Shore Limited stops.
Trains have always and currently stop at the historic Art Deco Union Station which was dedicated on December 3, 1927. The station became derelict in the 1970s and was mostly abandoned. In the early 2000s, a private company rebuilt the station. This converted the upper floors of the station into office space. The former passenger rotunda (including ticket offices and main waiting area) was turned into a brewery. Amtrak trains currently use a small annex next door, next to a number of local shops in the former freight area of the station. After passing through glass doors from the street, passengers turn right into a generic waiting room without windows and a non-descript ceiling and wooden benches. There are restrooms available (best photos I found of the waiting room were on FourSquare).
Trains stop at one of two low-level island platforms on the railroad embankment. These run between the bridges over Sassafras Street (to the west) and Peach Street. These are same streets that Union Station runs between alongside 14th Street. The main northern island platform has had its green canopy fully restored, the second platform has only a small rebuilt section (trains don't normally stop here but can) with the rest of this platform's canopy looking derelict and abandoned. Passengers reach the main platform via an elevator or staircase from the waiting area below. A pedestrian crossing provides access to the secondary island platform. The two platforms means the train can stop at 4 of the 5 still existing tracks through Erie. At one point the station had another island platform and probably two additional freight platforms on sidings on either side, judging from the sets of 5 former elevator towers that once led down to the freight and mail tunnel.
All Photos taken on 26 November, 2017 on a visit by automobile.
