Quote Originally Posted by ljbab728 View Post
I also have personal knowledge about this and I also respectfully say you are wrong. Moving the Amtrak station would not improve student ridership in the least. That small distance is not detering any student (girl or otherwise) from using Amtrak if they want to. Amtrak leaves Norman to Fort Worth at 8:49AM which isn't dark. The return train arrives at 8:53PM which is after dark part of the year but certainly not late. Do the students you talk to live with walking distance of the Amtrak station in Forth Worth? I doubt it. I know from past conversations you are in favor of a new rail complex in the Duck Pond area and I am adamantly opposed to disturbing that area with something like that. The Norman Amtrak station is in the perfect location and needs to stay where it is. If the city wants to add bus service or some other kind of transit from the dorm area to the station that is certainly not a bad idea and is something I would support.
The Students at the FW end have a bus and rail system to take them closer to their destination and chances are that they have parents to pick them up.
There is not nearly enough room near the current Norman train station to build a smaller Norman hub station. Most of the OU and city of Norman leaders already know this and as I said it has been indicated to me that Norman will not have commuter rail service without some type of OU station.

Regardless of Amtrak there will eventually be an OU station severing the commuter rail needs of campus and of central Norman. For financial and functional reasons it doesn’t make any sense to not relocate the Norman Amtrak station to the OU station. If we want a system that maximizes ridership building the a hub station as close as practical to where the largest number of peoples destinations are is smarter than spending resources on a system that would be underutilized becuase of poor design / location.

Very few people including students consider the current station within walking distance. They are not willing walk to the downtown Norman third world train station that is well out of their personal comfort zone, daytime or night time.

If we are concerned about aesthetics issues I’m very confident that Molly will see to it that these issues will be successfully addressed.
Quite frankly the man-made Duck pond could use a major rehabilitation. I envision an elevated platform using sight and sound blocking features in its design and also on the current rail line. The impact would not be that disturbing and would be far less disturbing than the current nearby freight trains that remove any thought of this being a tranquil environment as it is.