 St Louis, MO | Lincoln Service | Carlinville, IL  |
| Texas Eagle |
Alton is a station stop on all four daily Lincoln Service trains as well as the Texas Eagle and has received continues train service since the beginning of Amtrak. The station is located just north of the depressed underpass (with grassy knolls on each side) of College Avenue beneath the train tracks, about half a mile from Main Street in a residential area of single family homes. Trains stop along an unimproved concrete platform right along the ballast below the level of the track. This requires the yellow stools to be used and placed along the ballast between the edge of the platform beneath the bottom step (or door of the Superliner in the case of the Eagle). Although trains stop a total of ten times per day (unlike certain Empire Service Stations who's platforms are littered with stools) none are left on the platform requiring crews to place them with each arrival. At the College Avenue end of the platform is the 1928 depot. It is a single-story brick structure built by the Chicago and Alton Railroad with an agent there not for all departures but from 6:00am to 4:00pm daily but checked baggage service is not provided to the Texas Eagle. Inside is the ticket window and a waiting area with two restrooms in a short little corridor and a water fountain. There are two brown wooden benches with arms (prohibiting lying down) which mach the trim of the windows which contrast with the cream colored walls. A few window boxes are on the outside of the building. There are two signs along the platform one is a modern information panel just north of the depot and there is an old freestanding pointless arrow sign with Alton, IL on the platform sign and station on the other side along the platform. There is no wheelchair lift enclosure on the platform but the station is wheelchair accessible so I assume one is stored in the garage type door in the southern wing of the depot. The entire platform (except where the depot is) has cars parked right up to it almost on it with just a few concrete blocks keeping cars from driving onto it. For lights there are streetlamps hanging off of wooden telephone poles. There are two entrances to the station (which largely lack sidewalks) and sections of the parking lot which has a total of 35 spaces. The main little lot is beyond the depot which becomes a short service road of College Avenue (the main wide portion is going down to its underpass) with a few houses before joining the main road at Kendall Avenue. The entrance from here has an old Pointless Arrow Amtrak Station sign, along with a IL-Dot Amtrak Park & Ride sign, the roadway is narrowly pushed along the platform before another little section of the parking lot before another entrance at the end of Huber Street (a block long street until it reaches Kendall Avenue parallel to the tracks).
All photos unless otherwise noted were taken on 12 June, 2012
