East Lansing is by far the busiest station only serviced by the Blue Water with its 72,169 passengers in FY 2024. This is higher than the remaining four stations on the Blue Water to Port Huron Combined (ridership 58,920) with only Kalamazoo (serviced by the Blue Water and all three daily Wolverine round-trips) and Ann Arbor (with 147,054 passengers) having more ridership of the twenty two stations in the State of Michigan.
The high ridership s because the station is located on the Michigan State University Campus with the train often selling out on peak travel days during the academic year. Lansing is also the State Capitol. Ideally there should be a second daily round-trip that leaves Chicago in the morning, turns around at East Lansing and returns in the evening. This train could be named the Spartans Limited, to differentiate it from the Blue Water!
The station is located in East Lansing to service the university. The Amtrak tracks pass through Lansing, the state Capitol of Michigan without stopping although they pass an historic Grand Truck Railroad depot, there is also a separate historic Union Depot for the Michigan Central and Pere Marquette Railroads.
Amtrak service to the Lansing area has always been at the exact location since the Blue Water restored service to the Lansing area in 1974 (replaced by the International between 1982 and 2004). The 1974 timetable refers to the station as Lansing instead of East Lansing, although the address is in East Lansing.
The Amtrak station is located just across the train tracks from the southwest corner of the main campus (a one mile walk from Spartan Stadium, although the current train schedule as of 2025 doesn't make day trips from Chicago usable for football games). The current station is located at the Capital Area Multimodal Gateway that was built in 2016 and is still operated by the local transit agency (the Capital Area Transportation Authority). This combines the Amtrak station with Indian Trails bus service, although these buses also stop in Downtown Lansing at the CATA Downtown Terminal. Greyhound used to service the station but no longer does (Flexbus does stop elsewhere in the Lansing area).
For trains, there is a ground-level platform (no ADA provisions or tactile warning strip) that begins just west of the grade-crossing of Harrison Road a wide dual-carriageway boulevard. The grade-crossing designed so trains stop in a way that they aren't blocking the crossing when doing their station work. This platform doesn't even have a painted yellow line and just a steel highway-style guardrail to separate the station's parking lot from the platform. This parking lot runs between Harrison Road and the station's building.
Along this area of the platform is a unique highway-style sign (green with reflective material in Clearview) that says East Lansing – Lansing: Home of Michigan State University, Michigan State Capital and the logos for Amtrak and the Welcome to Pure Michigan logo beneath. This sign is in front of where the old simple station once was (the original Pointless arrow logo and older Michigan logo has been covered up).
Upon reaching the area in front of the depot, there are two sidewalks up to the modern station building. Some shrubbery is in-between, the platform ends with just shrubbery behind it. This area has two more station signs that are in a unique style, based on the colors of the CATA. These are light blue text on white, a blue line at the bottom has arrows for Chicago or Port Huron, the top of the sign has a green swoop with the sign having a curved top held-up by two silver pillars.
The station building consists of a modern single story trapezoidal shaped building. It feels completely different but does borrow a similar design to an AmStation with the roof overhanging the sides of the building on all four sides, and the roof being flat. The design of the building is full height exterior walls of glass on all sides surrounding all public areas, except for one corner facing the rail platform. Here grey, black, and green siding surrounds the Amtrak ticket office (with an exterior door, I think in case baggage service ever comes to the Blue Water), this same siding is also around the ticket office indoors. A sign that made me laugh is an Amtrak tips sign that included: “Always use authorized Red Caps to carry luggage. Never Leave property Unattended.” There are no red caps at any station in Michigan, the only place in the Midwest with them is Chicago!
There is a separate windowless core to the building that is painted white. This core contains the station's water fountains and restrooms (across from the Amtrak ticket office) and a bus ticket window in the complete opposite corner, staffed by CATA that also sells Indian Trails bus tickets. In this area there are also two vending machines, some bus information panels, but no provisions for a staffed concession stand. Passengers can make a full loop inside the building around this central core. Grey metal seating is in various interior areas of the building and outside under the platform's canopy. The canopy also covers lots of outdoor bike racks.
The station building has three unique entrance areas. All 3 are via glass walled vestibules with signs that the vestibules are open to transit passengers 24 hours a day (although one set of lettering in the windows says this has been reduced due to the COVID 19 pandemic) containing similar silver benches. This is a clever design feature.
Amtrak passengers primarily enter through a small triangular shaped vestibule at the NW corner of the building. There is a second similar-sized vestibule at the SW corner that is the closest access to the station's bus loop. This bus loop contains bollard protected bus stops, and its own canopy structure that forms a curve and covers the sides of the buses allowing passengers to board buses under cover. About 4 buses can stop at the station at one time. There are a few layover areas in the middle of the bus loop. The back of the bus loop (beyond the end of the rail platform) contains a CATA (I believe) maintenance building.
The largest exit area is at the western end of the building, taking up this entire side of the building (the smallest side). This leads to short sidewalks through grass to the station's 150 space Long Term Parking lot. The old station had 30 spaces. The parking lot has long term parking that costs $10 per day with 150 spaces, there is a pay station inside a shelter outside the building entrance at the edge of the parking lot.
Directly south of here is the stations Kiss & Ride area. This runs along the entire length of the southern side of the building. There is some greenery and a circular sculpture in the middle of the Kiss & Ride.
Passenger access to the station is via a few sidewalks into the long-term parking lot. The station is accessible to vehicles via a driveway entrance from Harrison Road. The driveway is the end of Service Road at a 4-way intersection, lots of signage in the driveway directs passengers to the Kiss & Ride area, parking area, or bus area.
This driveway contains an illuminated entrance sign with the CATA logo on-top of a black sign for Capital Area Multimodal Gateway Operated by CATA with space for 4 tenants on illuminated white signs. Just the Amtrak and Indian Trails logos are present. There is an additional sign at the entrance to the driveway for Pick-Up/Drop-Off and final sign along the driveway clearly added later says Parking Reserved (on a Red background) for Patrons of Amtrak & Intercity Carriers Only: No Special Events Parking.
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Battle Creek, MI 