Talk:List of former Amtrak stations

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Scope[edit]

As written, this article implies that places like Elizabeth are closed, while the station remained open but Amtrak stopped serving it. Mackensen (talk) 13:43, 12 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is still an issue. Juxtaposing the date a station opened, which can be and often is pre-1971, with a "station closed" date that is often just loss of Amtrak service, is weird and misleading. Ditto the rebuilt column--what does a station rebuilding have to do with whether one carrier serves it? I think an approach similar to List of Amtrak routes, with the earliest date being 1971, would make more sense. Mackensen (talk) 02:21, 24 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed on all points. I've started a rework at Talk:List of former Amtrak stations/Rework with those two columns removed and other columns retitled to be more clear. I've also removed most of the notes column, and tentatively reduced the service list to only those services that stopped at the station at the time of closure. Still to be done is separating city and state into separate columns (as is done on the main list). List of Amtrak stations should also only list the date of first Amtrak service, and have the rebuilt column removed. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 06:23, 25 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I did a quick regular expression on the existing list to bring the rest over and I can work on colors and other adjustments later today/tomorrow. Mackensen (talk) 11:43, 25 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Pi.1415926535 The actual date is knowable in most if not all cases, but is that too much detail for such a list? Most dates right now are just the year. Mackensen (talk) 21:41, 26 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Mackensen: No, I think the actual date is preferable, and an appropriate level of detail. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 22:38, 26 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Another question about scope: if a station is replaced, what determines whether it is "former" or not? There's a range of cases:

Station rebuilt on the same site (example: Buffalo–Exchange Street)
Station rebuilt at approximately the same site, but with new/relocated building (examples: Joliet, Anaheim)
Station replaced within the same municipality/metro (examples: Buffalo Central Terminal, Minneapolis and Saint Paul–Midway, Oakland-16th Street, Simi Valley)
Station replaced in a different municipality (examples: Birmingham, Del Mar)

My take is that 1 and 2 do not need to be included in the former stations list, while 4 definitely should be; that's more or less how the list currently is. The cross-town moves of case 3 are the trickiest; some are currently in the table, while lesser-known moves like Simi Valley are not. We should be consistent about the matter. Perhaps having a separate section like List of MBTA Commuter Rail stations#Relocated stations? Pi.1415926535 (talk) 01:45, 5 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think 1 and 2 should not be included and both 3 and 4 should be included. This is a list of stations, not municipalities. The general rule, though there will be exceptions, is that if there's a separate article there should be an entry. Simi Valley is an interesting case in point, we can't really say that the station opened in 1982 when it's a mile away from the current facility. Mackensen (talk) 03:17, 18 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Mackensen: Makes sense to me; I'll move forward with that plan. I'll probably list some edge cases like Dwight station (which I think should be merged with the old station) here. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 05:28, 18 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]