New Haven, Connecticut State Street Station — Attraction in New Haven

Note to reader, many reviews under the State Street Station posting are actually describing New Haven Union Station. These are two very different stations. Warning-do not use State Street station unless you are an experienced Connecticut line commuter rail traveler. I mistakenly booked a trip from New Haven to Washington DC (which I normally take out of Union station) instead out of this one. I don’t know why - I am normally very careful traveler. I did contact Amtrak the day before travel and asked if the ticket could be moved to Union station and they wanted to charge me at $290 change fee for a station that literally 8/10 of a mile down the road. Anyway I tried to make the best of it. At the State Street Station there is no parking, and no bathrooms. Do you wait outdoors on a platform. There is a small enclosed area with ticket machines but it’s on heated. We arrived an hour early and literally stood outside that long for a train that arrived late. You have to depend on private parking garages. The one that we used - State street parking- did not have any clearly identify entrance for pedestrians coming back so we had to walk around the building until we finally made our way- in which was a real pain walking in the rain. But that was the least of the problems. On the return trip, the Amtrak train paused very briefly at the station. It did not open the door as it did more of a ‘touch and go’. They probably figure that all the New Haven riders got off at union station, which was just before this one. There was no announcement of which doors were supposed to be opening. We stood in front of a set of doors that were clearly on the ramp, and they never opened. They took off very quickly and we had to got off at the Wallingford station about 20 min up the rail and had to take an Uber back to get our car. The conductors frankly displayed a lack of empathy about the situation and claim they made an announcement but we clearly never heard an announcement. We had been on this train for six hours from DC, so we’re fully attentive and anxiously waiting to get home. Lesson learned - do not take this station for anything beyond normal commuter rail that you’re familiar with.

Also, one of the reviews mentions portable restrooms in the driveway. Yes there are Portable restrooms, but you are not allowed to use them. believe it or not they are padlocked, and when we went to use them, a gentleman came out of one wearing a bus driver outfit and promptly locked the restroom and said these are for CT transit bus drivers only and refused to let us use them. He told us to get into our car and drive a mile down the road and use the union station bathrooms. I don’t know how Amtrak allows this or the Connecticut DOT or whoever runs the station. We really love rail and we want to embrace it but the customer service is really bad at least...

Used to be a really decent stop - heating lamps inside of the waiting area, portable restroom outside of the station in the driveway area. Now, it’s become a haven for homeless and drunks - no restroom, no safe waiting area… riders are forced to wait outside (versus being able to utilize the heated waiting area where the ticket machines are) because the non riders (men laying on the floor getting high and drunk - blatantly spitting on the ground, peeing even) fully occupy all areas. The Amtrak is ALWAYS excessively late, leaving riders in the cold while they await late connections - just a total joke and disregard of passengers. This station is a homeless shelter and no longer a safe or comfortable spot, being stranded by Amtrak for over 30 minutes in the freezing rain doesn’t...

This is a moderate sized station with several fast food selections and the old time wooden benches to sit on. The drop off and pick up can be challenging as they have only one u-shaped driveway. Parking is plentiful next to the station. The neighborhood around the station is sketchy so do not wander far, get a cab or uber to your destination. You can head to your track early and wait on the platform and get to one of the front cars. Metro North and Amtrak both stop here. If you are going to New York City, Amtrak will take you to Penn Station 34th and 8th avenue in about 1 hour 30 minutes, and cost 3x more than the Metro North train. The Metro North train will take between 1:45 and 2 hours to NYC and get you into Grand Central Station at 42nd street and...