Union Depot — Attraction in Saint Paul

This review is primarily for the Amtrak empire builder trains. The union depot station is great, easily navigated and the staff is very helpful. As for my experience taking the train if I could give it negative stars I would. Me and some family members took the empire builder train from St. Paul to Chicago. It is an 8 hour train ride. We got on the train, and the seating is not reserved. It was a Tuesday morning and the train was packed full. We were told we could not have seats together and had to wait and hope people got off and maybe we could find a seat. This wasn’t a big issue but still annoying. Also keep in mind these trains are not clean, they probably haven’t been cleaned since they were put on the tracks. We had an older lady so kindly switch seats so we could sit closer to our family, only to find out she had spilled a ton of coffee on the floor, which ultimately ended up soaking through our bags and into all our clothes. The absolute worst part of this ride was that we stopped in Winona for a smoke break, nobody came across the intercom to say how long we would be stopped for. We stepped out and I went to use the station restroom as the attendant said we had 7 minutes to departure. 3 minutes later the train was leaving! I had to sprint to get back on the train and in doing so my phone fell out of my pocket into the grass. Upon finding this out I told an attendant who directed to find the conductor and let him know to see what I could do. This man was so incredibly rude. He immediately began screaming at me and said “why didn’t you use the bathroom on the train, you’re lucky it was just your phone that got left behind and not you because if I had my way, my attendant was running late and you would’ve been left behind!” And then proceeded to storm off angrily. All I needed was for him to give me advice on who to contact to help me. So ultimately my boyfriend ended up calling the Winona police who were so amazing and helpful, they went and found my phone and so kindly shipped it back to my home. So just a word of advice if you are looking to travel, I would suggest renting a car over taking a train any day. Amtrak doesn’t care about you, or anyone else for...

Nice depot staff on a chilly MN day!

Lady Travelers Be aware of a potentially homeless man with olive skin and brown eyes in the age range of 40’s-60’s that likes to hang around there, especially by the bathroom he tried to follow me and my mum around, but luckily two security/police guys escorted him away The security staff said they were “tired of seeing him hang around there” and I’m sure they had to deal with this character before! I feel bad they have to deal with questionable folks!

The security staff did a good job at protecting the public, but ladies please be very wary, I think homeless people and questionable characters, like to hang around the station, keep your belongings in a safe place or invest in theft proof bags !

We were very fortunate security was there to take the potentially homeless man away to the shelter before he could do anything potentially sketchy or dangerous.

Travel in groups or with people you know, You never know who you’ll run into at depots be very careful and on guard at all times! Best advice Do not travel by yourself or your likely to get hassled by some stranger off the street! Anybody can go to the union depot! Also Don’t be afraid to ask staff for help they will help you! The staff are patrolling the place well. The depot is a beautiful building that’s well maintained and cleaned ! I was impressed by how clean they kept it ! Don’t be afraid to yell if your in trouble the security team is on top of...

Once inside the main building/waiting area- the space is beautiful. Architecture is stunning, clean and lovely… but

So, There is an elevator but how it works is you enter from ground level - usually with a go ahead from a security guard, which is appreciative considering the area. You go up an escalator. On that second floor, you can go on the one elevator or take stairs down. Then you’re in the main space. It’s huge but there’s extremely limited seating.. only seats available are on one of the four walls and that specific wall has multiple doors, so basically there’s not even a full row of chairs. It’s well lit and clean but the bathrooms are at the other end of the building opposite of the loading door. The water bottle foundation was broke and normal water bottles don’t fit the manual water fountain. When you return. You exit the same way, except you have an escalator option up from the main space and the same escalator option to the ground level. Why there is a stairs down and then escalator up option is beyond me.

I saw no vending machines, no outlets, minimal seating options. Restrooms were clean and had plenty of stalls.

The breathtaking architecture truly over compensates for the lack of functionality and...