30th St Station Completes West Plaza Renovations

November 22, 2013 by motuphila215

We are pleased to announce that Amtrak has completed its West Plaza renovation at 30th St Station (check out their announcement here). The West Plaza, which has be under construction for the last year, has been renovated to include more automobile parking, outdoor seating, additional bicycle parking, and LED lighting.

We have heard and observed your need for additional bicycle parking at 30th St Station. Earlier this week we released a graphic illustrating how 30th St Station has the most bicycles parked at the station and high percentage of them are parked informally. We also did a study earlier this year about bicycle parking at 30th St Station and its users (check it out here). Therefore, we are excited that the completion of the West Plaza renovation expands the bicycle parking capacity on the west side of the station to nearly 100 spaces. In addition to this bicycle parking, we here at MOTU worked with Amtrak to bring six more bicycle racks to the east side of 30th St Station (the side closest to the Schuylkill River). In total, 30th St Station is expanding its bicycle parking by approximately 150 NEW SPACES.

In addition to bicycle parking, the renovation also offers a safer and more pleasant environment for pedestrians. The addition of energy-efficient LED lighting, an at-grad pedestrian crosswalk, new planters, and additional outdoor seating all help to enhance the pedestrian and visitor experience.

Finally, the renovation also includes additional metered parking spaces for automobiles. There are now 14 additional parking spaces along “Little Market Street” in areas that were previously restricted.

Have you been by and seen the improvements? What do you think?