Sandpoint Train Depot Letters of Support: Number Twenty

Due to the overwhelming support from the community regarding the historic Sandpoint Depot, I have decided to post several letters that were written in support of our efforts to preserve the station and the Amtrak stop in the core of Downtown Sandpoint. This letter was sent before the City Council vote in November and is posted without signature. If you discover your letter has been posted here and would like your signature included, just let me know.

Dear Mayor and Council Members, I would have liked to attend tomorrow night’s meeting to express my support for the revitalization of the Sandpoint train station and to ask you to do whatever you can to keep an Amtrak stop in downtown Sandpoint. However, at 11:49 pm tonight I am boarding Amtrak on my way to Seattle for a business meeting. I telecommute from my home in Sandpoint to a well-paying job based elsewhere, bringing earned wages into the community that would not otherwise be here.

One of the reasons I am able to do this is the availability of reliable and affordable public transportation that I can use when I need to travel to Seattle on business. My employer would look much less favorably upon keeping me as a telecommuting employee if I required a $140 round trip van ride to the Spokane airport, in addition to a plane ticket, every time I was needed in Seattle. Moreover, if Amtrak moves its Sandpoint stop to an unmanned, unenclosed platform some distance from town, there is little chance that I, a woman who frequently travels alone, will be willing to wait to outdoors, in a remote location to board a train at midnight. I am sure there are others who feel the same.The Amtrak stop at the current location is important to me. Please do everything you can to preserve and revitalize it.