When a passenger train arrives in Dodge City, an intrepid band of volunteers is on hand to open the waiting room, dispense information and serve as the passengers' first contact in town.
Anyone who traveled by rail to or from Dodge in the 1980s and '90s will remember the Sparrows, a couple who was contracted by the railroad to open and maintain the waiting room before each train's arrival — a service they continued to provide until the station was closed for renovations in 2000. Those same travelers will probably also recall the decaying state of the waiting room and the two ugliest restrooms in town.
The original plan for the renovation called for a waiting area to be maintained through the process of construction, but gas and electric service, as well as water, required that the entire facility be closed.
The completed waiting room was reopened in 2004, by which time Amtrak was unable to provide funding for staff, due to budget constraints.
Local officials visited other rail stations across the Midwest looking for solutions, and a new group of volunteers, called The Railers, was born.
Meeting the train
Today, eight to 10 volunteers form the nucleus of The Railers. They open the waiting room about an hour before the train's scheduled arrival to give those friends and family who are waiting to pick up passengers a place to wait.
They provide coffee and other beverages, reading material, and clean restrooms.
In 2008, 4,612 passengers are listed as either "Boarding" or "Alighting" on the Amtrak Fact Sheet — that's more ridership than Hutchinson or Lawrence. Kansas as a whole posted ridership of 41,866 in 2008.
The human spectrum
Railers meet people from all over the world.
"Everyone comments on our beautiful historic station," said Railer Ethel Peterson. "They realize they're in an original structure that was significant in the town's development, and one that was protected by the world's most famous lawmen."
Another Railer, Dennis Doris, said, "We're actually seeing an increase in traffic through the station with the recession."
Occasionally, the Railers help make arrangements for homeless travelers or call the taxi service.
"We had a woman and her children kicked off the train by the crew because her children were misbehaving — we had to scramble to find her a place to stay," Doris said.
Peterson added: "We've had people return home from a long trip only to find their car has a dead battery, so we can handle that too."
The Railers report that the train is on time about 95 percent of the time and if it's late, it's usually due to floods or high winds somewhere down the track.
The train crew changes in Dodge City, so the crew that brought the train from either Los Angeles or Chicago gets off and a new crew that has spent the night at the Dodge House takes over.
