Depot would benefit from addition of bench

Last night I dropped off my 79-year-old sister and her husband at the Sandpoint Train Depot where they boarded an Amtrak train at 1 a.m.

They had traveled by Amtrak from Illinois and arrived Aug. 5 for a three-day visit. On that day, I was scheduled to pick them up at 12:55 a.m., but my sister called me from the train after it left Whitefish, Mont., and said it was running nearly two hours late. The train finally pulled into the station at 2:30 a.m. If she hadn't called me, I would have been waiting at the train platform at 12:30 a.m. When I arrived at 2 a.m. there was a man with three daughters waiting along with another gentleman who said he had been waiting since 12:30 a.m. 

My question is: Why isn't there a bench on the platform for people waiting to depart, or picking up passengers? It seems the powers to be, whether it is the city of Sandpoint, Bonner County, or Amtrak, would benefit by providing a welcoming bench, especially for the elderly and handicapped visitors and residents. My sister informed me that on their two-day train trip from Illinois, they had passed through a number of towns that had a bench at the depot.  

When I dropped off my sister and her husband after their visit, I carried three folding chairs, which we used while we waited on the platform for half an hour for the train to arrive.

CECIL HICKS

Sandpoint