 Harrisburg, PA | Pennsylvanian | Lancaster, PA  |
| Middletown, PA | Keystone Service | Mount Joy, PA |
Elizabethtown is a station stop on all Keystone Service Trains and the Pennsylvanian. The current station has two high-level side platforms located on an elevated embankment that were dedicated on May 4, 2011. These renovations also included renovating and reopening the station's historic 1915 Gothic-inspired depot, which had closed in 1977 (with the station unstaffed since then until the present day). The construction project did remove short canopies on the former low-level platforms that were held up by stone frameworks, replacing them with modern steel and glass canopies.
The current high-level side platforms start a short-ways east of High Street's tunnel through the embankment of the train line. The platforms are offset by about a car-length from each other with the Harrisburg-bound platform farther west. The middle of each platform has identical silver steel with a translucent roof canopy structures (including covering a few benches) that cover about two cars. A staircase (protected by an opaque glass and brushed metal windscreen) and a glass elevator lead down to a pedestrian tunnel that provides all platform access. Signage is blue with Elizabethtown in white, and the directions of travel to Philadelphia and Harrisburg beneath. A historic stone tower (in the same style of the depot) was clearly once a freight elevator up to the tracks but now ends at some grass.
The pedestrian tunnel has exits at both ends. Going north passengers reach a covered walkway (in the same gothic style as the depot) that provides a covered entrance directly into the historic station house. Inside is a small waiting room open weekdays 6:00am to 3:00pm and Saturdays 7:00am to 3:00pm, with a built in wooden bench along three of the walls. Wooden Chamber of Commerce brochure racks line the middle of the room. There are two Quik-Trak kiosks and an ATM in a small alcove. The former ticket office is now the office of the Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce; there is also Free Wi-Fi. Outside of the depot is the station's main drop-off loop. Pedestrians wait under a historic-looking wooden canopy, held up by 3 stone columns (possibly relocated from the former low-level platforms). There is also an Amtrak information kiosk (with the normal three columns for information). Red Rose Transit Route 18 runs roughly hourly during the day from this bus loop all the way to Lancaster (stopping near the Mount Joy Station). A more modern canopy covers the station's 12 bike racks. Beyond the drop-off loop is the station's parking lot with 80 spaces, and some nearby businesses. Downtown Elizabethtown is a short walk down High Street.
Exiting the pedestrian tunnel to the south leads to a secondary exit along Masonic Drive across from the end of Freemasons Drive/Shrine Road and a pedestrian path to the Freemason Cultural Center. The tunnel leads into a covered area with a gabled roof canopy structure held up stone columns. Here there is also another Amtrak information panel and bike rack with a sign on it that it's "Complements of the E-Town Optimists".
All Photos Taken on 5 July, 2013
