This is no small station either. This a town without much air service and a need for reliable scheduled intercity service. Here is the lead and a link.
An Amtrak station in Texarkana that’s been in the area for over 20 years may shut down for good.
Arkansas State Representative Steve Herrelson says the sole employee of the Texarkana Amtrak station will be retiring later this month, and Amtrak has not made any plans to replace the employee.
However, negotiations have been going on between Harrelson and Amtrak officials to consider leaving that position open.
Two notes.
Steve Harrelson is an outstanding legislator and deserves a lot of credit for his consciousness of balanced transportation policy.
Also, we know this blog is read around the world. Please forward local Amtrak news items to me or Logan. We want TFA to be a one-stop clearing house for rail passenger information.
UPDATE: Our friend, State Rep. Steve Harrellson, sends news that the station will continue with one full-time and one part-time employee. Here is a link to the local paper’s story.
Filed under: Amtrak, Passenger Rail Politics, Regional USA Passenger Rail
Trains For America 
If you look at the Amtrak web site, it shows the TXA station with no ticket office hours right now. That does not bode well.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Station/Station_Page&code=TXA
This makes me think: many of the less-used Amtrak stations may not get enough business to support a full-time employee, so it may be a good idea to have some way of having an employee do something else in between trains.
Automated Services would be better then no station at all. A machine can never replace the quality of positive human interaction, but maybe would allow the position to be part time. Sorta a trade off for amtrak and the people of Texarkana. Less service to equal service for the people and Less cost for Amtrak over the long run. Just an idea.
The critical need for smaller stations such as Texarkana is for an employee on duty at train time, both to provide a sense of security for waiting for passengers and to sell tickets and provide CHECKED BAGGAGE service. The latter service is critically important for elderly travelers, for families traveling (where its often impossible to carry kids and haul luggage) and others. Thanks in large part to Representative Harrelson, efforts are underway to resolve the Texarkana staffing issue, but this resolution does NOT involve placement of an automated service such as a Quik-Trak automatic ticketing machine. It involves creative and cooperative staffing arrangements which will address the above concerns first listed.