I was there in January of '05 and the only thing different was that the roof was still intact; most of it was a museum, and the passenger waiting room was only open for a few hours in the afternoon and early evening when the Sunset Limited was supposed to stop there (in theory; I don't recall it ever being open while I was there). I don't believe there was a ticket agent there; passengers either had to get tickets through a local travel agency or buy them on the train.

Ridership on the Sunset east of New Orleans was never heavy anyway (not that ridership anywhere along the route was really heavy); I wouldn't be surprised at all if Amtrak chose to make the "temporary" suspension of service east of N.O. permanent.