All aboard for the North End rail station
Written by jrood
A North End train station project in Niagara Falls, N.Y., more than two decades in the making officially moved into the first phase of construction on August 24, the Niagara Gazette reports. Local officials gathered outside the historic U.S. Customhouse near the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge Plaza to break ground on a new Amtrak passenger rail facility and Underground Railroad interpretive center to be built on the site.
After roughly 25 years of
planning, questions about financing and delays in the processing of paperwork,
long-time supporters of the project celebrated what they hailed as a key piece
in the continued redevelopment of North Main Street and a significant step
forward in improving the experience for rail travelers visiting Niagara Falls.
"The longer the trip, the
sweeter it is when you arrive at the destination and we have arrived," said
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, a long-time advocate of the city’s train
station project.
The rail station and
customhouse renovation project has been in various stages of development since
1987. Throughout the years, it has been bogged down by lack of funding and
delays in key approvals from federal transportation officials.
The new International
Railway Station and Intermodel Transportation Center will provide space to
allow for the transfer of Amtrak passenger services currently being offered at
a station off 27th Street near Hyde Park Boulevard into a state-of-the-art
facility off Whirlpool Street. The project includes the development of an Underground
Railroad interpretive center inside the customhouse building, a structure that
was built in 1863, nearly three decades before the incorporation of the city
itself.
"The customs house
restoration represents a significant first step in the community’s
redevelopment of the North End," said City Planner Tom DeSantis who has been an
ardent supporter of the project for many years. "The restoration and reuse of
one of its most important and most important historic resources and the first
installment of what will become the new international railway station here in
the North End."
The new facility has a
projected price tag of $44 million, although project supporters say roughly $19
million remains unallocated to date. The first phase of construction, slated to
be completed by this time next year, will cost $2.65 million and will involve
the renovation of the customhouse building itself.
Schumer, who has helped the
city secure several million dollars in federal funds for the project and
assisted in getting key project documents through paperwork logjams in
Washington, D.C., expressed confidence that the project would continue to move
forward and will one day serve as a hub of activity in the North End and
throughout the rest of the city and county.
Mayor Paul Dyster
expressed confidence that both the rail station and interpretive center will
add to ongoing efforts to revitalize Main Street, once one of the most
prominent commercial strips in the city that has for many years suffered from
abandonment and blight.
Dyster’s Canadian
counterpart, Niagara Falls, Ont., Mayor Ted Salci, said he believes the
restoration effort will dramatically improve travel experiences for people
coming to New York and Canada and said ensuring that visitors can move between
both countries safely, quickly and efficiently is key to the continued growth
of tourism on both sides.
U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter,
D-Fairport, who also pushed for financial funding and support for the train
station project, said she believes it will go a long way to improving the
movement of rail passengers between the U.S. and Canada and could serve as a
key link in the ongoing development of high-speed rail service between Niagara
Falls and Buffalo. Slaughter did not offer details, but said she is expecting
Western New York to figure prominently in plans supported by the Obama
administration to expand high-speed rail services across the U.S
DeSantis said the contractors
are expected to start work in a matter of days on the customhouse restoration
and will continue to prepare the building for the second phase of development
throughout the winter and into next year. He said the site is expected to be
cleared and the building should be ready for occupancy in about a year.
