Niagara Falls mayor to propose transit center

The City Council in Niagara Falls, N.Y., is expected to take the first concrete steps toward transforming the historic old Customs House into a combination passenger railroad station, bus station and trail head for bike riders and hikers, as well as a tourist attraction of its own and a museum commemorating the slave escape route called the Underground Railroad, The Buffalo News reports.

Mayor Paul A. Dyster, a
strong supporter of improved passenger rail service, plans to ask the Council
to approve just over $2.1 million in contracts to restore the Customs House at
Whirlpool Street and Bath Avenue for use both as an intermodal transportation
center and interpretive historical site based on the Underground Railroad.

In addition, he plans to
ask for an agreement in principle with Amtrak, the national railway passenger
service, to use the new "Niagara Falls International Railway Station and
Intermodal Transportation Center," as it is to be known.

The restoration contracts
would provide for electrical, plumbing, mechanical and general reconstruction
of the long unused Customs House situated almost opposite the American end of
the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge over the Niagara River Gorge. The double-deck
bridge currently carries a limited amount of automobile traffic on its lower
level, and both freight and passenger railroad trains on its upper deck.

If all goes as planned,
the present Niagara Falls passenger railroad station in a somewhat isolated
section off Lockport Road near 27th Street would be abandoned, and passenger
train operations would be moved to the second story of the restored Customs
House. The present station is a converted freight house once used by the former
Lehigh Valley Railroad.

The Underground Railroad
museum and interpretive center would occupy the main floor of the Customs
House. The Underground Railroad was neither a railroad nor was it underground;
it is, however, the popular name for a loosely connected escape route for
slaves making their way northward and across the Niagara River to freedom in
Canada. It is widely believed that the area around the Customs House served as
a safe refuge for escaped slaves who were waiting for transportation across the
river to Canada.

The reconstruction
contracts for the Customs House are contingent on the City of Niagara Falls
reaching an agreement with the state Department of Transportation for the use
of the proposed passenger station. In a step toward reaching that agreement,
Dyster also is asking the Council to approve a proposed agreement in principle
with Amtrak "for the purposes of advancing the design, construction and
funding" of the project. The mayor said the city intends to apply for
funding from the U. S. Department of Transportation "as well as other
public and private entities."

Taking a longer-range
view, Dyster said the building could become much more than a railroad station
and museum. For example, he said, it could become the hub for both intercity
and local bus and taxi service, airport shuttles and tour bus destinations, and
it could become a trailhead for bicyclists and hikers traversing the rim of the
Niagara River gorge or the upper rapids.

In addition, of course, it
could serve as the entry point and inspection station for people and vehicles
entering the United States from Canada via the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.