The New York State Department of Transportation has taken the
intermodal station project off the City of Rochester’s hands, and city
officials are wary.
“Our concern is that we’ve invested a fair amount of time
and effort in getting this design and this plan in place, and people are very attached to it,” says Mayor Tom Richards.
The $27-million intermodal station for trains and buses will
replace the aging Central Avenue train station, which was meant to be temporary
when it was built in 1978. Conceptual designs harkening back to Rochester’s old
Bragdon station have been released.
Richards says there’s no telling what state officials will
do with the project: they may start from scratch. Another concern is that the
state will spend most of the money on improving the tracks, while giving the
building short shrift.
“Ultimately, they want to prepare the tracks for high-speed
rail,” Richards says. “High-speed rail is a wonderful thing, but it’s a long
time coming here. And we really don’t think we should shortchange the terminal
for the tracks.”
The bulk of the funding for the intermodal station is coming
from the state, and the state has been taking a more active role in projects in
which it is significantly invested, Richards says.
But the DOT needs to know that the city is watching, he
says.
“This is not a big project, so it’s kind of fragile in terms
of what could actually happen,” Richards says. “But it may work out. And one of
the ways to make sure it works out is by doing a little moaning and groaning in
the beginning.”
A state DOT representative said last week that the
department is “knee deep in storm response” and couldn’t provide comment on
this story.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2012.
“Richards says there’s no telling what state officials will do with the project: they may start from scratch. Another concern is that the state will spend most of the money on improving the tracks, while giving the building short shrift.”
Given the poor planning, arrogance, incompetence, contempt for the taxpayers and ultimate failure that has been the hallmark of almost every city project since the infamous Fast Ferry , it should be obvious to all that no matter how badly the state screws up the train station it has to better than letting City Hall handle the project.
The State is not the largest contributor to this project. $15 MM was awarded to the project by USDOT this year. NY is matching with $7 MM. And one glaring concern should be the fact that if NYSDOT changes the scope of the project, they will jeopardize that Federal money which was awarded based on the work ALREADY DONE by the City.
I had the opportunity to visit two upstate train stations this past year, one in Utica and the other in Syracuse.
The Utica station is a beautiful, old school station reminiscent of Grand Central. It even has pillars saved from the Grand Central renovation. It’s located in the heart of downtown and a cornerstone in the community and serves both bus and rail passengers.
The Syracuse station is located at the Syracuse Regional Transportation Station, which is a brand new, modern intermodal facility. It is nestled next to the rail line and route 81 near the regional market, baseball stadium and Carousel Mall, which makes it very accessible to the community. There is ample parking and services available at the station as well. It too serves both bus and rail passengers.
Years of squabbling over Renaissance Square, a project that never made sense, held Rochester back for a long time in when it comes to a Rochester bus terminal. Once Renaissance Square was rightfully tabled. the RTS Transit Center on Mortimer Street came into play even when Louise Slaughter and Tom Richards were calling for a intermodal station a 1/2 mile away that would serve both bus and rail passengers. You might think the bus station being only a 1/2 mile from the train station isn’t a big deal, but it is when we had an opportunity to create a facility to serve both bus and rail passengers. Who’s bright idea was that? The bigger question is how, as a community did we let this happen? Partisan politics and lack of vision by some of our leaders and RGRTA seems to be the answer. We need to get beyond the politics and do what is right for the community. I hope it’s not to late for a Rochester Intermodal Station.
While Mayor Richards is right in backing the intermodal station, he’s part of the problem when it comes to moving forward with MCC moving to State Street, where there is plenty of parking and space to grow not to mention the boost it would give to the High Falls. I hope we can get beyond the politics and squabbling and drop the notion that MCC belongs in the Sibley Building. It’s time to move forward and not repeat the mistakes of Renaissance Square.
Mike,
Here’s the quote from Gary Walker, director of communications for the city, when I asked him about the funding: “The lion’s share of it is from the New York State Department of Transportation.” I’ll try to get a breakdown from the city today.
Chris Fien
City news editor
Mike,
I just heard from Gary Walker. Here’s his response:
Chris, technically your reader is correct. The money does come from a federal Tiger Grant, however, the grant comes to us via New York State. So in this case, it is a federal Tiger Grant to the state that we support. So NYSDOT does indeed control the dollars along with the matching $7 million. The work we did was to get the ball rolling, and it is indeed rolling now. Our concerns about preserving some of that work and the citizen input has already been documented by your fine publication.
Chris Fien
City news editor
Chris, thanks for following up on that. I still don’t really understand how NYSDOT can claim that the Federal money is being contributed by NYS. These USDOT TIGER grants are not blank checks. For example, if NYSDOT tries to reassign any of that money to something other than the intended project scope, even if it’s another rail project somewhere else in NY state, the Feds will have no problem taking their $15MM back. I’m not saying it’s a bad or good thing for NYSDOT to be taking over the project. I would just ask NYSDOT to exercise extreme caution if they’re thinking about changing the scope of the project. Rochesterians need to be monitoring this very closely.