The new Rochester Amtrak station is officially under construction. Officials say that that the station should be completed in 2017.
Most of the work happening through this year will be site preparation and design work. CSX, which owns the railway that carries Amtrak trains through Rochester, will remove unused signal poles by the end of the year, for example. According to a press release from the offices of Governor Andrew Cuomo and House Representative Louise Slaughter, removing the poles frees up room to build the new station.
State and federal officials, along with Amtrak and a group that represents train passengers, held a groundbreaking for the new station today. The state also released a new exterior rendering of the building.
Unlike the current station, which was built more than three decades ago as a temporary facility, the new, $29.8 million Rochester Intermodal Station will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And the new stations will have two tracks, which officials say will help reduce delays, track congestion, and conflicts with freight trains. The station will also have a two-sided platform, which should ease passenger boarding, they say.
Officials also promise a better-looking station — one that draws on the design of the Claude Bragdon-designed station demolished in 1965 — and has better amenities for travelers. The new station will also include redesigned parking, sidewalks, and lighting, as well as bike lockers and racks. And the parking lot’s design will allow for bus operators like Greyhound and Trailways to tie their services in with the station.Â
The project is funded in part by a $15 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration. Slaughter, a longtime proponent of a new train station for Rochester, pushed for the funding. The federal government, by way of the State Department of Transportation, is putting up another $3.5 million. The state is covering the rest of the cost, save a $500,000 contribution by the City of Rochester for design.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2014.
I like anything that gets built in Rochester, but, I think this is the wrong thing to build when the money should be used for our bridges that are falling down and roads that are in disrepair. I heard the opponent of Louise, Mark Assini in an interview talking about bridges that are falling down and unsafe. He also talked about major highway intersections that are unsafe and our streets are full of potholes. During their debate on television, Louise said 129000 (I believe that was the number) people ride the train every year…but all of us drive our cars. I would rather have safe bridges, repaired pot holes and safe highways than a train station few will ever use.
Finally! This train station gets used a lot. Travel by train is cost effective, better for the environment, and a lot more relaxing than driving. I am GLAD they are building a new train station to promote train travel in WNY and beyond. If we only ever focus on our cars and our highways, then we will become isolated from the rest of the country. Safe bridges and roads are important. And they’re working on it. But that train station has needed help for a long time. I am glad they finally got it together and are starting work.
To Clint’s point, I don’t think anyone would argue that there aren’t roads or bridges that need repair in our community. That said, we seem to spend quite a lot on maintaining and expanding that infrastructure (e.g. $100m for new 390 exits near U of R) and relatively little on things like rail. Replacing the fairly depressing 30 year old “temporary” terminal with something more functional and appealing will likely increase ridership and make it a more viable option for a wider section of our community. While a lot of us have cars, there are plenty of folks who don’t or for those who do, would choose to use other modes of transport if they were easy and appealing. I am glad to see they’ve broken ground on this project.
Cannot wait for the high speed rail too. We will have to build a single, additional line of track for high speed train travel. I have waited about 30 years for this high speed rail…and I can wait a little longer. Rochester Monroe County really needed a new train station as well. Thanks to all that made it possible. Who will buy the locomotive that can travel at speeds up to 100 mph ?
Craig R. Moffitt
It’s hard to know how to feel about this sort of spending on a new train station. I like the idea of Rochester having a nice modern train station, and it doesn’t seem right to forever back-burner a new train station just because there’s some road or some bridge somewhere in need of repair — there always will be.
Despite whatever shortcomings it has, the current train station has worked for a lot of years and the new one is expensive. Meanwhile the idea of travelling by train is no less than a couple generations out of date and – notwithstanding the dream of high speed rail repeatedly trotted out as a Democrat campaign issue – that reality is not scheduled to change.
Amtrak is fine for a weekend trip to New York since it gets you there in good time and because you won’t need your car. Passenger rail is an awkward fit for most other travel scenarios for a variety of reasons mostly centered around car or air travel usually being a better option.