Buffalo Central Station under Amtrak (Past, Present, Future)

[Jeff Smith]

Came up in my feed today: Untapped Cities

Fair-use SNIPS:

How Buffalo’s Central Terminal Train Station Was Almost Lost

Ever heard of Central Terminal? No, not Grand Central Terminal in New York City. The train station we’re referring to is on the other side of the state in Buffalo, New York – large enough to accommodate over 3,200 passengers every hour and 1500 employees back in its heyday.

Built in the late 1920s, this classic and nearly forgotten Art Deco train station fell into obscurity, for several decades, as it sat empty and abandoned on the east side of Buffalo. It was designed by the prominent architects, Alfred T. Fellheimer and Steward Wagner of the Fellheimer & Wagner firm. Mr. Fellheimer was the lead architect for several other famous train stations in the United States such as Grand Central in New York City and the Cincinnati Union Terminal in Ohio. Construction began in 1927 and opened to the public in 1929. It cost the New York Central Railroad line over fourteen million dollars to complete this masterpiece.
...
Central Terminal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 with a very uncertain future. The private individuals who owned the property at that time left the station vacant, abandoned and it was sadly looted by vandals. These shameful owners stripped the interior and sold off anything of value and proceeded to use the ground floors for storage. By the 1990s the east side of Buffalo considered this place an absolute eyesore. Miraculously, after years of constant debate, Central Terminal was (likely) spared demolition due to a twelve million dollar price tag.

Finally, in 1997, a group of local residents came forth determined to stop the bleeding and save Central Terminal from further disaster. This group of preservationists created The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation. When approached by the CTRC for a price to buy the property from the beleaguered owner, he offered it to them for exactly one dollar, a common transaction amount for development projects.

Thankfully, the CTRC has done a tremendous job of sealing up the building, fixing major structural issues and repairing this Art Deco gem for a much brighter and optimistic future. Just a few days ago, a $250,000 electrical upgrade was announced and Buffalo News has reported that the selection of Canadian developer Harry Stinson may be just around the corner. The biggest decision on the table is wether or not Central Terminal should be re-opened as a train station for use by Amtrak. Others believe a new station should be built in the downtown area where most of the resurgence is happening.

Over the past two decades, Central Terminal has been used for art exhibitions, performances, Dyngus Day and in 2016, the interior was used as part of the set for the film We Are Marshall. The CTRC continues to host guided architectural tours and other special events.
...

[ExCon90]

It's unfortunate that that article was not more carefully fact-checked and proofread. I don't recall high-level platforms in Buffalo, and the whole idea of having a layover in Buffalo long enough for dinner on a trip from New York to Chicago is preposterous. Also, Jean Harlow did not undergo a sex change. And guess what: in the related feature about "secrets" of GCT, there it is--the phantom FDR baggage car on Track 61.

[Tadman]

Ha, that guy got the can at MNCR so perhaps the absurd story about FDR's baggage car will stop or at least slow down.

[ExCon90]

Maybe someone will drive a stake through its heart.

[Ridgefielder]

You're not going to even get started for 10 million.
Noel Weaver

I used to volunteer with the BCT resto group, years ago when it was a fledgling organization, and before the problems it had. Estimates roughly 20 years ago put restoration of the terminal, and not the tower, at $50M, the damage was that bad. Our job at the time was to A) Secure the terminal, and B) To start clean up efforts. I'm proud of what we were able to do, but at the time had reservations about what could actually be done with the property. It's in a rough part of town, and quite frankly was never a net boon to the surrounding neighborhood. There was resistance to it being built in the first place, and rightfully so, hubris and corporatism put it two miles from downtown, the Central figured the city would be 'pulled' towards the terminal, that's how arrogant the powers that be at more than a few American railroads were, at the time.

Worth mentioning that it probably wasn't just pure arrogance that made the Central think the district around BCT would develop. Midtown Manhattan basically came into existence as a business district because of Commodore Vanderbilt's ca. 1870 decision to build Grand Central Depot at the (then-far-uptown) location of 42nd St. & 4th Avenue. And even more recently, the electrification of the route into GCT, and the subsequent covering over of the yards north of 45th St., turned 4th into *Park* Avenue and caused the neighborhood to change virtually overnight. Management would have been well aware of this: it was only ~10 years since the new Grand Central Terminal had opened, and ~50 since the construction of the original Grand Central.

[Jeff Smith]

It's unfortunate that that article was not more carefully fact-checked and proofread. I don't recall high-level platforms in Buffalo, and the whole idea of having a layover in Buffalo long enough for dinner on a trip from New York to Chicago is preposterous. Also, Jean Harlow did not undergo a sex change. And guess what: in the related feature about "secrets" of GCT, there it is--the phantom FDR baggage car on Track 61.

I know there was some information that was probably sketchy; I like the site, but like we say about men's magazines, I read it mostly for the pictures LOL. The articles are usually pretty good, but I'm not surprised some facts are off.

[east point]

If the stock market crash October 1929 and depression afterwards had not happened then BCT might have been considered a wise decision leading up to WW-2 and afterwards ?

[adamj023]

Looks like it will be Downtown and not a reused Buffalo Central. They should turn rhe train station into some facility to be reutilized, perhaps a museum, shops, transit museum or public event hall or even something else as well as the surrounding property and remove the decaying parts of the station.

Penn Station needs to be fixed including infrastructure as well as the project for the Amtrak train hall before any Buffalo station should be replaced.

[bdawe]

Worth mentioning that it probably wasn't just pure arrogance that made the Central think the district around BCT would develop. Midtown Manhattan basically came into existence as a business district because of Commodore Vanderbilt's ca. 1870 decision to build Grand Central Depot at the (then-far-uptown) location of 42nd St. & 4th Avenue. And even more recently, the electrification of the route into GCT, and the subsequent covering over of the yards north of 45th St., turned 4th into *Park* Avenue and caused the neighborhood to change virtually overnight. Management would have been well aware of this: it was only ~10 years since the new Grand Central Terminal had opened, and ~50 since the construction of the original Grand Central.

Wasn't the site fairly well placed to serve most of the railroads in the Buffalo area? I assume that was part of the goal in location decisions

A 'real' downtown terminal would have imposed the same problem back then that they have for the Lake Shore Limited now - that a through train would have to back into downtown or circuitously loop around out, and that would be a much more serious problem when there were a great many more through-trains

[Tadman]

According to this, EL ran trains into the EL station in Buffalo until 1984. What am I missing?

http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/29/dlw-w ... velopment/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Metro Rail trains have been rumbling in and out of the complex since service started in 1984, picking up where the Erie-Lackawanna – the DL&W’s successor – left off after it ended passenger service".

EL didn't run any passenger trains post A-day other than the Cleveland commuter train and certain NJT services, right?

[Amtk30]

EL didn't run any passenger trains post A-day other than the Cleveland commuter train and certain NJT services, right?

I believe EL ran their Lake Cities intercity up to January, 1970. Not sure if the EL Lakes Cities stopped at the EL station site, certainly not up to 1984. Must be a media typo error.

Amtk30

[ExCon90]

Not exactly erroneous, but sloppily written. It says that Metro Rail started service in 1984, after the E-L had ceased service--technically correct--but it invites the reader to infer that it was right after rather than long after; it would have been better to say "after" than "where" the E-L left off. But the E-L definitely ran nothing into Buffalo after the Lake Cities ceased; in fact, I recall arriving in Buffalo on the Phoebe Snow--can't remember the year--at 515 Babcock Street, so they were out of the old DL&W terminal even by then.

[Noel Weaver]

The last east - west passenger train on the EL was nos. 5 and 6, The Lake Cities between Hoboken and Chicago. It did not run to or via Buffalo. Previously a overnight train ran between Hoboken and Buffalo, I rode that train once and it had one reclining seat coach and a bunch of head end cars for mail and express. This train existed for head end traffic and when that dried up the train came off. I will have to dig for dates.
Noel Weaver

[gokeefe]

Much to my surprise ... "Not dead yet ... "

Plans for a new Amtrak station, in downtown Buffalo, are moving forward. The state is planning to start work on the $25 million project this fall. But, Congressman Brian Higgins is not giving up on locating the new station in the historic Central Terminal.
...
"Almost 90% of respondents to the site selection committee...preferred the Central Terminal. So this is not a decision that's widely supported by the public to site a new Amtrak station in downtown Buffalo," Higgins said.

I checked on this topic specifically to see if the events in Detroit with Ford's purchase of Michigan Central Station have had a ripple effect in Buffalo ...

More to come ...

[gokeefe]

Buffalo has taken notice ...

Many Buffalonians recently hoped that our own Central Terminal would become a central hub of transportation, when the search was on for a new Amtrak Station. Unfortunately for East Side advocates, the terminal was not the chosen location. Alas, we can all relate to Detroit’s giant win here. This will certainly be a game changer for the Motor City. Hopefully we can learn a few things, as Ford sets out to convert this forlorn station into a center for transportation innovations, and a powerful magnet for formerly disenchanted Detroiters.