Buffalo Central Terminal location

Why was this station built in the location that it is in? Was a downtown location not available at the time?

As far as I know it was put there for operating convenience so that westbound trains headed towards Cleveland could use it as the Buffalo station. Can someone tell me: before Central Terminal was built, how were Lake Shore trains handled? Did westbounds go into Terrace Sta. or somewhere, then reverse eastward to head west? I've never seen anything definitive on this.

The New York Central was looking to build a new terminal, and hope to attract the other railroads to it and form a sort of "union station." The location was chosen because the cost to acquire the real estate was far less than trying to build something at Exchange Street (where the costs to demolish and clear the land would have been far greater). The New York Central also hoped that the city of Buffalo would continue to grow, and eventually meet their new terminal (as had happened in New York City). The financial crash helped end that dream. The uproar over the destruction of the residential neighborhood precluded building any more commercial development around the new terminal... and now it sits.

TRAINS magazine ran an excellent two-part story on BCT in 1985... I'll try to locate the issues for you later.

See also: http://buffalocentralterminal.org/

-otto-