Station Developments

[Station Aficionado]

Missed this story from a few weeks ago about the new Miami station. As far as Amtrak is concerned, there's no real news.

The giant Miami Intermodal Center has been under construction for three years.

Tri-Rail passengers must wait at least two to three more months before they can ride to the new station at Miami International Airport.

The $92 million station, part of the giant Miami Intermodal Center east of the airport, has been under construction for three years, a year longer than expected.
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Minor "quality control" issues are the reason for the delay in opening, said Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Ivette Ruiz-Paz.
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Officials hope the station will get its final permit by the end of December, with Tri-Rail trains running there by January. Amtrak will begin operating at a later date, Ruiz-Paz said.
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[Station Aficionado]

This is only tangentially related to the topic, but there's a new exhibit coming to Chicago Union Station later this month:

A traveling exhibit focused on Chicago’s most important transit hubs of the last 75 years is making its way to Union Station from November 22 to January 25.
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The exhibit is the latest passion project from transportation guru Joe Schwieterman, author and professor of public policy and urban planning at DePaul University. “We’re featuring terminals that have been barely covered in the past and those that were truly extraordinary, such as Englewood Union Station and the Chicago Greyhound Station at Clark/Randolph, which was the largest independently operated bus station in the world,” says Schwieterman. “We also show how much has been lost due to demolition.”
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The exhibit will be held in the breezeway linking Union Station’s Great Hall with the ticking concourse, and that’s no accident; milestones reached by Amtrak from the station as well as plans to restore the station to its glory days by moving ticketing back to the Great Hall will also be on display.
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Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but I don't recally hearing anything before now on moving the tickect counters back into the main waiting room.

[Station Aficionado]

Ground has been broken for an expansion and upgrade of the Amtrak station in Galesburg:

City and state officials dipped the tips of their silver shovels into the cold, hard dirt on Thursday to ceremonially mark two groundbreakings for future facilities to better service the city’s public transportation needs.

Mayor John Pritchard, along with aldermen, Illinois Department of Transportation and Amtrak officials ceremonially broke ground for a new housing facility for city buses and handivans. Also at the Amtrak depot, they celebrated the start of renovations to expand and upgrade the building, which will feature a new Burlington Trailways bus ticket office.

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At the Amtrak depot, renovations will cost $730,000, most of which will be paid for by the state. The city received $690,000 from the state and another $40,000 in federal aid.

The new depot will expand to cut back on congestion during busy boarding hours, renovate the washrooms and add a station for riders to catch the bus close to the train station. Also, the station will get a new ticket office and a new heating and cooling system.

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Tom Carper, who sits on the board of directors for Amtrak, said, “It’s really important for this end of this line, from my home town in Macomb and Quincy and Galesburg and all the communities on the Illinois Zephyr line.” He added there 104,000 passengers used the depot last year.

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Having to expand because the existing facilities are inadequate for the demand is a good problem to have. And making bus/train connections more seemless is definitely a plus.

[Station Aficionado]

Meanwhile, in a move that might have consequences for Amtrak, Greyhound is apparently preparing to leave its current station in Cleveland, and may possibly move to a new intermodal facility at the site of Amtrak's Lakefront station:

Greyhound says it is working with the city of Cleveland to move its downtown operations, which would leave the bus company's historic Art Deco terminal in the bustling neighborhood of Playhouse Square open for a new use.

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It also could be a step towards another, perhaps more ambitious goal held by local transportation planners – developing a transit hub in downtown Cleveland that would be an intermodal center for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Greyhound, Amtrak and perhaps other services, such as Megabus, Akron Metro RTA, Stark Area RTA, Portage Area RTA, taxis and rental cars.

That would be a very costly project for the agency that would likely take the lead on it, the Greater Cleveland RTA. Nonetheless, there are signs of renewed exploration of the idea.

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In addressing possible changes afoot for Greyhound, Calabrese mentioned the multimodal center that opened when he headed up the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority in Syracuse, which raised ridership on all modes by an average of about 20 percent.

In Cleveland, talk of an intermodal facility near Lake Erie has percolated since the 1990s. At All Aboard Ohio, a big proponent of a train-bus hub, Executive Director Ken Prendergast sees encouraging signs.

Prendergast said Calabrese told him that he'd contacted Amtrak in recent weeks to discuss the idea of a transportation center by Amtrak's lakefront station.

At the same time, Amtrak must improve its worn terminal to comply with federal laws on handicapped accessibility. With a station parking lot in poor condition and a narrow track-side platform, Amtrak could be readying to invest in its site.

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This is still quite speculative, but I thought it relevant enough to this topic to highlight the story.

[Arlington]

A Detroit Free Press article says that at Dearborn Michigan
- Amtrak service will start using the Dearborn Station on Dec 10th
- The Dearborn station will observe its "grand opening" on Dec 15th

The 16,000-square-foot center is designed as an intermodal passenger rail station on the Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac line with connections to SMART, DDOT and charter buses, corporate and hotel shuttles and taxis, according to Dearborn city spokeswoman Mary Laundroche.

The Detroit Free Press Article on their site includes Handsome images:

[JimBoylan]

Where is the new transit center in relation to the present Amtrak station and the former New York Central depot in Dearborn?

[Station Aficionado]

Where is the new transit center in relation to the present Amtrak station and the former New York Central depot in Dearborn?

It's at Greenfield Village. Google Maps says that's a mile or two west of the current station. As for the former MC (later NYC) station site, according to a map on MichiganRailroads.com, it was about a half mile further west than the new transit center, and was demolished in the '50's (there's a photo at that site). The current station was built in 1982.

[Station Aficionado]

The recently published State Fact Sheets contain some information on upcoming and on-going station developments. Beyond those that we already know about, here are a few other tidbits:

Birmingham AL-new station to be complete by Jan. 2016.

Needles CA-renovations to the El Garces are complete, but Amtrak has not yet completed a lease agreement with the city.

Orlando FL-renovations to be complete by Summer 2015.

Sandpoint ID-renovations to be complete sometime this month.

Ft. Madison IA-old station renovated, but still waiting for new platform to be built; Amtrak still in “modern” station.

Arcadia MO-platform funding secured; service anticipated to begin late 2015.

Newark NJ-renovations to be complete by end of 2016.

Niagara Falls NY-new station to be complete by Summer 2015.

Raleigh NC-construction of new Union Station to begin in March 2015, with completion 2 yeats later.

Johnstown PA-renovation funding has been obtained.

Columbus WI-renovations to begin early 2015.

I don't swear to the accuracy of this info, so please weigh in if you have corrections.

[Station Aficionado]

Some improvements at Norfolk:

Amtrak, in partnership with the city of Norfolk, has deployed new, electronic, ADA-compliant passenger information displays (PIDS) at the train station.

In addition, customer service representatives are available to assist passengers in purchasing tickets and providing other travel information.

The PIDS are located in the station and on the platforms and communicate real-time train and bus status, general boarding announcements and security messages in both audible and visual formats.

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By customer service reps, do they mean that there's an Amtrak agent at the station? And is that new?

[hi55us]

Newark NJ-renovations to be complete by end of 2016.

What are the planned renovations for Newark? Certainly not the best station in the network, but the few times I've used it she gets the job done.

[afiggatt]

Newark NJ-renovations to be complete by end of 2016.

What are the planned renovations for Newark? Certainly not the best station in the network, but the few times I've used it she gets the job done.

There are parts of the platforms and the building structures at the platform level that are in sad shape. NJ Transit capital project webpage on the Newark station project which is light on details, but has a summary:

Project Scope:
The project includes repair and restoration of passenger boarding platform E, roof drainage systems, canopy roof, duct work, brick and tile walls, windows, doors, passenger waiting areas, signage, lighting, and passenger communications. Also included is the demolition of the abandoned boiler building located at the south end of the station.

The Amtrak FY2014 state fact sheet for NJ says mostly the same thing for Newark Penn Station:

Newark Penn Station: New Jersey Transit will complete a program, funded by the Federal Transit Administration, to repair and restore passenger platform E, roof drainage systems, canopy roof, duct work, brick and tile walls, window, doors, signage, lighting, video surveillance, and passenger communications systems. The project will improve the condition, appearance, and functionality of the platforms, at a cost of about $25 million. Structural repairs to the platform edge and buttress wall were completed in summer 2013. The remainder of the project is expected to begin in spring 2014 and be done by the end of 2016.

A station refurb project that can be put in the lengthy to be done by 2016/2017 list.

[hi55us]

Makes Sense. I also have been hearing on and off talk about extending the PATH to Newark Airport, but that seems to always be 5-10 years on the horizon...

[Arlington]

Dearborn intermodal station opened Dec 10th (last day at the old station was Dec 9th). Service Alert linked above says:

The spacious new station offers a larger waiting room, free parking and complimentary AmtrakConnect® Wifi. Additionally, a Tim Hortons restaurant will open in late December.

John D. Dingell Transit Center
21201 Michigan Avenue
Dearborn, Michigan 48124

To celebrate the opening of the new station, an open house will be held Monday, December 15, 2014, from 4 pm - 6 pm. At the open house, visitors can take a tour of the station, see informative displays and talk with people knowledgeable about the future of train travel. A mural created by Dearborn students will also be featured.

[Palmer5RR]

This is my first message, so I hope it works.
I saw a news story in the Hartford Business Journal as follows:
"After years of persistence, the town of Windsor Locks has gotten title to something it's long coveted – the historic but vacant Amtrak passenger-rail station in the town center. The town last week presented $1 to Amtrak and its parent, the Federal Railroad Administration, in exchange for a quit claim deed from the railway operator, ceding its ownership of the masonry Main Street structure."

It should be a busy station with Bradley Airport planning on running a shuttle bus from the station to the airport.

[jstolberg]

Demolition work began this week for a new station in Meriden. http://www.myrecordjournal.com/meriden/ ... riden.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Demolition of the State Street building follows the award of a $58.8 million station construction contract to New York-based Judlau Construction, announced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last week.
...The contract includes building stations and platforms in Meriden, Wallingford and Berlin, in addition to site work and the demolition of the Meriden building. The demolition will clear space for a 79-space lot on State Street.