Posted on 08/25/2010 5:40:41 AM PDT by Willie Green
NIAGARA FALLS — A North End train station project more than two decades in the making officially moved into the first phase of construction on Tuesday.
Local officials gathered outside the historic U.S. Customhouse near the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge Plaza to break ground on a new Amtrak passenger rail facility and Underground Railroad interpretive center to be built on the site.
After roughly 25 years of planning, questions about financing and delays in the processing of paperwork, long-time supporters of the project celebrated what they hailed as a key piece in the continued redevelopment of North Main Street and a significant step forward in improving the experience for rail travelers visiting Niagara Falls.
“The longer the trip, the sweeter it is when you arrive at the destination and we have arrived,” said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, a long-time advocate of the city’s train station project.
The rail station and customhouse renovation project has been in various stages of development since 1987. Throughout the years, it has been bogged down by lack of funding and delays in key approvals from federal transportation officials. The new International Railway Station and Intermodel Transportation Center will provide space to allow for the transfer of Amtrak passenger services currently being offered at a station off 27th Street near Hyde Park Boulevard into a state-of-the-art facility off Whirlpool Street. The project includes the development of an Underground Railroad interpretive center inside the customhouse building, a structure that was built in 1863, nearly three decades before the incorporation of the city itself.
“The customs house restoration represents a significant first step in the community’s redevelopment of the North End,” said City Planner Tom DeSantis who has been an ardent supporter of the project for many years. “The restoration and reuse of one of its most important and most important historic resources and the first installment of what will become the new international railway station here in the North End.”
The new facility has a projected price tag of $44 million, although project supporters say roughly $19 million remains unallocated to date. The first phase of construction, slated to be completed by this time next year, will cost $2.65 million and will involve the renovation of the customhouse building itself.
Schumer, who has helped the city secure several million dollars in federal funds for the project and assisted in getting key project documents through paperwork logjams in Washington, D.C., expressed confidence that the project would continue to move forward and will one day serve as a hub of activity in the North End and throughout the rest of the city and county.
“When people arrive at this station they will then see other parts of this community,” Schumer added. “They will shop at the stores and go to the restaurants. It will be a hub of revitalization, not just for transportation, but for the whole city.”
Mayor Paul Dyster expressed confidence that both the rail station and interpretive center will add to ongoing efforts to revitalize Main Street, once one of the most prominent commercial strips in the city that has for many years suffered from abandonment and blight. Dyster pointed to several recent improvements along Main Street, including the opening of the city’s new public safety complex and the re-opening of the Rapids Theatre as signs that better days are ahead for the neighborhood.
“What a fantastic day it is that we celebrate today, but it doesn’t end there. We all know that we’ve got a great, God-given natural asset here in the Falls. We also know that we’ve got to continue to develop other stories of our great region, of its history and its significance in the history of the United States and the world,” the mayor said.
Dyster’s Canadian counterpart, Niagara Falls, Ont., Mayor Ted Salci, said he believes the restoration effort will dramatically improve travel experiences for people coming to New York and Canada and said ensuring that visitors can move between both countries safely, quickly and efficiently is key to the continued growth of tourism on both sides.
“Travel and transit are very important aspects to tourism in promoting Niagara Falls as the international welcome point for both of our countries,” Salci said.
U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, who also pushed for financial funding and support for the train station project, said she believes it will go a long way to improving the movement of rail passengers between the U.S. and Canada and could serve as a key link in the ongoing development of high-speed rail service between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. Slaughter did not offer details, but said she is expecting Western New York to figure prominently in plans supported by the Obama administration to expand high-speed rail services across the U.S.
“I can’t tell you the facts of it now, but more good news is going to be coming out about the railroad,” she said.
Members of the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Commission are in the process of selecting a preferred consultant that will provide assistance in the development of a museum inside the customhouse building. Commission members are working to implement a master strategy to promote cultural heritage and oversee projects, including a first-floor interpretive center.
Kevin Cottrell, who serves as project coordinator for the North Star initiative, which aims to establish a heritage district along north Main Street near the Whirlpool Bridge, told those attending Tuesday’s groundbreaking that he views the project not as heritage tourism, but as “heritage economics” as it will drive people from the railroad center in the city and to other points of interest in Lewiston, Newfane and across the county.
“It is not about putting a plaque on a wall and standing back and feeling proud because that’s 1950,” Cottrell said. “We’re not doing that. This is about really harnessing the 8 million people who are less than a mile away, bringing them into the core of the city to learn about the story of the Underground Railroad and getting them out to all points east, north, south, west, into the county of Niagara.”
State Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, who pushed for 2008 legislation that authorized the creation of the Underground Railroad Commission and the use of a portion of the county’s share of casino revenue in support of the group’s activities, suggested the start of construction on the customhouse restoration was a sign to the critics that devoting funds to the development of a significant part of the community’s history was a move that will one day pay dividends for the Falls and the surrounding area.
“It’s a response to those doubters and there are doubters out there in the community who don’t understand the value of telling the story and the role of Niagara Falls and Niagara County in the Underground Railroad,” DelMonte said.
DeSantis said the contractor are expected to start work in a matter of days on the customhouse restoration and will continue to prepare the building for the second phase of development throughout the winter and into next year. He said the site is expected to be cleared and the building should be ready for occupancy in about a year.
There goes the neighborhood? :)
Have they gotten the trains running again back east? I have not heard or read anything on it. The traffic jam is still setting in China. All of France get their vacation the same time so they jam the roads and go no where. I am glad that I had my fill of world travel in the military long ago before the systems got so screwed up.
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