Posted on 04/26/2010 8:52:50 AM PDT by Willie Green
NIAGARA FALLS — A conductor walking through the sparkling new train station in the city’s North End suddenly stops to make an announcement that people have waited for years to hear.
“All passengers for the 21st Century Limited to New York City will now board at Gate 1!”
It’s 2030 — maybe a little later — and the high-speed Amtrak train service carries hundreds of passengers daily on the six trains departing the Cataract City for Penn Station in New York.
Two of the sleek cars quickly fill with commuters bound for downtown Buffalo and Rochester.
Other stops include Syracuse, Utica and Albany before the final leg into mid-Manhattan.
For many years, the trip took more than eight hours. With the vastly improved rail system and the latest line in locomotives, travel time is less than five hours.
Today is another story: The Falls to Albany train can still take upwards of six hours.
Hopes for the high-speed service were revived when Gov. David Paterson released the 2009 New York State Rail Plan, the first comprehensive update of this state’s rail strategy in 22 years.
The New York plan is focused on a $9.3 billion program dedicated for intercity rail. Those funds authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act create the potential for doubling the number of intercity passengers along three major corridors in the state, including Niagara Falls-to-Albany.
The scramble for the funding has not been easy:
n New York state was granted only $151 million for seven projects identified as part of its application process. (At the same time, $2.3 billion was allocated to California and $1.25 billion to Florida.) One federal official noted that if it hadn’t been for Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, among others, New York would have received even less.
n For the $8 billion that President Obama provided for high speed rail in his stimulus plan, there were 259 applications from 37 states for projects that would cost $57 billion.
Under the ambitious plan, a third track — at present there are two sets of tracks — would be dedicated for high speed, with the goal of reducing the Falls-to-Albany run by a couple of hours.
“We’re operating our (high speed) trains even now in excess of 100 miles per hour in three states in the Northeast,” said Joseph H. Boardman, president and chief executive officer of Amtrak, the nation’s rail passenger corporation, during a meeting last month of the Empire State Passengers Association in Schenectady.
“We’re underfunded as we have been for years,” he said, noting the Acela Express service that started in December 2000 could be operating now at 240 miles per hour, if it had been properly funded in the first place.
Niagara Falls — the No. 2 tourist attraction in the state after New York City — has a rich history in the railroad passenger train business. In earlier days, the storied New York Central fleet bearing such names as The Twentieth Century Limited, Empire State Express and the Lake Shore Limited criss-crossed New York around the clock, between New York City and Chicago as well as much of the Midwest.
Don Hannon, director of Integrated Modal Services, state Department of Transportation-Albany, said at the time Obama called for a concerted effort to develop high-speed rail, New York was ideally positioned with its rail plan already prepared by Amtrak, CSX, and other railroads that provided an in-depth look at their needs over the next 20 years.
“We can have 150 or 200 mph service in New York but it’s going to take 20 years,” Hannon predicted. In addition, he said it could cost upwards of $30 billion.
“The projects we submitted met the criteria of the Federal Railroad Administration,” Hannon said. Safety is always the No. 1 concern, he added, citing grade crossing improvements as a major component of that overall program.
As a result of the applications, seven projects in New York state have been identified as qualifying for the ARRA funding.
They include improvements for the stations at Buffalo-Depew and at Rochester; a new third track west of Rochester; a second main track between Albany and Schenectady; grade crossing improvements in the Hudson Valley and planning for the entire Empire Corridor. Neither Niagara Falls nor any of its rail operations are specifically listed among the projects.
Bruce Becker, president of the Empire State Passengers Association, however, says Niagara Falls is definitely in line to benefit from the $58.3 million earmarked for the improvements between Buffalo and this city.
That includes: Grade crossing upgrades, some $32 million for signal improvements on the Niagara section, $22 million for track, bridge and signal work for the proposed North End station, $1 million for a new double-track in the Falls and $2.5 million for a new maintenance facility here.
Mayor Paul Dyster has been a staunch supporter for the new train station from the day he took office. He is excited about the plan for combining the new station with the Underground Railroad Interpretive Center in the converted landmark Customs House on Whirlpool Street.
“It seems like we waited forever to start work on the new station,” Dyster said during a recent talk.
DOT officials concede that the rail service from Schenectady to Niagara Falls is now far from impressive.
A major reason: CSX operating at least 50 freight trains per day in that 320-mile corridor. More than half the delays to the passenger train service are due to freight train interference and speed restrictions.
Despite the delays, Amtrak has improved its on-time performance from 41 percent in 2008 to 64 percent in 2009.
“The average Buffalo-to-Albany run is five hours, 44 minutes, and with 110 mph-tracks and using current equipment, we can shave off that time to just under four hours,” Hannon said.
Amtrak officials remain confident that a third track dedicated to passenger trains would dramatically increase the level of service west of Albany to Buffalo-Niagara.
Under that expansion, Amtrak would increase its present eight trains per day to 14 by 2030, the same level of service now offered between Albany and New York City.
Finally you post an idea that won’t cost us money.
High-speed rail and Maglev are an investment that will SAVE us money.
because Louise Slaughter has not rounded up the votes yet to fund a restoration and re-opening of the Erie Canal?
I am sure a lot are wearing SABERS clothing right now.
Bills fans have nothing else to root for. No major league baseball. The Buffalo Braves(NBA) moved away in the 80’s.
As soon as Ralph Wilson dies, we will have the first Canadian NFL team playing in the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
I grew up in Orchard Park, NY. I was there when the “Electric Company” turned on the juice. I remember when “the French Connection” almost won the Stanley Cup. We went to Braves games and watched Ernie D and Bob Macadoo play ball at the Aud. I also remember when 25000 people worked at Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna. When I left in 1985 you could not get a job and taxes were already high.
In fairness I guess I was remembering the pre-4 Superbowl loss fans. After losing 4 straight, maybe a lot of fans had had enough... of course no one has been able to duplicate that record. ;-)
You are about my age. I grew up in East Aurora (South Wales really) and remember all the way back to the Kemp versus Lamonica days. I remember winning the AFL championship and then missing the first Superbowl by one game. I remember the Sabres and the old AHL Bisons before that. I left 10 years before you did... because I couldn’t get a job there then either.
Niagara Falls was an electrochemical industry powerhouse. Engineers outnumbered lawyers. Then Wall street politician Robert Moses stole its hydroelectric power for New York City. He demolished private housing and dockage on the shores of the Niagara River to make the “Robert Moses Parkway”.
UB:
In the 60’s UB wants to build a new Campus. La Salle Park is the ideal spot, right at the mouth of the Niagara River with nothing but modest one and two story apartment units for half a kilometer. The park is a stones trow from Downtown Buffalo (*City hall is maybe 2,000 feet from the south end of the park). Buffalo wants too much money for any land, Amherst NY (just north) gives UB swamp land which the state gladly snatches up and thirty years later the closest thing to a flag ship in the SUNY system sits miles away from Buffalo with twenty thousand people on campus at any given time.
Peace Bridge:
My coworker who has never set foot in WNY knew about this debacle. Because some appointed bureaucrats want to hold onto the ‘peace bridge commission’ Buffalo loses a rare moment when their was the need, money, and population support for a signature bridge. Now more than a dozen years later Buffalo is still stuck with an old (going on 100), three lane bridge as our gateway to another nation.
Buffalo Bills Stadium:
Scuttled by hit pieces in the Buffalo News (who later purchased the land for their own building) what could have been a downtown dome stadium is now out in the middle of nowhere (orchard park).
Metro Rail:
Tore up main street and killed dozens of business in the process Downtown Buffalo went from a shopping haven to a ghost town in five years. The best part is the rail stopped at the northern border of Buffalo (the UB Medical/Dental campus) instead to the Universities main campus (in Amherst) so it now goes from a ghost town to the one UB campus where kids have cars.
The list goes on... But riddle me this, if Buffalo cant get a simple light rail from Downtown Buffalo to Downtown Niagara Falls who in the heck thinks that high speed will ever get done, well?
If there is one city in the Nation that cant get anything right it's Buffalo NY.Well I can't disagree with you there.
I GUARANTEE you that this train will have more stops along the way as the project progresses.
Every significant town it passes through will demand a station in return for the right of way and politicians will cave to curry votes.
The high-speed rail will become just like Greyhound.
No, I’m tired of tax money from most of the rest of the country being funneled into projects like this that only benefit a select few areas.
They will attempt to build it and successful or not they will impose high taxes and other measures to do away with automobiles etc citing this small area and other small area projects as what we all should be substituting for transportation. The big coastal cities have rail and subway systems that their residents can use while those of us in flyover country benefit squat from all of our tax dollars that go to them rather than us either keeping the money in our pockets or using our tax dollars to keep up our highway systems which are essential to our state and interstate commerce.
If they want high-speed rail then they should figure out how to fund it without the rest of us.
It’s not successful because it goes from nowhere to nowhere...
If the train was extended even just five miles to UB’s north campus ridership would greatly increase and UB could stop using a shuttle bus between campuses.
It would be easier for the 10K undergrads living on campus to get downtown. It might bring some life into main street..
..
Here in the twin cities they built a rail and they did it right ( I was skeptical after the Buffalo debacle ) but if goes from the Mall of America past the airport terminals then to downtown ending at the baseball stadium..
For a lite rail to work it needs to begin and end somewhere worth going with a stop or two in between..
So is paying me more so please, invest today!
“High-speed rail and Maglev are an investment that will SAVE us money.”
Willie, I just HAVE to ask.....Are you an idiot or do you just play one on Free Republic?
I can drive to Albany in 4 hours.
I am in Niagara Falls in 10 minutes and in downtown Buffalo in 15 minutes.
This high speed rail will only serve the political class so they can get to Albany faster so they can screw us more.
Paladino for Governor!
Willie, I just HAVE to ask.....
Why? Do you suffer from compulsive smartass disorder?
“Why? Do you suffer from compulsive smartass disorder? “
I didn’t know they had a name for it!
Thanks!
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