Passenger Trains > New NFL station

Associated Press - August 25, 2010 7:15 AM ET

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - Officials in Niagara Falls have broke ground for a
new Amtrak train station to be located at the site of a Civil War-era structure.

The $44 million project will relocate the Amtrak station from its current home
in a largely desolate industrial area on the outskirts of Niagara Falls to the
147-year-old U.S. Customshouse in the city's north end.

City and state officials at Tuesday's groundbreaking said they have submitted
applications for nearly $20 million in federal funding for the project.

Plans call for the new transportation center to also contain U.S. Customs and
Border Protection offices, a bus station and an Underground Railroad museum.
Many fugitive slaves crossed into Canada at Niagara Falls.

The train station is expected to be completed in two to three years.

I am always glad to hear about new stations and Niagara Falls, NY needed a new one in a better location.

But as usual the cost of this project is staggering. $44M

My church recently built an 11,000 sq. ft. addition for $2M. It is a huge space.

Therefore, I must guess that this new station includes some very expensive track improvements in order to access the station? Power switches & signals?

Thanks for your enlightening comments.

Mike Koch

Well my mind is in the wrong place. From the subject line, I thought a new Amtrak station was being built near a football stadium for the benefit of fans attending professional football games there. Not flaming the poster, just laughing at myself after watching the local team lose tonight on TV.

OK, we can all get that way. I flamed because I wondered how football players can get a new station when stations are badly needed elsewhere.

I thought that Obama's brother-in-law was up to something.

The "thinking" man's mind can think a lot of things, unfortunately.

I was just through the Niagara Falls, NY station this week, and it's not much of an excuse for a station. The "Maple Leaf" backs in through hand-throw turnouts, and stops on the north track, VERY close to a brick building that looks like a former freight house (which I believe it was). Customs enters the train through the rear door of the last car, from a short high-level platform that leads directly into the Customs facility. After the train is "cleared", local passengers are boarded from the large paved area south of the tracks. There are three tracks available to work trains, IIRC. There is water and, I think, ground HEP. But it's pretty minimal.

I believe I saw the US Customhouse, which is near the tracks in downtown Niagara Falls, NY. It's a handsome building, but track construction will be required. Still, I think it's worth doing.

I checked out the "bird's eye view" on Bing Maps, and sure enough, the Customhouse is adjacent to the CN track (north side) on Whirlpool Avenue, just a block from the Rainbow Bridge. It was built in that location in 1863, when the first railroad bridge (a suspension bridge) was completed over the Niagara Gorge. The location was known for many years as "Suspension Bridge", and still is, by the railroads.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is currently owned by the City of Niagara Falls, but it is vacant and will need a complete rehab. However, its historic designation means that the exterior appearance cannot be changed, and (depending upon the historic designation) there may be restrictions on what can be done with the interior as well. The intent is to have the building serve local and intercity buses as well as trains. A platform or (most likely) platforms will have to be constructed, with layover tracks for the Empire Service equipment and a place for the "Maple Leaf" to sit, off the main line, while passengers go through customs. There is room on the site for these, but some grading and construction will be required.

Niagara Falls, NY is a dump, and needs all the help it can get. This is a good start.

Railrev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well my mind is in the wrong place. From the
> subject line, I thought a new Amtrak station was
> being built near a football stadium for the
> benefit of fans attending professional football
> games there. Not flaming the poster, just
> laughing at myself after watching the local team
> lose tonight on TV.

My mind was also in the wrong place, geographically. I first thought "Newfoundland" and then remembered that there are no trains operating in Newfoundland any more.

I'm glad that this is finally happening. I remember when a new Niagara Falls station was discussed in the 1980s.

The groundbreaking this past Tuesday was for the first of three phases of the overall project which will include the renovation of the historic Customs House (phase one) for use by US Border Agencies and for a museum on the Civil War-era Underground Railroad activity which made extensive use of the original Suspension Bridge at the site to enable slaves to reach freedom in Canada.

Phase 2 (to start this fall) will include the replacement of the currently-used CSX bridge over Main Street at the site and the removal of the former Michigan Central bridge over Main Street, along with other track improvements for the new station.

Phase 3 will be the actual construction of the new station building, border inspection area and high-level platform, all of which will be linked to the Customs House by an expansive glass atrium.

The project is still short ~$19 million dollars for full completion and two grant applications are now in (a HSR one to FRA and a TIGER one to DOT) for this money.

There will initially be only one high-level platform (adjacent to the new station building) but the design does allow for the addition of a second siding and platform in the future.

The two Empire Corridor trains that currently lay-over in Niagara Falls will, once the new station is finished, deadhead to/from the current location at Lockport Road for overnight servicing. The Maple Leaf will simply stop, be processed by Customs and then continue.

There are concept plans for a new terminal servicing facility to be located somewhere in the vicinity of Niagara Falls to support future expanded Empire Corridor HRS train-sets. All overnight work at the current site is done outdoors which can be quite a challenge in the winter around here.

I have a drawing of the final view of the project I will scan and post in a day or two...

Looks like I'm not the only one whose first thought upon seeing "NFL" was that a new station had been built to serve a football stadium. This is one of the pitfalls of using three-letter station designations in a forum that's read in many places. In another discussion (about going from the San Pedro cruise ship terminal to Los Angeles Union Station) rail-oriented people were advised NOT to use LAX as "shorthand" for LA Union Station, because to the vast majority of Southern Californians, "LAX" means LA International Airport.

We close with a line from Tom Lehrer: "Hurl that spheroid down the field and Fight! Fight! Fight!"

shoretower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was just through the Niagara Falls, NY station
> this week, and it's not much of an excuse for a
> station. The "Maple Leaf" backs in through
> hand-throw turnouts, and stops on the north track,
> VERY close to a brick building that looks like a
> former freight house (which I believe it was)...

former Lehigh Valley freight station

I'm with the RailRev, which way to the season tix desk?