MORNING SUN BOOKS Three new all-color books for October 1st:
FRISCO VOLUME 2
By Greg Stout Item# 1455
Grand Stations Make A Comeback
RAILROADING VOL.1
INDUSTRIAL
By Stephen M. Timko Item# 1456
BUFFALO,ROCHESTER &PITTSBURGH
VOL.4:PARTNERS AND CONNECTIONS
By Mike Zollitsch Item# 1457
These all-color 128-page hardcover books will be available October 1, 2012. Order today at price of $59.95 apiece plus $7 shipping (add $2 for each add’l book) Canada-$12; foreign-$21, each. All books are shipped via U.S. Mail.
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Our memories of the ERIE LACKAWANNA Volume2
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PHILADELPHIA MEMORIES Vol 1 Surface Lines - Two Discs - 2 Hrs 23 Min
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Morning Sun Books, Inc.
THE MIND-BOGGLING CATALOGUE of questions about the future of passenger rail in America tends to overshadow the in- frastructure advances that are reviving an old American phenomenon: The train station as the anchor of America’s cities and towns. Visions of high-speed rail abound, albeit
some shot down; the uneasy truce between passenger and freight interests as to how to allocate rights-of-way has become even more uneasy; new rumblings of passenger “priva- tization” have been tossed into the milieu; the very future of Amtrak is (again) on the table; post-election transportation decisions are fat question marks. But while all these concerns have long occupied front-burner status, the place of the train station in communities na- tionwide has managed quietly to advance in big city, middle-sized, and small-town America. (“Quietly,” that is, until the recent unveiling of a project far too huge to be “quiet.”)
Washington In July , Amtrak, the realty firm Akridge, and other partners rolled out a “Master Plan” that lays the groundwork for an ex- panded and greatly improved Washington Union Station “that will increase capacity and accommodate future service expansion, deliver the highest quality passenger expe- rience, and provide robust support to local and regional economic growth,” according to the formal announcement. The huge 1907 landmark — at the foot of Capitol Hill — “will accommodate three times as many pas- sengers and twice as many trains, all within the same footprint and preserving Union Station’s historic architectural design.” There are two main projects in connection
with the Union Station plan: 1) as just men- tioned, improvements for the train opera- tions (Amtrak, MARC, Virginia Railway Ex- press, Washington’s Metrorail subway), and 2) “mixed use” development whereby a pri- vate/public partnership would build three million square feet of an envisioned center for commercial, retail, and residential use. This segment will be known as Burnham Place in honor of Daniel Burnham, the orig- inal architect of Union Station when it was erected over 100 years ago. At the news conference announcing the
project, Amtrak President Joseph Board- man declared, “This plan will transform the station into a world-class transportation hub to serve the region and the mobility needs of generations of passengers yet to come.”
“Make no little plans” The grand outline of the project also makes possible the accommodation of tracks, plat- forms and concourses to serve the Next Gen high-speed rail plan (about which this col- umn has written in the past). These North- east Corridor facilities will be below the ex- isting platforms “to keep pace with projections planned for future decades,” in- cluding a connection with the proposed Southeast HSR corridor. As for Burnham Place, that plan calls for a new neighborhood atop the tracks of rail
yards north of the station. It will join to- gether the city’s central business district, Capitol Hill and other surrounding neigh- borhoods. It is expected to include first-class office, residential, hotel and retail uses, and include expansions and enhancements to Union Station. All of this construction is to proceed in- crementally over a period of 15 to 20 years. Needless to say, the undertaking fits very well with the legacy of Daniel Hudson Burn- ham himself and his admonition to “Make no little plans.” Yes, the plan will cost plenty of money
(about $6.5 billion) which is why the hunt will be on for private investors in the public- private project. Akridge is very much a part of that, and one factor considered relevant is the huge economic benefit to be derived in the long run. More to the point, this roll-out is a classic example of the Boardman culture, which has come to the forefront in 2012, of think- ing big for the future. The Amtrak CEO says we cannot expect Congress to maintain sup- port for passenger rail as it does for other modes if Amtrak does not have a positive vi- sion of where it wants to go.
The Future? Mr. Boardman also sought to quell any fears that the original Union Station would be torn down. Such suspicions still come to mind whenever any revamping of a legacy railroad station is contemplated. “That ain’t happenin’” Amtrak’s boss told Washington- ian magazine. “The entire Burnham design will be retained. It’s an iconic building, and it will be the entrance to the new station.” No way would this be a reprise of New York Penn Station, one of the world’s grandest monuments to passenger railroading, dis- mantled in 1963 after just 53 years in what more than one commentator has labeled “the architectural crime of the century.” Union Station currently accommodates more than 100,000 passengers a day on more than 200 trains. Other points made by the CEO include: • The biggest reason for the project cen-
tered on “capacity and movement of people.” With 40 million people along the NEC and up to 60 million expected in the next 30 years, along with a “packed” I-95 and major delays at Northeast airports, the need for the expansion becomes all the more urgent. • Priorities include fixing the electric power,
the signal system, the platforms and the tracks that enable high speed trains to operate. • Transportation investment is the first priority, development investment second. • 220 m.p.h.? “We can do it in our kids’ time.”
Playing Catch-Up? The rebuilding of the train stations has been a steady, but necessarily gradual, process for years. Amtrak has over 500 stations na- tionwide. With tight budgets, incremental- ism is the watch-word not just on the NEC, but across the entire Amtrak map of the con- tinental United States.
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