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Re: (rshsdepot) Albany, NY

D&H never owned a station in Albany. They used the New York Central station
which is now a museum and has a highway in front where station platforms
were and across Hudson River where rail bridge was. were.

Jerome


- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>
To: <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: (rshsdepot) Albany, NY


> Why don't they just use the Albany D&H station? (he says tongue in cheek
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James Dent <james.dent_@_itochu.com>
> To: RSHS List <rshsdepot_@_lists.railfan.net>
> Date: Friday, May 11, 2001 4:26 PM
> Subject: (rshsdepot) Albany, NY
>
>
> >From the Albany (NY) Times Union...
> >
> >Station funds held up
> >Albany -- Citing cost overruns, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
> >demands an accounting of the Rensselaer project
> >
> >Calling the Rensselaer railway station construction project "a runaway
> >train,'' Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Thursday he would
> withhold
> >further funding from the project until its managers account for
escalating
> >expenses.
> >
> >Politicians on both sides of the aisle assailed the Capital District
> >Transportation Authority for running tens of millions of dollars over
> budget
> >on the project. CDTA officials this week revised their cost projections,
> >saying the new station will probably cost more than $60 million by the
time
> >it is completed. It was at least the third major cost revision since the
> >original estimate of $35 million, and it drew fire from the same state
> >officials the CDTA hopes will help bridge the massive shortfall.
> >
> >"Since it was first announced, the cost of this project has been a
runaway
> >train,'' Bruno, R-Brunswick, said. "I will not commit any additional
state
> >funding to the new rail station until I receive a full and complete
> >accounting of how these cost overruns occurred.''
> >
> >CDTA officials say the station could still open in spring 2002 on the
last
> >budget estimate of $52.2 million, but that additional track and signal
work
> >they call "Phase Three'' will be needed afterward and will push the
budget
> >past the $60 million mark.
> >
> >The CDTA has secured between $41 million and $47 million for the station
> and
> >is looking to state officials to help complete the project, which broke
> >ground in June 1999.
> >
> >"We appreciate the senator's concern and we will provide him with the
> >information necessary to receive his continued support for this important
> >project,'' said CDTA spokesman Carm Basile.
> >
> >The remarks recalled a similar exchange the CDTA had earlier this year
with
> >U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, when he criticized the authority's handling of a
> >Saratoga Springs-to-Albany commuter rail project. Sweeney demanded
> accountin
> >g records and other documents before lending that project further federal
> >support.
> >
> >CDTA officials said the cost overruns at the Rensselaer station are
largely
> >due to unanticipated track work that involved moving less than a mile of
> >rail and more than 100 signals to accommodate the new station's
platforms.
> >
> >The so-called third phase of the project that will continue after the
> >station is open will involve further track and signal work to provide for
a
> >freight rail bypass and high-speed rail capability, said Dennis
Fitzgerald,
> >the CDTA's executive director.
> >
> >But some legislators have grown skeptical after watching the CDTA raise
the
> >construction project's price tag and push back the completion date from
the
> >original plan in 1998, when they said the $35 million station would open
in
> >2001. The projected opening has been pushed back a year.
> >
> >"This is not the first time and that adds to the predicament,'' said
> >Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, who sits on the Assembly's
> >transportation committee.
> >
> >"There is going to have to be serious justification for us to commit to
> much
> >more,'' Canestrari said. "What isn't finished may have to be scaled
back.''
> >
> >Canestrari noted that the state voters' defeat of the Transportation Bond
> >Act last fall has cramped the budgets of projects statewide and made
> >officials especially sensitive to cost overruns.
> >
> >A spokesperson for Gov. George Pataki did not return calls for comment on
> >the rail station's revised cost estimates.
> >
> >More than 600,000 passengers pass through Rensselaer station each year,
> most
> >of them traveling to New York City, making it the 13th busiest in the
> >nation, Amtrak officials said
> >
> >Bruce Becker, president of the Empire State Passengers Association, a
group
> >that lobbies for better rail service, said he has received assurances
from
> >the state Department of Transportation that the station will open in
early
> >2002, but he said the cost overruns are worrisome.
> >
> >"We are concerned that there is still a funding shortfall and in light of
> >the new cost overruns, that concern is heightened. The gap is widening,
not
> >narrowing,'' Becker said.
> >
> >Meanwhile, CDTA officials are waiting for a bid on one of the final
> >construction pieces of the station project, a walkway over the tracks.
The
> >80,000 square-foot brick station appears, from the outside, to be nearly
> >complete. Painters have been hired for the interior.
> >
> >"The station is going to open at some point, somehow,'' Becker said. "For
> >the CDTA to say 'We ran out of money, we're going to stop,' that's not
> >realistic.''
> >
> >
> >
>

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #63
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