(rshsdepot) Amtrak Setting Its Sights On Rider-Friendly Stations

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

Amtrak Setting Its Sights On Rider-Friendly Stations

Buffalo News
8/10/01

After an intermodal passenger station opened in Syracuse in 1997,
both rail and bus passenger traffic soared.
Through the first two years, Amtrak boardings increased by 12.8
percent and Trailways and Greyhound boardings by 9 percent,
according to the Empire State Passengers Association, an advocacy
group. One factor, it said, might have been the new station's
high-level platforms, which eliminated steep staircases and
reduced passengers' "dwell time" at the station.

By contrast, the association says, the number of riders using
Amtrak's "very uninviting" Exchange Street Station in Buffalo
skidded from 29,722 in 1995 to 17,943 in 2000.

A raft of such statistics was presented Thursday during a forum
that launched a $200,000 study on upgrading passenger rail
service in a region extending from Buffalo and Niagara Falls
north to Toronto, west to Cleveland and south to Ellicottville
and the Southern Tier.

The need for better rail stations was a prominent theme as
speakers addressed Drew Galloway, Amtrak director of
transportation planning, and Stephen Glanz, Amtrak project
manager, in the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library auditorium.

Though Niagara Falls is a world tourist destination, its rail
passenger needs have been neglected for years, said Niagara Falls
Area Chamber of Commerce President Charles Steiner. The
"overwhelming need to relocate the Amtrak station is just the
most obvious example," he said.

"The lack of visitor amenities, full service and general
marketing of Amtrak at the (present) station and in the
community," he said, underscores "the crying need for upgraded
service."

While there has been discussion about converting Buffalo's idle
Memorial Auditorium into an intermodal center, Dunkirk is moving
ahead with its plan to put the city "back on track" by
reactivating its former train station at Main and Third streets.
An engineering study has been completed that could help prepare
the facility for "trial service" by Amtrak and eventually for
permanent restoration.

A 1998 poll conducted for the Empire State Passenger Association
and the Empire State Rail Task Force showed that 97 percent of
registered voters think that intercity passenger train service
should be improved and modernized, said Robert Lenz, a past
president of the association.

Nearly three-fourths of the respondents would consider taking
their next trip by train if offered better scheduling, service,
stations and fares, the same poll said.

"Our state and nation need a balanced transportation system --
one that includes, air, highways and a rail system that receives
the proper investment," Lenz said.

The market study, to be completed next spring, will be carried
out by Amtrak consultant AECOM Technology Corp. under a contract
with the Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council.

Amtrak and the consultant will develop three potential service
plans, including ridership and cost estimates, and identify
possible obstacles to enhanced services.

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #132
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