(rshsdepot) Winston-Salem, NC

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Transit officials talk up rail
Union Station could be renovated

By Michael Biesecker
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL REPORTER

Winston-Salem's once grand Union Station closed in 1970 but could someday
see new life as the downtown hub for a commuter rail line linking the city
to Greensboro.

"It's not just a bunch of rail buffs and bureaucrats that think this is a
good idea," said David King, the N.C. Department of Transportation's deputy
secretary for transit. "Business leaders are getting on board because
commuter rail is an engine for economic development."

King spoke at Winston-Salem State University yesterday to help update
community leaders on plans to bring local passenger rail service to the
Triad. A draft study not yet released to the public says that it will cost
about $120 million to make the 25 miles of rail corridor between
Winston-Salem and Greensboro suitable for commuter service.

"We're talking about money when money is very tight," King said. "But this
is a very long-term project. We're not talking months or years, but
decades."

Much of the money would be spent to rehabilitate the existing track and lay
an additional line next to it to allow for two-way traffic. Many of the 66
road crossings along the way would also have to be closed to allow the
trains to travel fast enough to transport passengers between the two cities
in less than 30 minutes.

An additional $82 million would have to be spent to extend service for the
12 miles from Winston-Salem to Clemmons and $234 million for the 21 miles
from Greensboro to Burlington. Once the system is built, operating costs
would be about $35 million a year.

Brent McKinney, the director of the Piedmont Authority for Regional
Transportation, told officials yesterday not to be scared by the big
numbers. The state would ask for federal money for much of the project, and
the estimates for a rail system for the Triangle are even higher.

"This is doable," McKinney said about the proposed Triad rail system. "The
numbers are there."

The plans include a proposal to rehabilitate the brick and limestone Union
Station, which sits beside the seldom-used track that runs east out of the
city. The old station, off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, has been home to
Davis Garage, an auto-repair and towing business, since 1975.

DOT appraised the current value of the building and its land at $275,000.
According to a feasibility study released yesterday, it would cost about
$9.7 million to buy the station and completely renovate it for commuter
service.

As the mayors, state legislators and transportation officials at yesterday's
meeting watched a multimedia presentation on the possible renovation of the
old building, owner Harvey Davis sat quietly off to the side with his arms
crossed.

Though Davis gave the men from Raleigh access to his property to conduct the
study, he said he hasn't heard an offer yet that would motivate him to sell.

"We haven't talked any brass tacks," he said after the meeting.

Even if Davis would sell, returning the building to its former glory would
be a monumental undertaking.

Built in 1926 by a partnership of three railroad companies, the station has
three floors, each with about 12,000 square feet. For 44 years it was used
as the main point of departure for passenger trains in Forsyth County,
before closing in 1970. The railroads boarded up the building and scheduled
it for demolition.

A few years later, Davis was looking for a place to move his garage
business, which had been started by his father in 1939 and had outgrown its
old home on Northwest Boulevard. While driving by Union Station one day, he
saw that the plywood covering a door had been ripped off, and he went
inside.

Though the vacant building had been badly vandalized, Davis said he was
reminded what the station had looked like in its prime. As a young boy in
the 1940s, he traveled with his family by train from Winston-Salem to
Baltimore. He bought the station from the railroads in 1974 for what he
called "a fair price, considering the condition," and moved his business
there the next year.

A tour of the station's third floor today offers ample evidence of its past
grandeur, from the disintegrating plaster ceilings to the oil-stained marble
walls and the intricate woodwork covered by thick layers of cracking paint.
Hand-lettered signs still tell the way to the ticket window and to the
ladies room.

When Davis converted the station into a garage, he removed the news and
cigar stand that once separated the racially segregated waiting rooms. An
aging Winnebago is now parked on the "white" side, and a dusty car rests on
a hydraulic lift bolted into the vintage tile floor of what was called the
"colored" side. The building's third-floor entrance is at the street level
of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the bottom floor is at track level.
Davis said he could never figure out how to build a ramp to drive
automobiles onto the second floor, which once housed offices for the
Southern Railway and Western Union. The old rooms there have been left
largely vacant since the station closed.

The ground floor, which was once used for sorting railway freight and
baggage, was converted to a body shop. A luggage wagon with large steel
wheels is parked in a corner, near a couple of old wooden telephone booths
that were removed from upstairs.

Most of the window panes on the lower floors are broken out, and Davis said
he stopped bothering to replace the glass years ago because it would just be
broken again. He has a quick answer for anyone who would criticize the
station's condition.

"If it weren't for me, the railroads would have taken a wrecking ball to
it," he said before adding that he would like the building to be restored
someday, but doesn't expect an attractive offer from the state any time
soon.

"I imagine my son or grandchildren will have to deal with it," he said.

The extant railroad structures database is on the
RSHS Website: http://www.rrshs.org

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