(rshsdepot) Burlington Station - Omaha, NE

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Photo links:
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/stations/omaha-4.gif
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/stations/omaha-5.gif
http://www.classicrail.com/cards/ne1133.JPEG

Brains, trains and automobiles: Site inspires students

Omaha World-Herald

By Chris Burbach

Omaha's dusty old Burlington Station threw open its doors to a sympathetic
audience of train travelers Saturday.They used their imagination to picture
the magnificently shabby shell returning to some of its former glory, or at
least becoming really useful.Two college students - Gerald Kopiasz from
Creighton University and Eric Miller from the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln - propose to turn the long-vacant station at 925 S. 10th
St. into an "intermodal terminal." Trains, long-distance buses, local buses
and taxi cabs would converge at the station.

They have the support of ProRail Nebraska Inc., a passenger-rail advocacy
group. They and Realtor Fil Catania, who is listing the building, arranged a
tour Saturday. About 50 people attended, most from a Saturday meeting of
ProRail and Region 10 of the National Association of Railroad Passengers."It
could happen," said the association's national president, Alan Yorker. "It's
happening all over the country."The station, finished in 1898, has been
vacant for 31 years. A previous owner stripped marble from the walls,
chandeliers from the ceilings, even the antique urinals from the bathrooms,
Catania said.A later - and current - owner, Warren Distribution, thought to
put its headquarters there, but thought again. Warren is asking $ 950,000
for the property. It would cost millions of dollars just to renovate it into
a functioning building.As people scuffed around like ghosts, Miller stood on
dirty mosaic tiles beneath the 60-foot ceiling in the cavernous, window-lit
lobby and talked about the proposal."This could be the main waiting room,"
he said. "We'd restore the crosswalk (above the train tracks north to the
Durham Western Heritage Museum). People could go out to the crosswalk, then
down to the track on an escalator."They could board a light-rail train for
the convention center or Rosenblatt Stadium through the station's north
doors, on the 10th Street bridge, Miller said.Kopiasz also envisions a
railroad history museum in the building. So far, it's an idea with no
money.The Durham Western Heritage Museum also has what its executive
director described as a long-term interest in the building. Miller said the
terminal and a Western Heritage use could co-exist.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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