(rshsdepot) Brewster North/Southeast, NY

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Brewster North train stop to be renamed
By MICHAEL RISINIT
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: April 16, 2003)

Riders will take the last train to Brewster North sometime in October and
find the stop's name changed to Southeast.

Metro-North Railroad and local officials this week confirmed the renaming of
the stop between Brewster and Patterson. The switch, Metro-North spokesman
Dan Brucker said, was a logical one, given the close and confusing proximity
of Brewster. It is also possibly the only complete renaming of a stop by the
transportation agency.

"When you have two stations with very similar names, it created some
confusion among our customers," Brucker said. "Often, people would get off
at Brewster instead of Brewster North and wait an hour or hours to get up to
Brewster North."

The change means "Brewster" will appear only once on Metro-North's
schedules, maps and information boards - denoting the stop on the village's
Main Street. The new name for the stop off Route 312 at the bottom of
Southeast's Independent Way will come into use around Oct. 25, when the next
edition of the railroad's schedule becomes available and workers install new
signs along the station's platform.

The switch will mark the first time the name Southeast will appear anywhere
outside of town offices and documents. Interstate signs and the post office
use only Brewster, a village of 2,162 that is part of the larger surrounding
town of 17,316. Southeast Supervisor Lois Zutell said the town has trouble
getting agencies to acknowledge the municipality because its name is also a
direction.

"I don't know of any signs that recognize our town except for the ones we
put up (on the town's borders)," Zutell said. "We're very happy."

Town officials and U.S. Rep. Sue Kelly, R-Katonah, requested the change. The
Town Board passed a resolution last month asking for the renaming "to avoid
confusion to the commuting public and to lend definition to the town of
Southeast."

"The name change will benefit riders by making it easier to distinguish
between the Brewster and Brewster North stations and will also give the town
of Southeast the recognition it deserves as part of Metro-North's Harlem
line," Kelly said.

The station, about a mile from the village border and four minutes by train
from the village's station, opened in late 1980. Brucker didn't know why the
station in Southeast was given a name similar to Brewster. The name
apparently caught the attention of monologist and author Spalding Gray, who
named a character in a 1990 monologue after the stop.

The railroad recently added "Harlem" to its 125th Street stop, making it
Harlem-125th Street. Brucker believes renaming Brewster North is the only
complete name change by Metro-North.

In Brewster on Monday, Mike Connor of Manhattan was ready to blame the
stations' names for his own unfolding mix-up.

"I'll tell you what," he said about 15 minutes after getting off the 11:50
a.m. from Grand Central Terminal. "My son's supposed to be here right now
picking me up. Maybe that's why I'm still waiting."


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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #636
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org