(rshsdepot) Sloatsburg, NY

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From yesterday's Journal News.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/


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New life sought for old train station
By SULAIMAN BEG
sbeg_@_thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 8, 2005)


Becky Kern jokes that it was the downtrodden feel of the Sloatsburg train 
station that changed her mode of commuting.

"I used to ride it into the city," said Kern, the village's deputy mayor. 
"Then I switched to the bus. Then I drove in. In the end it drove me to 
working out of my house."

Kern, who now runs her own public relations company out of her home, 
considers herself lucky.

There are others who still gather every morning on the station's uncovered 
concrete platform or during inclement weather, huddled inside a barely 
heated aluminum shelter, whose windows are often broken by vandals.

In keeping with plans to revitalize its downtown, village officials and the 
Downtown Revitalization Committee, a group of about 20 residents, civic 
group members and business owners, are working to upgrade the train station, 
which some said has stayed relatively the same since the 1970s.

"The station does not have a nice appearance. It's pretty bland. It really 
needs a new look," said Trustee Barbara Bernsten, chairwoman of the 
revitalization committee. "We have a lot of commuters, and we're undergoing 
a lot of changes in the village."

Bernsten said last month village officials heard that Metro-North Railroad, 
a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was looking to 
renovate the train station.

Train stations in Pearl River, Nanuet, Spring Valley and Sloatsburg are 
controlled by Metro-North. Suffern operates under the control of NJ Transit, 
which operates all the service in Rockland under an agreement with 
Metro-North.

Details on the proposed upgrade were not available from Metro-North 
yesterday.

The committee then began working on rough ideas for a new train station that 
Bernsten said she hoped Metro-North officials would consider if and when 
they began their own plans for a renovation. Her goal, she said, was to give 
"a more traditional look to our train station," in an effort to make it a 
focal point of the small village.

"It's a hope. It's a wish. It's not a reality," said Bernsten. "We're hoping 
to be instrumental in getting a nice looking design out of the remodeling of 
the train station. And we hope that this is an opportunity for them to work 
with the village to achieve the look we are looking for."

That look, Kern said, is a stark difference from the current train station's 
appearance, which she described as "basically a sign, a platform and a 
chain-link fence."

Preliminary design plans for the new train station created by Jeff 
Livingston, an architect serving on the revitalization committee, depict an 
exterior facade not unlike recently upgraded train stations in Suffern, 
Pearl River and Tuxedo, N.Y.

The design includes a roof to protect commuters from the elements, adding 
ramps to make it accessible for those with disabilities, better lighting, 
shrubbery, more seats and a heated shelter, not unlike the one at the 
Mahwah, N.J., train station, said Livingston, a director with strategic 
planning for HLW International Architecture.

Livingston, who takes the train daily to Hoboken before taking the PATH to 
his Manhattan office, said the village's plan to use a $50,000 state grant 
toward the construction of a new commuter parking lot closer to the train 
station would increase the number of people using the station.

"The roads are getting crowded and gas prices are astronomical," said 
Livingston, who spent much of his youth in the village and has lived there 
for four years. "This gives people an alternative."

The new lot would add 50 parking spaces to the nearly 75 in the current 
municipal lot and the 12 at Village Hall, Village Clerk Tom Bollatto said.

Kern, who has lived in the village for 14 years, said with the village 
working to enhance parking, it would only be fitting that Metro-North 
improve the station.

Cindy Villari, who takes the train daily to Secaucus, said she doesn't like 
standing on the train platform, especially during the winter or when it 
rains. Instead, she waits in her parked car until she sees the blinking 
lights signalling an oncoming train. Then she parks her car in the municipal 
lot and gets to the platform as the train pulls up.

She said the train station has a bench at the end of the platform, but since 
only two train cars fit on the platform, many don't use it.

"It is pretty dismal," she said of the station. "Especially in the winter. 
To stand there on top of each other, it's very uncomfortable."

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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 #1154
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org