(rshsdepot) 30th Street Station (Benjamin Franklin Station?) - Philadelphia

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

Story from The Associated Press.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Not All Onboard to Rename Train Station  After Franklin

By  The Associated Press  
PHILADELPHIA - "Next stop will be Benjamin Franklin Station ... Benjamin  
Franklin station is next!"  
Those might be the words heard on Amtrak trains as they pull into  
Philadelphia if the Pew Charitable Trusts gets its way.  
Pew president Rebecca W. Rimel has asked Amtrak to rename 30th Street Station 
 for one of the city's most famous residents to honor the 300th anniversary 
of  Franklin's birth.  
The railroad is "continuing to consider the idea," Amtrak spokesman Cliff  
Black said.  
The request was made in an Aug. 24 letter from Rimel to Amtrak Chairman David 
 M. Laney. In the letter, which was obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer for 
a  story published today. Rimel said Pew would consider paying for the new 
signs  the station would need.  
The station has been known as 30th Street Station since it was opened by the  
Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s. The name distinguished it from the  
since-demolished Broad Street Station and the North Philadelphia station, which  is 
still in use by Amtrak and commuter rail lines.  
David Gunn, who was Amtrak's president until he was fired last month,  
described the idea as "nuts."  
"I've never been a fan of fooling around with the names of stations. It tends 
 to be done by people who don't ride the system," Gunn said.  
John Gallery, head of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia,  
said the city has enough things named after Franklin already.  
"If we wanted another, why not one that has a direct association with  
Franklin, or institutions Franklin initiated?" Gallery said. "Renaming 30th  Street 
Station seems neither appropriate nor a fitting way to commemorate  Franklin." 
 
But some people like the idea, such as Mike Ruggieri, a 19-year- old Drexel  
University student working at a pretzel stand in the station.  
"It fits in with the city's identity and makes it more personal to  
Philadelphia," Ruggieri said. "Ben Franklin did so much for the city. It's  fitting."


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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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