(rshsdepot) New London, CT

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

From The Day.

 

Bernie Wagenblast

Transportation Communications Newsletter

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/ 

 

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Union Station`s Future Murky, Say Owners
By: Elaine Stoll 

Letter to regional council cites landmark`s financial and operational
challenges The financial burdens and operational challenges of running the
privately owned Union Station threaten its future as a regional
transportation center, say the building`s owners. Co-owner Todd O`Donnell
outlined the problems he and co-owner Barbara Timken face in a four-page
letter to the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments dated April
17. 

The letter was discussed at a Council of Governments meeting Monday. 

The owners are seeking regional and state partnerships in an effort to
maintain Union Station and surrounding property as a transportation hub used
by Amtrak, Greyhound Bus Line, Southeast Area Transit, shuttle buses and
taxis. The building is also positioned near ferry services. 

Most of the concerns detailed by O`Donnell are financial. Unlike other rail
stations and transportation centers in the state, Union Station "is not a
public entity or quasi-public agency that can raise revenues through taxes
or federal transportation grants," O`Donnell wrote in the letter. 

That leaves rent from tenants as the only source of income generated by the
27,000-square-foot building. But leasing to transportation-related tenants
has been costly, according to O`Donnell`s letter. 

Amtrak and Greyhound lease a total of 4,500 square feet in Union Station.
But cash-strapped Amtrak failed to pay rent for 10 months in 2004, O`Donnell
said. When Amtrak considered moving into a waiting-room trailer along South
Water Street, its rent was reduced. Amtrak is now on a month-to-month lease
and may downsize in New London, O`Donnell said, calling the rail service
provider "a high-risk, high-cost tenant." 

"We cannot underwrite Amtrak`s presence anymore. There is a strong
likelihood Amtrak will move out of the station lobby," O`Donnell said. 

Greyhound leases less than 1,500 square feet, but its buses use more than
7,000 square feet of space outside that generates no rent, space that could
otherwise be used for parking to accommodate other tenants, O`Donnell said. 

The Union Station owners want the Council of Governments` help in preserving
the building as a transportation center, he wrote in the letter. A
public-private partnership could "create an effective, safe and vibrant
transportation center that simultaneously accommodates public transportation
users and rent-paying tenants." 

"I`m going to do some investigating and see if we can`t resolve some of
these issues," said Council of Governments Chairman Keith J. Robbins. 

City Manager Richard M. Brown, New London`s representative on the Council of
Governments, said Tuesday, "I understand some of the concerns that Mr.
O`Donnell has raised. As a representative of COG and New London, I`m willing
to work with him and anybody else who has concerns about the cost of doing
business." 

Local and regional officials emphasized the building`s importance to
regional transportation. 

"I can`t imagine that the regional transportation center could exist without
Union Station," said Mayor Beth A. Sabilia, who called O`Donnell`s letter to
the Council of Governments "the right approach." 

"Union Station has historically served as the region`s multimodal station,"
said James Butler, COG executive director, who declined to comment on the
specifics of the letter. "We`ve got high-speed ferries, conventional
ferries, Amtrak, buses - they`re all coming together in New London." 

"Amtrak is reviewing the matter," Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said of the
letter. 

Other transportation entities use Union Station property without paying
rent, and their presence costs money, O`Donnell said. SEAT stops on Union
Station property and has a kiosk and benches there. "We receive no
compensation, yet we pay property taxes on the land that provides a public
service and our liability insurance must cover claims for SEAT incidents. We
are currently being sued by a SEAT passenger," O`Donnell stated in the
letter. 

The cost of insurance for Union Station has risen 350 percent since 2001,
O`Donnell said. Most companies don`t insure train stations, he said, and the
previous insurance carrier for the building canceled the policy last year
after train-station bombings in London. 

Bathroom security, maintenance and repair constitute "one of our biggest
operating expenses," O`Donnell said. Meant for Amtrak passengers, the
bathrooms are also used by SEAT passengers and employees, ferry passengers,
taxi drivers and members of the public. 

An ongoing, three-year lawsuit the Union Station owners fought against the
City of New London as a result of an eminent domain taking in May 2003 in
anticipation of a since-abandoned project to build a pedestrian bridge "has
been, and continues to be, extraordinarily expensive," O`Donnell said in the
letter. 

O`Donnell also has safety concerns, he said in the letter. "As an urban
center, New London supports more than its share of the region`s indigent
population. And Union Station supports more than its share of New London`s
indigent population. It is an expensive and unsafe situation that calls for
a more sophisticated response than hiring a security guard or calling the
police, which is all we can do," O`Donnell said. 

He stops short in the letter of listing specific alternatives to operating
Union Station as a transportation center, though, "On a net revenue basis
retail, office, or commercial tenants are more valuable than transportation
tenants to a landlord," he said. 

O`Donnell did not say in the letter how such a partnership might be
structured. He asked for assistance with coordination and location of the
taxis and buses that use the Union Station property; accessing public-sector
funds for maintaining the portion of the building used by the public;
developing a business relationship with SEAT; and planning and accessing
federal funds for long-term maintenance and improvements. 

The Council of Governments could also oversee proposals that could affect
Union Station, such as ideas for Thames River shuttle boats, cruise ships,
increased Shoreline East traffic or passenger rail service to Norwich,
O`Donnell said. "While we welcome all transportation ideas that increase
economic activity we cannot be expected to subsidize them," he said. 

"Our primary objective is to work with COG and the state to hopefully keep
this 120-year-old train station as a train station and transportation
center," O`Donnell said Tuesday. 

Union Station was commissioned in 1885, designed by famed American architect
Henry Hobson Richardson and completed in 1888 after his death. 

Preservationists saved the historic building in the early 1970s from a
popular plan by the New London Redevelopment Agency to raze it. 

Union Station has been under private ownership since October 1975, when
architectural firm Anderson Notter Associates bought it with the help of
nonprofit Union Railroad Station Trust.


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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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