(rshsdepot) Lawrence, KS

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From The Capital-Journal.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
On a trek to restore depot 
Group is trying to get Lawrence to purchase building from railroad 
 
By Mike Hall The Capital-Journal 
Published Sunday, September 07, 2008 
 
Restoring the 1956-vintage train depot in Lawrence likely won`t bring a  
return of full Amtrak service in the near future, but it is still important to  
the community, a volunteer group believes. 
 
It is about the city`s image, said Carey Maynard-Moody, chairwoman of Depot  
Redux. 
 
``When people arrive at that station, they don`t feel welcome,`` she said. 
 
Members of Depot Redux have asked the Lawrence City Commission to buy the  
building from the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad for $1. That is  
necessary to qualify for federal and state funds to help with the restoration,  
she said. 
 
Commissioners have expressed reservations about that action, though,  
wondering about the cost of assuming responsibility for the building. They have  
asked city staff members to research the ramifications. 
 
Meanwhile, Maynard-Moody said the group isn`t waiting for government to  act. 
To make the station a little more welcoming, Marty Kennedy, a former  
Lawrence mayor and now a Depot Redux volunteer, opens the building each day at  about 
5:15 a.m. and has complimentary tea, coffee and hot chocolate available  for 
those waiting to board, and those detraining, the eastbound Southwest Chief,  
due at 5:49 a.m. 
 
The first Sunday of the month, Depot Redux members, neighborhood volunteers  
and members of Lawrence Modern gather to clean the station. 
 
``The government isn`t doing all the jobs,`` Maynard-Moody said. ``One of  
the jobs of government is to provide transportation.`` 
 
She is disgusted that some members of Congress continue to balk at adequate  
funding for Amtrak in light of the subsidies the federal government puts into  
highways and air travel. 
 
According to the fiscal 2007 annual report for Amtrak, Amtrak was less than  
2 percent of the entire federal transportation budget. 
 
Yet, demand for train tickets keeps growing. Maynard-Moody said in 2007,  
3,732 people got on or off Amtrak at Lawrence. At current rates, Amtrak is  
projecting 4,071 in 2008. 
 
Maynard-Moody said it is no longer possible to show up without a ticket and  
hope to buy one from the conductor. The trains are running full. 
 
Yet, Congress won`t allocate enough money for additional locomotives and  
train cars to increase passenger capacity. 
 
The depot renovation is expected to cost $500,000, including adaptations to  
make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
 
Dennis Domer, retired associate dean of the School of Architecture at The  
University of Kansas, is a member of Lawrence Modern, a group with an interest  
in modern architecture, meaning post-World War II mostly. 
 
He said the planned restoration won`t change the original 1956 look of the  
building. 
 
The first railroad to serve Lawrence on the south side of the Kansas River  
was The Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston, organized in 1864 to build a line  
south from Lawrence toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to research by the  
Kansas State Historical Society. 
 
The line reached Coffeyville in 1871, but problems with the purchase of  
Indian lands prevented its extension. 
 
Operation of the LL&G was assumed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa  Fe 
Railroad in 1882. 
 
Domer said the first depot serving the line in Lawrence was a small wooden  
building built in the 1870s, a little east down the track from the present  
depot. 
 
The second depot was a two-story building on the present site. It was  
heavily damaged in the floods of 1903 and 1951. It was razed and replaced with  the 
present structure. 
 
Mike Hall can be reached at (785) 295-1209 or _mike.hall_@_cjonline.com_ 
(mailto:mike.hall_@_cjonline.com) . 



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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1774
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org