(rshsdepot) Durham, NH

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From Foster's Daily Democrat.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UNH Rail & Transit Center to be rededicated 
 
By ROBERT M. COOK _bcook_@_fosters.com_ (mailto:bcook@fosters.com)  
Article Date: Monday, September 29, 2008 
 
DURHAM — The recently completed $940,000 University of New Hampshire Rail  & 
Transit Center will be rededicated Tuesday after nearly a year of  
construction work. 
 
UNH President Mark Huddleston, representatives from the state Department of  
Transportation, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority in Portland, 
 Maine, and the Town of Durham will gather at 9 a.m. for a ribbon-cutting  
ceremony, according to Beth Potier, a UNH spokeswoman. 
 
For nearly a year, Downeaster rail passengers have been forced to navigate  
their way around a maze of construction materials, orange fences and equipment  
while renovation project took place. 
 
The finished product features a renovated historic train station, intercity  
bus capacity, and indoor rail/bus transit passenger waiting areas, according 
to  Potier. 
 
It also includes a renovated UNH Dairy Bar restaurant, which just reopened  
last week. The project also includes historic transportation displays  
highlighting the role of rail in the growth of UNH, Durham and the region. 
 
Potier said funding for the renovation came from the Federal Highway  
Administration-U.S. Department of Transportation, and the University of New  
Hampshire. 
 
Potier said the Durham-UNH rail station was originally built in 1896 in  
Lynn, Mass., and it is considered one of the best examples of  turn-of-the-century 
railroad architecture in New England. 
 
In 1911, the station was dismantled and transported to Durham, where it was  
reconstructed in every detail, according to Potier. 
 
It served UNH and Durham until the late 1960s, when B&M passenger  service 
discontinued, and it was reborn in 1970 as the Dairy Bar restaurant, run  by 
students in UNH`s Thompson School of Applied Science`s food service  management 
program, according to Potier. 
 
Amtrak`s Downeaster service came to Durham in 2001 and the number of UNH  
students and faculty members who use it keeps growing each year. Downeaster  
ridership has since grown an average 20 percent each year out of Durham,  
according to rail authority in Portland, Maine. In 2008, the Durham station  alone 
will serve more than 60,000 riders, according to rail authority. 
 
Potier said the center is part of UNH`s commitment to sustainability that  
also includes the largest transit system in the state that runs on alternative  
fuels like biodiesel and compressed natural gas. She said UNH also encourages  
ridesharing, carpooling, bicycling, and on-campus  housing.



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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1783
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org