(rshsdepot) Paoli, PA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From Main Line Today.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Parallel Tracks
Transforming Paoli into a 21st-century rail hub will  take time—and lots of 
money.

By Jim Waltzer

In the beginning, there was a village. One boisterous St. Patrick’s  Day, the 
burghers at Joshua Evans’ 18th-century tavern launched a series of  toasts to 
Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli, who’d fashioned independence and  democracy 
for his island republic. Both tavern and village now had an inspired  name, and 
from the Revolutionary War right on through the Main Line’s creation  along 
the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Paoli’s character remained true  to 
its heritage.
 
The speed of modern life, however, tends to leave villages behind, forcing  
the Paolis of the world to court development as a means of preserving their  
profile. So while building a better train station may seem like little more than 
 a straightforward perk for rail travelers, the implications for Paoli—and 
the  Main Line in general—go well beyond the loading platform. Advocates believe 
that  a retooled station, newly developed adjacent lots and upgraded 
surrounding  infrastructure will benefit the railroads, local businesses and 
residents,  preferably sometime before the next millennium.
 
For sure, the wheels have been turning slowly on the Paoli Transportation  
Center, an idea that was first surfaced back in the early 1990s. But with SEPTA, 
 Amtrak, PennDOT, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), 
Chester  County, and Tredyffrin and Willistown townships all involved, the project’
s  execution is no simple matter. It’s not something that can be built in  
isolation. Revamped roads and bridges, and mixed-use development are equal  
partners in the complex plan. 
 
“It’s one of the most important transit projects in the state,” says  
Tredyffrin Supervisor John DiBuonaventuro, who, some 16 years later, is still  
calling it a work in progress.
 
If progress has been grudging, there are promising signs of acceleration of  
late. Some federal money has been allocated for road studies and construction 
of  the station. Tredyffrin and Willistown have revised ordinances to achieve 
more  consistency, and both are zeroing in on the necessary infrastructure 
changes and  costs. “The two townships understand what the issues are,” says 
Norm MacQueen,  chairman of the Willistown Supervisors. “Townships and residents 
are now on the  same page.”
 
Simply put, the project must connect layers of government, shared  
jurisdictions and competing interests. SEPTA needs expanded parking and bus  drop-off 
facilities to handle its growing rail ridership. Increased traffic  necessitates 
road and bridge improvements to alleviate bottlenecks. The station  property, 
which overlaps the two townships, falls on parcels owned by SEPTA and  Amtrak.
 
Nobody in the equation is exactly flush with cash, so development of the  
property’s unused portion is the best—and perhaps only—way to pay the freight,  
as it widens the local tax base and requires (per federal funding) the 
developer  to cover a share of the roadwork. 
 
In short, the new station can’t be built until development plans are  
approved by the townships, and the plans cannot be completed until the  
infrastructure tab is determined and a private developer is aboard. (As of  November, 
Amtrak was in negotiations with a developer.)

Funding sources,  too, await these actions. Though some money is in the 
pipeline, where it winds  up—and how much more follows—are not guaranteed. Last 
year, DVRPC (which covers  the five-county area) authorized $4.3 million in 
federal highway funds for its  Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), including 
$1.3 million to study the  feasibility of replacing the Amtrak overpass and 
adding traffic lanes at the  intersection of routes 252 and 30. The balance of 
the money is for the  evaluation of other logjam spots near the station, 
notably the North Valley Road  bridge that runs through it, the “Y” formed by 
Route 30 and Paoli Pike, and 30  at Paoli Memorial Hospital. Each spot challenges 
the nerves of rush-hour  motorists, and must be altered in the face of 
increased SEPTA traffic and new  development that would take place on Amtrak-owned 
land west of the Valley Road  bridge.
 
“Amtrak wants to see private development working hand-in-hand with public  
money,” says state Congressman Jim Gerlach, who represents Tredyffrin and was  
instrumental in obtaining the above monies, plus another $500,000 in “starter” 
 funds, from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for construction of the 
 Paoli Transportation Center. That project alone accounts for $40 million of  
SEPTA’s capital budget through 2020, about a quarter of which will pay for  
materials, engineering and design once things are underway, according to the  
agency. The FTA and PennDOT likely will provide most of the funding.
 
To pay for road improvements, the TIP money slotted so far is just the tip  
of the iceberg. Tredyffrin and Willistown are vying for the bigger dollars  
available in this year’s Federal Highway Reauthorization money, a pot Congress  
refills every five years. To secure the already allocated money—insufficient to 
 fully fund even the pre-construction work—and compete for sizable future 
funds,  the townships have been deadline-driven. 
 
“By the end of ’08, we have to know our needed infrastructure changes and  
costs,” DiBuonaventuro said last November.
 
For the Paoli station itself, change can’t come too soon. The one-story,  
flat-roofed main structure is cramped, shabby and outdated. Across the tracks,  
the outbound platform is an eyesore of corroded iron, scarred brick and  
paint-stripped wood. 
 
In the metered parking lot south of the tracks, all spaces are occupied as  
buses light in their narrow zones—the 205 en route to Main Line Industrial 
Park,  the 206 ticketed for Great Valley Corporate Center, and additional feeder 
lines  92, 105 and 204. Local transit vans weave through to make their stops. 
An Amtrak  crane and crew repair a staircase that rises from the lot to the 
elevated Valley  Road bridge, which is as steep as a small mountain, a walkway on 
one side  only.
 
SEPTA construction plans include a new station house on the north side of  
the tracks west of Valley Road, high-level platforms, bus facilities, a  
1,200-space parking structure, reconfigured access roads, and a bevy of new  
sidewalks, crosswalks and concourses. In addition to SEPTA R5 commuters bound  for 
Philadelphia, Paoli station serves Amtrak trains headed west as far as  Chicago 
and east to 30th Street to connect to Washington or New York. It’s a  transit 
hub in search of hub-like capacity and amenities—and its average daily  
ridership of about 1,400 round-trip passengers surely would spike if  improvements go 
as planned.
 
But without additional development, station improvements remain on the  
drawing board. SEPTA indicates that the project can’t begin until Amtrak  approves 
a developer. The transit agencies are joined at the hip on this one, as  are 
the business and residential communities.

“It’s the scale of  the project that concerns us,” says Willistown resident 
Betsy Allinson, who  lives near the station and adds that several neighbors 
share her viewpoint. “The  concept has been sold to us as a ‘village center.’ 
We feel that we already live  in a village. A five-story parking garage, for 
example, will create a 69th  Street atmosphere.”
 
In addition to an above-ground parking structure, development plans for the  
Amtrak land west of the bridge and south of the permit parking lot probably 
will  include a mix of townhouse, office and retail construction. Declared a 
Superfund  site in the early 1990s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
due to PCB  contamination, the tract was restored jointly by SEPTA and Amtrak 
during more  than a decade of work to qualify for commercial development. 
Additional cleanup  could clear it for residential development.
 
Environmental safety is on the minds of nearby residents, but they may be  
more leery of traffic congestion in the neighborhood. “I’m worried about the  
spillover from Route 30 onto side roads,” says Allinson. “Given that we are  
sitting just down the road from Uptown Worthington [a 100-acre development 
under  construction in Malvern], I don’t see the infrastructure to support 
increased  traffic.”
 
Retaining Paoli’s essence is another challenge. “The idea is to allow for  
some additional development and keep the village character,” says longtime  
Tredyffrin Supervisor Judy DiFilippo.
 
DiFilippo was at her post in the early ’90s, when businesses in the shadow  
of the station complained that commuters were taking customer parking spaces.  
Soon the townships, Chester County Planning Commission and DVRPC were 
assessing  the viability of improving the station property. A host of local studies 
and one  updated master plan later, Paoli Transportation Center has reemerged as 
the  county’s No. 1 transportation project. 
 
Today’s business owners see it as a boon to the overall community—not to  
mention their bottom lines. “It’ll increase property values,” says Jeff Miller, 
 of TJ’s Everyday restaurant in the Paoli Village Shoppes. “Right now we’re 
a  drive-thru.”
 
Miller’s landlord, Judy DiSerafino Huey, says the project will make Paoli  “
a more walkable, livable town versus a stop on the local.”
 
With an accent on aesthetics, they hope. “There’s the possibility of  
including a ‘village green’ on the property,” says Marie Thibault, president of  
the Paoli Business & Professional Association. “That will bring people  together—
make it more community-oriented.”
 
The Paoli Transportation Center would be the latest example of what  
Willistown’s MacQueen calls “transit-directed development,” the m.o. that built  the 
Main Line as the railroad cut its groove west. Now, though, government bears  
much of the financial load for such projects, and public dollars are under  
siege. The further a project is pushed back, the more expensive it becomes. But  
the cost of doing nothing is often greater.
 
“We have to balance growth with quality of life,” says state Congressman  
Joe Sestak, who represents Willistown and advocates strengthening public  
transportation. “We want proper development [for Paoli station]—to do it wisely  
and well.”
 
And it must be done cost-effectively—a tall order in this economically  
tumultuous environment. Amid the shops on Lancaster Pike at the southern  boundary 
of Paoli station, the fortress-like façade of the former Paoli Bank  & Trust 
Company (erected in 1928) stands guard. Near the entrance is the  
purple-and-green sign of Wachovia, a bank recently absorbed by Citigroup.
 
Sign of the times.
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1833
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org