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Yesterday, Amtrak announced it will lead the next phase of renovations at the Lancaster Train Station in Pennsylvania.

The Capstone project is designed to rehabilitate passenger areas, including interior and exterior work to improve stairways and platforms, Amtrak officials said in a prepared statement.

Amtrak officials plan to release specific information on the project’s scope and timeline in mid-January as the first phase nears completion. The national intercity passenger railroad’s goal is to start the next phase of construction as quickly as possible, they said.

Amtrak engineers, using data from the Capstone report commissioned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), identified a three-phase approach to the project: short term work that can be completed by Amtrak forces; long-term work that will require a design-bid-build process; and work to be completed under Amtrak’s Accessible Stations Development program.

“Amtrak, PennDOT, the Lancaster County Planning Commission and Lancaster County Transportation Authority are dedicated to seeing that the necessary improvements to the station — interior and exterior — are made for the benefit of our passengers and the community as a whole,” said Marilyn Jamison, Amtrak’s senior director of major project partnerships.

The Lancaster station serves Amtrak’s Keystone Service, which runs from Harrisburg to Philadelphia to New York City, and the Pennsylvanian, which runs from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg to Philadelphia to New York City. During fiscal-year 2011, 539,338 riders arrived or departed from the station, Amtrak officials said.