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Rail News: Amtrak
9/7/2012
Rail News: Amtrak
FRA approves TIGER II grant for Niagara Falls Amtrak station and intermodal center, Sen. Schumer says
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Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster announced the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) finalized a $16.5 million grant for an intermodal transportation center in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
In July, Schumer wrote a letter to Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo urging the FRA to finalize and approve a $16.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery II grant that was allocated for the project in October 2010. The funds will enable the city of Niagara Falls to complete the final phase of construction on an Amtrak station and intermodal transportation facility by 2014.
The project includes a 500-foot-long, high-level platform and more than 26,000 square feet of new space. The station will incorporate a customhouse — built in 1863 and operated by the federal government until the 1980s — that again will serve as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection facility. The customhouse will feature an Underground Railroad Interpretive Center featuring historic exhibits detailing Niagara Fall’s role in Underground Railroad history.
The project also includes a new station building that will be connected to the customhouse and house Amtrak facilities.
For the past 24 years, western New York stakeholders and Niagara Falls officials have planned to redevelop and convert the former U.S. Customs facility into an international rail hub for the region, said Schumer in a prepared statement.
“The new Amtrak station and intermodal transportation facility will bring transportation activity and commerce to the region, and lay the groundwork for broad-based economic and job growth in the short and long term,” he said.
In July, Schumer wrote a letter to Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo urging the FRA to finalize and approve a $16.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery II grant that was allocated for the project in October 2010. The funds will enable the city of Niagara Falls to complete the final phase of construction on an Amtrak station and intermodal transportation facility by 2014.
The project includes a 500-foot-long, high-level platform and more than 26,000 square feet of new space. The station will incorporate a customhouse — built in 1863 and operated by the federal government until the 1980s — that again will serve as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection facility. The customhouse will feature an Underground Railroad Interpretive Center featuring historic exhibits detailing Niagara Fall’s role in Underground Railroad history.
The project also includes a new station building that will be connected to the customhouse and house Amtrak facilities.
For the past 24 years, western New York stakeholders and Niagara Falls officials have planned to redevelop and convert the former U.S. Customs facility into an international rail hub for the region, said Schumer in a prepared statement.
“The new Amtrak station and intermodal transportation facility will bring transportation activity and commerce to the region, and lay the groundwork for broad-based economic and job growth in the short and long term,” he said.
