{"id":18683,"date":"2016-10-07T01:12:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T05:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/?p=18683"},"modified":"2016-10-07T01:16:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T05:16:04","slug":"buffalo-rising-buffalos-opportunity-for-a-dual-rail-gateway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/2016\/10\/buffalo-rising-buffalos-opportunity-for-a-dual-rail-gateway\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Rising: Buffalo\u2019s Opportunity for a Dual Rail Gateway"},"content":{"rendered":"
Author: Seth Triggs<\/strong><\/figure>\n

For a large portion of Buffalo\u2019s existence, the city has been an important transportation hub. While Buffalo is well-known as the terminus of the Erie Canal, a slightly more obscure fact is that the city was a major railroad hub. Indeed, for various periods of time, Buffalo was the second most important railroad hub after Chicago. We can see these vestiges of that glorious railroad history throughout our community, whether in the numerous overbuilt railway overpasses, or tracks and routes lying fallow for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, that heritage largely built by steam gave way to dieselization, and efficiencies along with railroad contraction reduced Buffalo\u2019s importance in railroading. Tracks were ripped up, and one by one the great passenger railroads divested their assets, and eventually those assets became what we now know as Amtrak.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, at the mercy of government disfavor in funding, and increasing priority given to freight traffic, passenger rail in the United States suffered. Eventually many cities lost their Amtrak service altogether, having it supplanted with bus shuttles to distant cities. Others retained once-daily service, a shadow of what was available in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Buffalo has lucked out in comparison to other such cities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Buffalo has lucked out in comparison to other such cities; unusually it retained both Amtrak stations and has fairly high service for a city not located in the Northeast Corridor. But even this relative fortune has come with some cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current logistical and convenience situation of Buffalo\u2019s rail service is part of this legacy as well. Buffalo\u2019s two stations have different stories, and different levels of access: the 1950 Exchange Street Station is a downsized replacement for a larger historic New York Central Terminal, the lands of which are largely replaced by the I-190 viaduct. The Depew station, by contrast, is a late 1970s utilitarian structure, common to many built in New York State at the time, almost all replacing grand stations. Indeed, the Depew station replaced service for the Buffalo Central Terminal in 1979, providing plenty of access for suburbanites possessing automobiles, but tenuous connection to the city for those traveling to or from points west. This, unfortunately, resulted in the station\u2019s abandonment, a fate that has only recently begun to be reversed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Exchange Street station, on the other hand, is relatively well connected with the urban fabric. The station certainly is within walking distance of downtown attractions, even as its setting and context is particularly intimidating. The mid-1950s I-190 viaduct looms over the property, necessitating floodlights in order to counteract the loss of natural light for the station. The station is bereft of ornamentation, set back from Exchange Street itself by a modest parking lot and bus stop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Riding the Wave of a New Trend<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent years, passenger rail in the United States has had a resurgence, with passenger numbers going up. New service improvements have been made on the busier corridors to capture this. The bulk of the attention has been on the Northeast Corridor, where train service along the corridor is competitive with air travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buffalo is also located on a corridor, the Empire Corridor, which allows several trains a day. This access allows passengers to take advantage of the service to destinations beyond. Cities along the Empire Corridor have upgraded their station infrastructure to take advantage, whether by extensive renovation (Utica), or brand-new stations (Syracuse, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Albany). Indeed, virtually every corridor city aside from Buffalo has taken on the work of improving their station infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n

While many things have changed about railroading, one thing that has not has been the relative efficiency of fuel per passenger. The benefit only increases when the train is electrically powered. This is of utmost importance as the world faces the threat of global climate change and must take critical steps to reduce emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Buffalo grows in popularity\u2014with more tourists and desire for connections elsewhere\u2014it\u2019s certainly a great opportunity to improve our rail service, and provide proper rail gateways for those traveling by rail. Thankfully, our city has excellent locations to serve as proper gateways; gateways that will realize spinoff benefits and community resurgence similarly to other projects in other cities upstate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Central Terminal: Perfect Logistics<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The crown jewel of the plan is the reuse of Central Terminal as the main intercity station. This is not an unprecedented arrangement; Amtrak service would have served both it and Exchange Street until the Central Terminal\u2019s closure. The benefits for this are clear. First and foremost, the restoration of train service creates a stable, anchoring tenant for the structure. With an anchor, we are provided an opportunity for other transportation modes to connect. In addition, the investment in the facility allows for private developers to tack on and further leverage the property for compatible uses. One of the popular trends nationwide is adaptive reuse; the conversion of former commercial and industrial buildings into mixed use spaces; often residential and office, but some have also been commercial. Even the examples in Buffalo have become numerous. \u00a0Indeed, currently a developer has expressed interest in developing the Central Terminal, including the surrounding vacant buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other benefit is operational. \u00a0The Central Terminal is the last possible westbound station; from this point trains headed for Cleveland and Chicago will turn south to parallel Lake Erie. It would then be possible to have through-train service in the city of Buffalo again, providing vital access to Boston, New York City and Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"central-terminal-buffalo-ny-platforms\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Historic platforms exist and could potentially be reused, especially if a bridge is reestablished over the Belt Line tracks. A modern structure as pictured could be used to supplement that platform-level access, similarly to what is done in Utica and Albany.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ready full story on Buffalo Rising<\/a>\u2014-><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Seth Triggs For a large portion of Buffalo\u2019s existence, the city has been an important transportation hub. While Buffalo is well-known as the terminus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Buffalo Rising - Buffalo\u2019s Opportunity for a Dual Rail Gateway","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,623],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-18683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-b-f-preservation","tag-bufalo-central-terminal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Trains-Central-Terminal-Buffalo-NY-730x502.jpg?fit=730%2C502&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Wcy1-4Rl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18686,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions\/18686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}