Mass Live - 'Make It a Neighborhood': Amtrak Officials Tour Progress at Springfield's Union Station

News Article

By Jim Kinney

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, toured Union Station on Monday with Amtrak representatives and city officials in search of ways to make the revamped depot a vibrant part of the city's future as well as a reminder of its past.

And on Tuesday he plans to tour Boston's South Station with state Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack in search of ways to transplant some of South Station's commercial vibrancy to Springfield. Neal said he'll also continue to make his case, in light of Monday's expected MBTA decision to OK spending more than $2 billion to expand its Green Line, that Western Massachusetts transportation projects need funding just as those in metro Boston.

Neal, a longtime booster of the project going back to his days on the Springfield City Council, led officials Monday past rows of shiny new metal framework and pointed out the spot where the station clock -- now undergoing restoration -- will once again be installed.

"We want to display the artifacts. We need to be respectful of the history," Neal said. "But we don't want it to be a museum."

Springfield's Union Station is now undergoing an $88.5-million rehabilitation into an inter-modal bus-rail-transit hub with taxi service. The new station will include retail and restaurant space as well as office tenants on the upper floors.

"We are just eight months out from completion," Neal said.

It will include not only train access, but bus berths and ticketing and a parking garage that is already completed.

Neal and Mayor Domenic J. Sarno both said Monday that the city is in talks with possible tenants including office users, retailers and eateries. They said they cannot release details.

Patrick Edmond, Amtrak's director of government affairs, and Patrick Kidd, Amtrak's senior communications specialist, both work with the national passenger rail line's Great American Stations program. They've helped Neal tour restored rail palaces in Los Angeles, St. Paul, Minnesota, and elsewhere.

About 30 cities around the country have redeveloped rail stations like Union Station in the past few decades. Amtrak, in its Great American Stations program, has developed best practices it can share.

"It's about making the station a neighborhood," Kidd said. "There are a lot of people who haven't been here in many years and are not used to coming here."

That means historic displays detailing the station's history and the wider history of Springfield. But is also means great dining, public art and event space.

"There are stations that offer yoga on Saturdays," Kidd said. "You can think about annual events you have in Springfield and of ways to incorporate Union Station.

According to Amtrak ridership stats, 123,200 people took trains to and from Springfield in 2015, down from 133,000 in 2014 and 139,400 in 2013. The main Amtrak route through the Pioneer Valley -- Vermonter service between Washington and St. Albans, Vermont -- was rerouted at the end of 2014 and in early 2015 after significant track repairs. New stations in Greenfield and Northampton drew passengers.

Greenfield had 5,315 passengers in 2015 and Northampton 11,917. Amherst, a station that was replaced by Greenfield and Northampton, had 12,962 come and go in 2013 and 13,780 arriving and departing passengers in 2014.

The state spent $125 million purchasing and upgrading the "Knowledge Corridor" rail line along the Connecticut River serving Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton and Greenfield. Station platforms were built in Greenfield, Northampton and Holyoke.

Neal said it's hard to get a handle on the true potential for ridership while construction is ongoing on tracks in Connecticut. Once upgraded, the Amtrak line through Connecticut will bring 12 additional trains a day from New Haven north through Hartford to Springfield. Completion on the Connecticut project is about a year away.

With bus traffic, Neal said he expects 5 million to 8 million people to pass through Union Station each year once it is open.

Union Station was built in 1926 but closed in the 1970s.

Neal spoke Monday of his grandmother bringing him to Union Station when he was a boy and the sight of porters pushing luggage carts through the great hall. He pointed out where the soda fountain once was.

Source