Here’s a story I wrote for Buffalo Rising:
When passenger rail service declined throughout the ‘50’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s, the majority of America’s magnificent old train stations were rendered obsolete. In Buffalo, we know the dire consequences of this decline as experienced at our own magnificent Art Deco masterpiece, the Central Terminal. Cavernous train stations are a difficult fit for many adaptive reuses and due to the quality of the original materials and levels of decay experienced by many of these great stations, restoration can prove to be very costly.
Entering the picture last year with an intriguing solution is my friend, colleague and CTRC team member, Nick Kraus, who wrote his master thesis on the use of federal transportation funding sources such as SAFETEA-LU, which was the subject of a public meeting held Monday at Medaille College, as facilitated by Congressman Brian Higgins. In Nick’s thesis, he explains how Worcester, Massachusetts successfully used a combination of federal transportation funding sources (preceding SAFETEA-LU) to finance approximately 80% of the 2000 rehabilitation of their beautiful Beaux Arts Union Station from a decaying shell to an intermodal transportation facility.
You can read the whole story here.
We in Buffalo are very fortunate to have rescued BCT from the wrecking ball that many magnificent rail stations could not escape, including our own Lackawanna Station, and the Lehigh Valley station on Ogden St..
In the late 1960′s, in New York City, the original Penn Station was torn down, and Grand Central was on the endangered list, until a group of people stepped up to save it. I passed through Grand Central in 1988, just before the restoration there started, and I have seen the documentary on the National Geographic channel showing how beautiful it looks inside and outside today after the restoration was completed.
I don’t know if anyone with the CTRC has made contact with any of the individuals or agencies listed on http://www.greatamericanstations.com but we might be well advised to do so. There might be a wealth of resources there we can tap into that would help speed up the restoration of BCT, or at least find additional means to secure funding for the restoration. This website is a spinoff from the Amtrak website, and is called the “Great Amerian Stations Project”.
I would encourage all who haven’t visited this site yet to do so. (Right, Ozzy?)
Pardon the typo on the last post. On the Amtrak website, there is a link that says “Check out our Great American Stations project….”.
The site http://www.greatamericanstations.com will pop up in a new window.
Hahaha thanks Paul G. I have to admit Paul, you are really cool and have cool ideas.