Published: July 11, 2008 09:13 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: More cash for train station

$500K in federal cash will reach half-way mark in funding

Needed funding for the long-awaited $33 million Niagara Falls International Rail Station in the city’s North End has reached the halfway mark.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced Friday that an allocation of $500,000 for the project was approved by the senate appropriations committee as part of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill. It must still be approved by the entire Senate and signed into law by President Bush, but both Schumer and local officials are confident the money is a lock.

“We’re coming closer and closer to the finish line,” said Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, who traveled to Washington, D.C. in June to lobby for the project.

City Planner Thomas DeSantis said the $500,000 federal allocation brings the total amount raised to more than $16 million. Phase one of the project, which consists of restoring the old U.S.. Customs House at the site, will cost $2.5 million and that funding is already in place to begin.

“We will be finishing the final design for phase one this year and go out to bid next year,” DeSantis said.

Phases two and three consist of repairing the rail and road infrastructure surrounding the new station and eventually renovating the Customs House into an Amtrak passenger depot and inspections station.

The new train station could be operational by 2012, DeSantis said, and will replace an existing Amtrak station on Lockport Road. While plans have been talked about for more than a decade, the project has picked up steam in the past few years.

Schumer helped secure $2.5 million for phase one in 2004 and earlier this year urged the Federal Highway Administration to expedite its environment review on the plans to restore the Customs House.

“With hundreds of thousands of visitors flocking to Niagara Falls every year, it makes no sense to have a point of arrival miles away from the central tourist area,” Schumer said, referring to the existing Lockport Road station. “This ($500,000) in federal dollars would be icing on the cake and I intend to fight tooth-and-nail to see them through the appropriations process.”

Once approved, the funding will be allocated for phase two of the project.

Dyster pointed out the ever-rising gas prices are making it obvious there’s a need to diversify transportation options in the city.

“We need to get this going as soon as possible,” he said. “I think the success we’re having in building up funds shows people are recognizing that this is the right project at the right time.”