Amtrak Plans $23 Million Upgrade to Central Ave. Station
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
The City of Rochester, Amtrak and the NYSDOT are moving forward with plans to improve the Central Avenue train station.
The $23 million project includes several updates including a new building, track improvements and a high level platform to help people with disabilities. Amtrak and NYSDOT say it will help speed-up ridership and improve safety.
This Rochester station serves more than 144,000 people to and from Rochester each year. Amtrak says that ridership alone is reason to make some improvements. Amtrak agreed to continue to own and operate the station and what's ahead.
"So I think what happened is that the station got caught there in a period of time when this country was not investing in those sorts of things anywhere, let alone here," said Rochester Mayor Tom Richards. "And that's turned around now and we want to be able to take advantage of it. When they finally get this corridor up to, you know, good speed and good service, we want to have a station we're proud of."
The project is funded by a $15 million federal grant, $7.5 million from the state and $500,000 from the city. Construction is expected to begin late next year.