Transit Briefs: Amtrak, TriMet, Metrolinx
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
TriMet photo
Amtrak increases Northeast Regional service. Also, TriMet celebrates the opening of the Gateway North MAX station; and Metrolinx cancels a deal with Vandyk Properties for a new station and transit-oriented community.
Amtrak
Amtrak on March 4 announced that it has increased Northeast Regional service to provide additional travel options throughout the East Coast, including four additional weekday roundtrips and two new weekend roundtrips between Moynihan Train Hall at New York Penn Station (NYP) and Washington Union Station (WAS), and a new weekday morning departure from William H. Gray III 30th Street Station (PHL) in Philadelphia to NYP.
There is also now one new weekend trip between PHL and Boston South Station (BOS). These service changes, Amtrak says, result in a 20% increase in weekday service and 10% increase on Sundays, which collectively deliver an additional capacity of more than 1 million seats to the Northeast Regional.
According to the company, these new schedules “drive Amtrak’s ambitious goal of doubling annual ridership to 66 million by Fiscal Year (FY) 2040.” Momentum has already begun with FY23 4th Quarter NEC ridership achieving 8% above pre-pandemic levels and Northeast Regional ridership having nearly 9.2 million customers in all of FY23—growing more than 29% compared to FY22.
“More people are taking the train than ever before and we’re proud to offer our customers additional travel options when they ride with us on the Northeast Regional,” said Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch. “The Northeast Regional gets you where you want to go comfortably, conveniently and sustainably as you breeze past traffic on I-95 for a more enjoyable travel experience.”
TriMet
TriMet’s Gateway Transit Center reopened to MAX trains on Monday, March 4, with its first expansion in nearly 40 years.
Community leaders, including TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr., Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Portland City Commissioner Carmen Rubio, Metro Council President Lynn Peterson and Port of Portland Executive Director Curtis Robinhold, were in attendance to celebrate not just the end of a weeks-long disruption to the MAX Blue, Green and Red lines, but also the conclusion of a major milestone in the multi-phased A Better Red MAX Extension and Reliability Improvements Project that began two and a half years ago.
According to TriMet, MAX Red Line trains are now traveling on a double set of tracks between the Gateway area and Portland International Airport, “improving reliability across the entire MAX system.”
“The new station allows for more efficient travel from PDX to Downtown Portland. That is important as we look to the future and revitalizing our region’s economy,” TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. said. “During this pivotal time in our city’s history, investments in infrastructure projects—such as A Better Red—and attracting events and visitors will improve our economy, combat climate change, promote equity, and connect people to jobs, services, venues and opportunity.”
The Gateway Transit Center is where the A Better Red project kicked off with a groundbreaking near where the pedestrian path is now located. The project that followed has been made possible through a $99.9 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and financial support from local partners.
Metro allocated nearly $9 million in formula-federal funds to the project, and the Port of Portland provided another $2.3 million. Altogether, federal and local partners contributed about half of the overall cost of the project.
The re-opening of the Gateway Transit Center and grand opening of Gateway North mark the end of major construction of A Better Red on the east side. Since the project broke ground began in fall 2021, crews had been working on a series of major changes between Gateway and Portland International Airport, a stretch of the MAX system that is now more than two decades old.
A partial list of improvements made over the past two years include:
- Adding new track and systems in the Gateway area.
- Building new bridges over I-84 and existing tracks to carry trains, pedestrians and cyclists. (The pedestrian and cyclist portion of the bridges will open later this spring.)
- Constructing the Gateway North MAX Station.
- Creating a pedestrian path connecting Gateway North to the main Gateway Transit Center.
- Adding a half mile of new track near Portland International Airport.
- Rebuilding and improving the Portland International Airport MAX Station to accommodate the new track.
- Creating a new pathway to Gateway Green, the nearby park popular with cyclists
With the MAX Blue and Green lines also shut down since Jan. 21, crews made improvements to the MAX system that runs along I-84, modernizing and replacing older equipment.
According to TriMet, one more planned disruption for the A Better Red project is scheduled for the MAX Blue Line in Hillsboro from Saturday, March 16, through Sunday, March 24.
The disruption, the agency says, is needed to extend the MAX Red Line 10 stations from Beaverton Transit Center to Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport, which is expected to open in late August. With most of the construction on the west side completed, crews will use the disruption to finish signal work.
Metrolinx
The prospect of even longer delays to Metrolinx’s Mimico GO Station redevelopment is now a possibility after the project collapsed “due to the developer’s financial and legal problems,” according to a CBC News report.
According to the report, Metrolinx quietly terminated its agreement in November with Vandyk Properties to build a “transit-oriented community” next to the train station, the Province [of Ontario] confirmed late last month.
The cancellation, CBC News reports, came after the agency learned a court-appointed receiver took control of the developer’s lands, the Ministry of Infrastructure said in an email statement.
According to the report, the agreement would have seen the developer rebuild the aging station alongside a new mixed-use community featuring thousands of homes, commercial space, green space and more.
The project’s collapse—the second in the past 10 years—”puts in limbo the future development of a key hub in a growing community and represents a setback for the province’s ‘transit-oriented development’ strategy, which Premier Doug Ford’s government is relying on heavily to increase density near major transit stations,” according to the CBC News report.
In 2018, Metrolinx enlisted Vandyk for a “brand new kind of partnership” that would have seen the developer rebuild the station in exchange for development rights.
Mimico station, built the year GO Transit launched in 1967, “requires improvements to its accessibility and parking as ridership increases and the surrounding community grows,” according to the CBC News report.
The station currently serves about 1,751 riders daily and that’s expected to triple by 2031, according to Metrolinx.
“A binding agreement signed in 2022 committed Vandyk to building a new, fully accessible station building, with 300 underground parking spots, bicycle parking and a transit plaza,” according to the CBC News report.
On top of the station improvements, CBC News reports that Vandyk had plans to build six apartment buildings with more than 2,000 housing units on properties next to the station on Royal York Road and Newcastle Street. Vandyk planned another development nearby on Buckingham Street with three buildings and 749 units. Together, the project was called Grand Central Mimico.
But more than five years after the partnership was first announced, “none of that has materialized. The train station remains inaccessible, demand for parking at the station outstrips available spaces and the three main development sites are currently blocked off with fencing. Excavation has started on two while the third remains vacant,” according to the report.
Now, with the Vandyk group of companies in “major financial trouble,” the future of the site, CBC News reports, “is in doubt.”
According to CBC News, neither Vandyk Properties nor its lawyers responded to requests for comment.
