Transit Briefs: MTA Metro-North, VRE, Metrolinx, Amtrak

NYMTA photo

Metro-North's Scarsdale Station becomes the second station to be made fully accessible this year. Also, the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget receives approval; Metrolinx’s GO Expansion—On-Corridor Works project is ranked second on ReNew Canada’s Top100Projects report; and construction on a new Brattleboro Amtrak station is set to begin in March.

Metro-North Railroad

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on Jan. 11 announced that the Scarsdale Metro-North Station has been made fully accessible with the opening of a second elevator, in an enclosed tower, that serves the Grand Central-bound platform.

Scarsdale is the second busiest Metro-North station in Westchester County, after White Plains, with more than 2,500 daily boardings.

As part of the improvement project, the overpass was raised seven inches to provide greater vertical clearance for Metro-North work trains and was enhanced with new customer amenities.

Other project upgrades include:

• An ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant sidewalk from the newly installed elevator at street level.
• A new walkway connecting the elevator platform level landing to station platform and overpass.
• Benches, leaning bars, new LED lighting, and heaters were installed on the overpass.
• Motorcycle parking was rebuilt at street level, as agreed to in the public outreach period prior to the commencement of the project. 

Last week, the MTA announced completed ADA upgrades at Hartsdale Station, also on the Harlem Line. Purdy’s Station, already accessible with two elevators, is slated to complete its accessibility improvements later this year. Additionally, in the current capital plan, the MTA is moving forward with ADA upgrades at three Metro-North stations located in the Bronx. Completely new station platforms, amenities, and two new elevators will be installed at both Woodlawn and Williams Bridge. Botanical Garden will be rehabilitated, and the station elevators will be upgraded.

“Today we celebrate the opening of a third Metro-North elevator in the span of a week—along with a package of other upgrades to make Scarsdale fully accessible,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “I am proud of how the MTA is stepping up to expand mass transit—knocking out ADA projects faster than ever before.”

“We are thrilled to announce another station on the Harlem Line is now fully accessible,” said Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi. “Not only was station access improved with a second elevator, but the raised and renovated overpass enhances service reliability and provides an additional waiting area, with benches, heat, and new LED lighting for customers to comfortably wait for their trains, overall enhancing the passenger experience.”

VRE

VRE on Jan. 11 received final approval for its FY 2025 budget as the second of its two parent commissions voted to adopt the budget and accompanying six-year capital improvement program (CIP).

VRE’s FY 2025 operating budget totals $119.9 million, which includes operations, maintenance, and existing debt service. This is an increase of $11.0 million or 10% over the FY 2024 operating budget. The budget includes increases to fares of 5% and jurisdictional contributions of 14%. Both take effect July 1. VRE’s last broad-based fare increase was 3% in FY 2020.

According to VRE, the budget allows for the first-ever operation of VRE Saturday service, eliminates fares for those ages18 and under, and simplifies fare payment options. Agreements with VRE’s host railroads—Amtrak, CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS)—must be reached before Saturday service can begin.

VRE’s $1.3 billion CIP, which is about two-thirds funded, includes improvements at 12 stations, three maintenance and storage facilities, and one parking lot. Construction of a new parking garage, the purchase of rolling stock, and projects pertaining to both asset management/state of good repair and information technology are also contained in the CIP.

Metrolinx

Metrolinx’s GO Expansion—On-Corridor Works project has been ranked second on ReNew Canada magazine’s Top100Projects report.

The annual report features the 100 largest public sector infrastructure projects currently under development in Canada.

These top projects are ranked based on their confirmed project cost (capital or total contracts), and must be in active procurement, assessment, design and/or construction. The projects must also have funding support before being included in the report.

“The value of the Top100 Projects rose to a record high of $293 billion for 2024,” said ReNew Canada Editor John Tenpenny. The top five projects on the list are: Site C Clean Energy Project, GO Expansion—On Corridor Works, Bruce Power Refurbishment, Darlington Nuclear Refurbishment, and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

The 2024 edition of the report features 15 new projects, totaling nearly $20 billion, with eight of them in the building development sector, including major health care projects, such as the South Niagara Hospital and the Surrey Hospital and B.C. Cancer Centre.

Overall, the transit sector leads the 2024 Top100 Projects report with 26 of the projects, valued at $122 billion, followed by the buildings sector (31 projects, $51 billion), the energy sector (nine projects, $48 billion), the transportation sector (19 projects, $41 billion), and the water/wastewater, remediation, and communications sector (15 projects, $31 billion).

The province of Ontario led the 2024 report with 42 projects, followed by British Columbia (22), Quebec (17), and Alberta (10). Across the report, the largest construction, engineering, and consulting firms in Canada are involved in numerous projects, including WSP Canada, EllisDon, PCL Construction, Aecon, and many more.

The full list of the top 100 projects can be found here.

Amtrak

Construction on a new Amtrak train station in Brattleboro, Vt., which will include the first elevated passenger platform in the state, is set to begin in March, said Amtrak Lead Public Relations Specialist Jen Flanagan, according to a report by The Commons.

According to the report, Enfield Enterprises, LLC has been hired to execute the work, which is expected to take 18 months to complete.

The new Amtrak station plan was approved by the Development Review Board in December 2020 and administratively renewed through December 2023, according to The Commons report.

The Selectboard, on behalf of the town, voted unanimously to allow Amtrak to use a portion of the Depot Street parking lot to build the new station and platform.

At that time, Selectboard Chair Ian Goodnow noted the easement would mean losing about 10 parking spaces but said also “that loss had been anticipated since the project was proposed in 2017.”

Parking has since been added to ease the parking situation, according to the report.

In addition to the easement from the town, The Commons reports that Amtrak has had to negotiate a lease with track owner New England Central Railroad and work with the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), the State Historic Preservation Offices of the National Park Service and Green Mountain Power.

According to The Commons report, the new station on the east side of the tracks will include a 36-seat waiting area, a restroom, an engineers’ room and a covered outdoor area with bench seating.

The project includes rebuilding existing siding track and switches and a new, 345-foot-long platform set 48 inches above the rail, a feature that will allow level boarding, according to the report.

The new facility will also include an electric snow-melting system and new lighting, signage and drainage.

According to The Commons report, the full station project construction cost has been estimated at $7.4 million. Amtrak has also spent $1.7 million on track work and $1 million on design, so the total will be $10 million by completion, Flanagan said.

According to The Commons report, the law authorizes $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending with $550 billion to go to new investments and programs. Money from the Jobs Act addresses energy and power infrastructure, access to broadband internet, water infrastructure and more. Some new programs paid for by the bill could provide resources needed to “address a variety of local-level infrastructure needs.”

Currently, Amtrak uses the basement of the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center as its Brattleboro station. The space now used for the waiting room was once the baggage storage area when the building was an active train station from its opening in 1916 until its closure in 1967.

According to data from the Rail Passengers Association, Brattleboro is Vermont’s second busiest station on the route of Amtrak’s Vermonter, with 14,258 riders boarding or de-training in Brattleboro in 2022.