US big city train station boom

[Cirrus]

Los Angeles' Union Station (built 1939) is often called "America's last big city train station", but with today's ongoing reinvestment in rail travel it seems to me that title will not be accurate much longer. Lots of big cities are expanding, upgrading, or building their stations. So many that it seems like a boom. Let's share the plans/proposals here.

Here's the list of stations included in this thread so far. I'll edit this list as more are included.

• New York Moynihan Station (this post)
• DC Union Station (this post)
• San Francisco Transbay Terminal (this post)
• Atlanta MultiModal Passenger Terminal (this post)
• Denver Union Station (this post)
• Miami Central Station
• Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center
• Charlotte Gateway Station
• Los Angeles Union Station
• Sacramento
• San Jose Diridon Station
• Fresno Southern Pacific Station
• Bakersfield

Here are the ones I know about. Surely there are more.

New York Moynihan Station
Proposal to replace existing Penn Station. They would reconceive the historic post office building next door, gutting it and rebuilding it as a train station. Handles Amtrak (including Acela), as well as local regional/commuter rail.
Website.






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Washington Union Station
Expansion of existing building, to replace the train room. Handles Amtrak (including Acela), as well as local regional/commuter rail.
Website.









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San Francisco Transbay Terminal
Reconstruction of an existing bus station to handle future California High Speed Rail, as well as local regional/commuter rail.
Website.









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Atlanta MultiModal Passenger Terminal (MMPT)
Future new intercity rail station.
Website.






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Denver Union Station
Addition of a new train room to the vintage depot, primarily for regional/commuter trains, but also for Amtrak and trains from Denver to ski resorts.
Website.

[202_Cyclist]

Anaheim, CA, also has an impressive high-speed rail station planned.

http://www.articinfo.com/

[afiggatt]

For stations and intermodal centers under construction, there is the Miami Central Station: http://www.micdot.com/miami_central_station.html. It will predominantly be a Tri-Rail station, but will get 2 Amtrak long distance trains, the Silver Star and Silver Meteor, each day. Prospects for a corridor service from the Miami Central Station to Jacksonville are good; possibly run by Amtrak. The FEC proposed service would run from downtown Miami to Orlando, so that would be a parallel service to the Florida plans for a state funded Miami to Jacksonville service.

Charlotte NC has advanced plans for their Gateway Station that would anchor the Amtrak Piedmont, Carolinian, and the Southeast HSR corridor for intercity trains. The Amtrak Crescent long distance train stops in Charlotte as well.

For medium to smaller sized cities, there are probably a dozen or more with advanced plans and in some cases funding to build new or restore their train stations: Raleigh, NC; Springfield MA; Rochester NY come to mind in the east.

[Cirrus]

Just adding in the graphics for the stations mentioned above.

Miami Central Station
New station at the airport integrating Amtrak with local rail.
Website.






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Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center
New station for CA HSR.
Website.








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Charlotte Gateway Station
New station integrating Amtrak with local rail.
Website.






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[Beta_Magellan]

Moynihan: More a monument than a transit investment

Washington Union Station: About 10x too expensive

San Francisco Transbay Terminal: Constrained station throat makes it a next-to-useless

Atlanta MultiModal Passenger Terminal: Worthwhile in concept, but looks overbuilt

Denver Union Station: Actually a decent project with real benefits besides nice renderings

Miami: Don’t know enough about

Anaheim: Way overbuilt for the amount of train traffic Anaheim’s going to get

Charlotte: Don’t know much about, but it actually looks like a decent, appropriately-scaled intermodal station

[Cirrus]

More from California...


Los Angeles Union Station
Expansion of existing station for CA HSR. Still in the concept phase - a final design hasn't been reached yet.
Website.






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Sacramento Station
New station for CA HSR.
Website.






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San Jose Diridon Station
New train room at existing station to integrate CA HSR with local rail.
Website.






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Fresno Southern Pacific Station
Expansion of the existing historic depot to include a new train room for CA HSR.
Website.






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Bakersfield Station
New station for CA HSR.
Website.






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[mhays]

That's a pretty badass assortment, aside from the unfortunate amount of indoor sunlight, something I hate.

[Onn]

It's great that major cities are finally starting to take rail seriously again. These kinds of projects are just a downpayment on the amount of work that needs to be done though. Not just stations or access, but the structure of the passenger rail system needs to be completely overhauled. Other than government run Amtrack, there are no national names even in the business of running trains. Right now there are just the cruddy local routes.

[KVNBKLYN]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

New York Moynihan Station
Proposal to replace existing Penn Station. They would reconceive the historic post office building next door, gutting it and rebuilding it as a train station. Handles Amtrak (including Acela), as well as local regional/commuter rail.
Website.

Penn Station is not being replaced. What's called Moynihan Station is only a new entrance to the existing station. The tracks are the same and the trains will stop where they always have.

[MSP]

Minneapolis is building the interchange. Which just began construction yesterday.
http://www.theinterchange.net/
It will open up in 2014 to coincide with the green line LRT to downtown St. Paul

[Crawford]

What about Grand Central? That's probably the largest project actually underway.

East Side Access will almost double the size of GCT, at least in terms of usable space.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by KVNBKLYN

Penn Station is not being replaced. What's called Moynihan Station is only a new entrance to the existing station. The tracks are the same and the trains will stop where they always have.

Moynihan Station would expand Penn Station, but they would be part of the same complex.

Moynihan isn't the game-changer, though. The big expansion of Penn will occur once a new tunnel is built across the Hudson.

The entire block of 8th/9th Avenues between 29th/30th Streets could be taken by eminent domain and leveled for a new underground station. Then the air rights would be sold for giant towers to fund the station.

The Port Authority would be the most likely lead agency.

Also, MSG will eventually be demolished, and whatever towers replace MSG will have major street-level access points to Penn. Vornado/Related have the air rights.

[Crawford]

Other proposals in the NYC area (I'm only talking major hubs)-

New White Plains station (would be a central concourse built below highrises; Cappelli Group has the air rights)

Expanded Secaucus Transfer (expansion is necessary if a new tunnel were built)

Expanded or New Stamford station (current station is second busiest in Metro North network after GCT and inadequate; state has been debating whether to renovate/expand or demolish and build new)

Underground Manhattan station at 57th Street/11th Avenue (once East Side Access opens at GCT in 2016, Metro North will take a number of slots at Penn, allowing Metro North to serve Penn from points north, which will include a New Bronx Line. All new Penn-bound Metro North service will include Manhattan stops at 125th/Riverside (above-ground station near Columbia U.) and an underground station at 57th/11th).

[Cirrus]

White Plains and the Minneapolis Interchange bring up a good question: How inclusive should this be?

My intention was just to talk about the main intercity (Amtrak/CAHSR) stations in major cities (say MSA over ~1m), but maybe that's too exclusive.

What do folks think?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

^
I think a good rule of thumb for this thread (just my opinion) is that to qualify for this list, a station must A) have Amtrak or CA HSR, and B) be considered the primary station for a big city, as opposed to a secondary/suburban hub. So I'm inclined to leave things like White Plains and Silver Spring MD off the list.

What do others think?

I'm fine with that, but, to me, Amtrak is a relative afterthough in terms of ridership numbers, so I don't know why it would drive discussion of U.S. station capacity improvements.

Granted, in other parts of the country, Amtrak has a higher ridership share, but the absolute numbers are pretty small. We don't really have a national network.

[novawolverine]

Originally Posted by Beta_Magellan

Moynihan: More a monument than a transit investment

Washington Union Station: About 10x too expensive

San Francisco Transbay Terminal: Constrained station throat makes it a next-to-useless

Atlanta MultiModal Passenger Terminal: Worthwhile in concept, but looks overbuilt

Denver Union Station: Actually a decent project with real benefits besides nice renderings

Miami: Don’t know enough about

Anaheim: Way overbuilt for the amount of train traffic Anaheim’s going to get

Charlotte: Don’t know much about, but it actually looks like a decent, appropriately-scaled intermodal station

Not saying the $7 billion price tag is warranted, but that figure includes an additional 3 million square feet of residential, office, hotel, and retail space as well.

I think MSA of 1 million or more is a fine cut-off. I don't know that I'd include satellite cities' projects unless they're impressive for their size and on par with projects in big cities.

[Octavian]

Originally Posted by Beta_Magellan

Moynihan: More a monument than a transit investment

Washington Union Station: About 10x too expensive

San Francisco Transbay Terminal: Constrained station throat makes it a next-to-useless

Atlanta MultiModal Passenger Terminal: Worthwhile in concept, but looks overbuilt

Denver Union Station: Actually a decent project with real benefits besides nice renderings

Miami: Don’t know enough about

Anaheim: Way overbuilt for the amount of train traffic Anaheim’s going to get

Charlotte: Don’t know much about, but it actually looks like a decent, appropriately-scaled intermodal station

I mostly agree with this. I don't know of a universe where Washington Union Station makes sense. I agree on Moynahan station.

Don't know enough about Charlotte or Atlanta. I am skeptical of any project in California because I don't trust the management.

Miami's plan seems practical and feasible.

[SnyderBock]

How about Denver International Airport Terminal expansion and train station? It'll be 4 platforms for rail, plus have the extended airport subway tram (2 platforms). It'll have a level dedicated to bus and a level for cars/taxi. Is this one big enough for this list?

The 4 train platforms are initially for the East Corridor EMU line which will run Silverliner V's between there and Denver Union Station, downtown. But that only requires 2 platforms. The additional 2 platforms are for future, regional, intercity HSR service (likely to end up being 90-110mph, not true HSR).

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Other proposals in the NYC area (I'm only talking major hubs)-

New White Plains station (would be a central concourse built below highrises; Cappelli Group has the air rights)

Expanded Secaucus Transfer (expansion is necessary if a new tunnel were built)

Expanded or New Stamford station (current station is second busiest in Metro North network after GCT and inadequate; state has been debating whether to renovate/expand or demolish and build new)

Underground Manhattan station at 57th Street/11th Avenue (once East Side Access opens at GCT in 2016, Metro North will take a number of slots at Penn, allowing Metro North to serve Penn from points north, which will include a New Bronx Line. All new Penn-bound Metro North service will include Manhattan stops at 125th/Riverside (above-ground station near Columbia U.) and an underground station at 57th/11th).

Secaucus is being Bypassed by Amtrak with the New Tunnels , it was built as a NJT Station and not Amtrak. The Tunnels will come with a viaduct for Amtrak and allow Amtrak to sail from NY Penn Station to Newark Penn without any NJT congestion. 2 New Tracks just for Amtrak , A new Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River for Amtrak and another for NJT. NJT will get the old tunnels after there overhauled. NJT will get 2-4 tracks from NYPenn to Newark Penn , a New completely grade separated Kearny JCT which will allow for NJT to proceed with its backlogged Rail Master Plans

There not covering up the Metro North tracks in White Plains , that will remain open.

Idk what is happening with Stamford Station , its a mess...

Theres no planned station on either the LIRR or MNRR at 57th Ave , there used to be a station there but it was to close to GCT and was causing congestion in the Park Ave Tunnels....

[manrush]

Such beautiful and grandiose stations. If only Back Bay was on there as well, because does that station ever need an aesthetic upgrade.