(The following story by Cate McKissick appeared on the Patriot-News website on February 5, 2009.)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The railroad station in Middletown will close in about a year if the platform isn’t made accessible for people who use wheelchairs.
Amtrak imposed a 2010 deadline to make all its stations compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Middletown station consists of a platform, where riders must either step up onto the train or cross rail lines to board trains headed in the opposite direction.
Plus, the platform is too short and on a curve, said Toby Fauver, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s deputy secretary for local and area transportation.
More than 51,000 riders used the station last year, according to Amtrak’s Web site.
Fauver said PennDOT had a long-standing project to build a rail station at Harrisburg International Airport. That project was originally estimated to cost $6 million to $8 million.
But, he said, after Sept. 11, 2001, the airport owners Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority built a terminal that conflicted with the original plans for the rail station. The authority then took over the rail station project and costs have escalated to $32 million.
The HIA terminal project is hung up because of a lack of money, said Scott Miller, spokesman for the authority.
The authority still supports the idea of the airport being a transportation hub, including a rail and bus station.
PennDOT and Amtrak have ordered a study to identify options for the Middletown station. Fauver said the purpose of the study is to identify goals for the station and other sites that might meet those goals.
Fauver said they’d like to either rebuild the station, move the station to another place within Middletown or move it outside the borough.
Fauver said they’ve been talking with other municipalities and the airport authority.
Middletown Borough Manager Jeffrey Stonehill said Borough Council is “willing to consider any other option than moving it to make it an ADA compliant station.”
Fauver said he understands council’s opinion, but “In the best of all worlds, it would make the best sense to keep it in the borough.”
The state has committed $6 million toward the project. The Harrisburg Area Transportation Study’s Metropolitan Planning Organization has committed $2 million, and the airport authority has committed $2 million.
Fauver said PennDOT has been looking for the remaining $22 million for the past three years.
“$32 million is a lot of money for this community, where ridership isn’t real, real high,” he said. “But it’s one of those things that if you have a better station you would have more riders.”
He said the study should be completed by spring.