(The following story by James Buescher appeared on the Intelligencer Journal website on August 22.)
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Because of requirements relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the cost of an Amtrak station proposed for Paradise Township has soared to $10 million.
“We here in Paradise have no problems with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act,” supervisor Dennis Groff said. ” … The problem is that the legislation leaves no room for compromise.
“Ten million dollars is a lot of money. Plenty of people would benefit from having a station here, even those with disabilities,” Groff said. “So, how would handicapped folks benefit if the station can’t be built at all?”
Originally, Groff said, Paradise had chosen to build the station near Pequea Lane, but because the township wanted the Strasburg Rail Road to be a part of the project, supervisors proposed the station be on Leaman Avenue, near Eshleman Run.
However, in March, reports surfaced that officials from the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, D.C., were stepping in to put a halt to the proposed station because it was not compliant with regulations stemming from the Americans with Disabilities Act, in part because of the construction of the station on a curve in the tracks.
Because that site wasn’t ADA-compliant, Groff said, a new site was chosen: a railroad overpass near the intersection of Ambassador Drive and Route 30. It is the cost of making this new site ADA-compliant, Groff said, that is making the price tag for building the new station skyrocket from $2.4 million to an estimated $10 million.
First approved in July 2004, the proposed Paradise railroad stop would serve trains bound for Philadelphia, New York and Harrisburg on Amtrak’s Keystone Corridor line.
When the project was originally approved, supervisors chairman Kevin McClarigan said it would be a joint $2.4 million venture between Amtrak, the state Department of Transportation, Paradise Township, the county, Red Rose Transit Authority and Strasburg Rail Road.
Plans for the station have been in the works since the early 1990s, when Paradise’s Plain communities began requesting a more convenient railroad stop than Amtrak’s station in Lancaster city.
The estimated $10 million figure is part of a recent report by the Philadelphia office of the global engineering design firm URS. Titled “Alternative Site Analysis for the Paradise Rail Station,” the report labels the Route 30 overpass site as the “preferred alternative,” calling for a single-platform station to be constructed between the two sets of train tracks, along with an elevator.
The report, contracted out at a cost of $40,000, also examines several other site alternatives, including the original site on Pequea Lane and the compromise site on Leaman Avenue.
The report also proposes two other construction sites: one at the intersection of Belmont Road and Route 30 and the other on the southeast side of McIlvaine Road, close to where it crosses the Lincoln Highway.
However, Groff said, the problem with those two sites is that their location would preclude participation from Strasburg Rail Road.
“We’ve had the site analysis done and sent it off to (the Federal Railroad Administration in) Washington, D.C., just as we were required to do. However, $10 million is more than we imagined the station would cost … so we’re in the process of contacting U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts to see if we can get the law changed somehow, or at the very least, to get a special exception granted,” Groff said.
Having a train station in Paradise, he said, is “good for everybody.”
“It reduces traffic congestion on Route 30, and in this day and age, public transportation needs to be considered more seriously,” he said. “It helps improve air quality and lets tourists come here without using the roads.”