(The following story by Julie O’Connor appeared on the Trenton Times website on March 26.)
TRENTON, N.J. — Travelers passing through the Trenton Train Station have grown accustomed to the web of steel beams and temporary wooden ramps, the steady drone of construction.
The expansion project touted by city officials as a much-needed face-lift for the station is still under way and won’t be finished before next year, said a spokesman for NJ Transit, which owns and runs the station.
Two new tenants — a pizzeria and a newsstand — have been awarded leases in the revamped station. But the largest retail space, which NJ Transit hopes to fill with a traditional, sit-down restaurant, remains available.
Construction on the $76 million rehabilitation project began in late 2005 and should be completed in early 2008, said NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel.
The project will more than double the station’s size, expanding it to 46,000 square feet from today’s 19,000-square-foot building. There will be a new two-story concourse and entranceway on the Walnut Street side of the station, where taxicabs line up. And the waiting room and ticket area will be more spacious, he said.
“It’s going to feel open, airy and modern,” said Frank Smolar, the project’s director.
Seven retail outlets were slated for the finished station, but four of those locations will be taken up by the two new tenants, a pizzeria called Pizza Grill and the newsstand company Faber Coe & Gregg, Stessel said. Each will fill two retail spaces.
The station currently has two vendors, a news/coffee stand and a pretzel and nut stand. A fast-food restaurant, Roy Rogers, closed in August 2005.
Faber Coe & Gregg will replace the current newsstand vendor, whose lease has expired. The pretzel and nut stand will stay, filling a fifth retail space. A sixth, smaller space will be used by the tenants for storage, said Stessel. And the bid remains open for the largest retail space of 3,000 square feet, which is still being advertised.
NJ Transit has been seeking a tenant for that space since November 2006 — preferably a sit-down restaurant, said Stessel.
“We would like to see something more upscale than just fast food,” he explained.
Mayor Douglas Palmer said he would like to see a franchise fill that space, like an Applebee’s or Chili’s restaurant. He said he is not concerned that a tenant has not yet been found.
“I think they just have to take the best bidder and it won’t be a problem,” he said.
Some city residents, like Shanalle Vincent, 21, say they would prefer a fast-food joint to an upscale restaurant.
“Something that’s really quick,” said Vincent. “You come in, you get it, you sit down on the train to eat it.”
Besides the new retail locations, two new restrooms will be added in the Trenton station — in addition to the two currently in the building — and a new mezzanine level will be constructed to provide office space for NJ Transit. All the retail spaces will be located on the first floor, said Stessel.
Upgrades will be done to the station’s heating and air-conditioning system, elevators, escalators and lighting. Existing parking areas will be improved and there will be new closed-circuit television to monitor the station for security in addition to new passenger information displays, he said.
Jose Luis Herrera, who said he travels through the Trenton station frequently, believes a cleaner appearance will attract more passengers.
But Letroit Juste, a taxi driver who picks up passengers at the station, disagreed. While he’d be excited to eat lunch in a new sit-down restaurant or pizzeria, Juste doesn’t believe a rejuvenated train station will attract many more passengers or improve his business. Travelers still associate the city and the area around the station with gangs and crime, he said.
“Even if you live in a fancy house,” he remarked, “that’s not going to change your mentality.”
To that end, the state Department of Transportation announced Friday that it will begin a project to improve pedestrian safety in the Trenton station area.
The $492,000 project, which begins this week and will take three months to complete, will widen the sidewalk along Market Street near Route 33, creating a lane for bicyclists, and move back an abutment wall beneath the Route 1 overpass to create a clearer line of sight for pedestrians walking along the north side of Market Street.
Push-button pedestrian controls with digital timer countdowns also will be installed at the intersections of Market Street and Stockton Street as well as Market Street and Route 33, a spokeswoman for the DOT said.
About 6,000 travelers pass through the Trenton station every day. The station was built in 1891 and last renovated in 1972.
It’s owned and operated by NJ Transit but also is used by Amtrak. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) provides service between the Trenton Train Station and Philadelphia.
Once people see the “magnificent structure” of the finished station, Palmer believes businesses will clamor for any unfilled retail spaces.
“It’s going to be fitting of a capital city,” the mayor said.