(The following story by Louise Hoffman Broach appeared at Syracuse.com on February 12.)
LYONS , N.Y. — State Sen. Michael Nozzolio is threatening to hold up $30 million for high-speed upgrades until Amtrak commits to a station on the longest stretch of track along the Empire Corridor currently without passenger service.
The fight for the Finger Lakes stop in Lyons has gone on since 1990, with Amtrak, Conrail and then CSX. The price tag got higher with each delay and turndown; going from $104,000 to the present $9 million.
And that’s still without a promise the passenger trains will stop at a new station in the middle of the 90-mile stretch between Syracuse and Rochester.
“I have a great deal of difficulty in supporting an increase in funding for high speed rail service in upstate New York when Amtrak will not commit to make regularly scheduled stops at the Lyons station once it is built,” Nozzolio, R-Fayette, wrote in a letter this week to Alexander Kummant, president and CEO of Amtrak.
In the correspondence, dated Feb. 11, Nozzolio – who has previously supported increases in funding to accommodate upstate Amtrak service — implores Kummant to “expedite the approval” of the plans for the Lyons passenger station.
There is $30 million in this year’s Executive budget proposal to make the necessary track and infrastructure improvements to help facilitate high speed rail service in New York.