(The following story by Cynthia Needham appeared on the Providence Journal website on August 22.)
WARWICK, R.I. — The swath of land just west of the airport doesn’t look like much — a tangle of weeds and fencing that swells around train tracks.
But officials say that’s about to change. The long-stalled plan to build a transportation hub at T.F. Green Airport is again moving forward. State Department of Transportation officials have reached a preliminary agreement with Amtrak to allow MBTA commuter trains to connect Warwick to Boston.
Details of the agreement are not yet public, said DOT Deputy Director William “Chuck” Alves. But the provisional deal clears the way for construction on the $222.5-million facility, scheduled to start “any day now,” according to the state Airport Corporation.
Beyond rail service, the six-story “intermodal” station will feature a rental-car concourse and parking garage with spots for commuters traveling to Boston. The facility will straddle the train tracks and connect to the T.F. Green terminal by a 1,250-foot elevated sky bridge — longer than four football fields — that will wind over Post Road. Original plans called for a “people mover,” essentially a monorail, to shuttle passengers. That idea was later scrapped in favor of moving sidewalks.
The new station is set to debut in the fall of 2009, said airport spokeswoman Patti Goldstein.
But with a project better known for its delays than for any real progress, the deadline question looms. First it was an inability to reach a deal with the rental-car companies that slowed construction, then the need to secure more financing. Last summer, nearly a decade after the hub was proposed, officials gathered in the blazing July heat for a ceremonial groundbreaking on the facility.
A year later, the dusty lot remains untouched. The latest snag was the failure to reach an agreement with Amtrak — which owns the train tracks — to allow Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter rail trains from Boston to continue service to Warwick and eventually, farther south to Wickford Junction.
At an airport event earlier this month, Governor Carcieri announced, “I think we’ve finally resolved the issues with the intermodal.”
While the project is indeed moving forward, Alves said it’s early yet to be declaring victory. Terms of the agreement with Amtrak still need to be worked out, including fee scales and schedules (commuter rail trains are tentatively set to make eight round-trips to Boston per day on weekdays only).
Amtrak itself still has no plans to stop its high-speed Acela and Metroliner trains at the airport. The state was unable to work out a deal to get Amtrak to serve the station without adding at least $50 million in new tracks. But state officials say they are still confident that the company will change its mind down the line.
Preliminary construction on the new transportation center is expected to begin in a matter of days, Goldstein said. First on the to-do list: the airport will reconfigure the short-term parking lot slightly to build the foundation for the sky bridge.
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, a frequent and vocal critic of the airport, said he believes the inter-modal station will serve the city well. By moving the rental-car lots to one centralized location, the companies will cut down on traffic knots that crop up farther north on Post Road. Because the hub will also serve as a Boston commuter station, the mayor said it will provide a convenient resource for local residents and could bring new economic development with the influx of commuters traveling to Warwick from Boston.
News of the intermodal progress comes as sister airport and chief competitor Manchester-Boston Regional Airport has ramped up its transportation options. Last fall, that airport started a free shuttle service from several metropolitan Boston areas. Deputy Airport Director J. Brian O’Neill says the shuttle program has been so successful, the airport is thinking of adding more Boston-area stops later this year.
Then, this summer, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed legislation establishing a New Hampshire Rail Authority, which could eventually add passenger rail service from Boston to the Manchester airport — a move that would no doubt ratchet up competition for metro-area customers.
Ditching the car and the traffic in favor of a train en route to the airport is an appealing option, Avedisian acknowledges, especially where Green is concerned. “When you make it that convenient to take the train from the Route 128 park-and-ride to the Warwick station, get off the train, go up an escalator, across moving sidewalks and down to the terminal, it’s a lot more effective means of transportation than driving a car,” he said.