(The following story by Mark Perkiss appeared on the Trenton Times website on May 12.)
TRENTON, N.J. — After languishing on the drawing board for years awaiting funding, plans for the $45 million renovation and expansion of the Trenton Train Station were announced yesterday by Gov. James E. McGreevey and a host of other officials.
“This is an opportunity for us to recognize that Trenton is about to undergo a major rebirth,” McGreevey said at a news conference outside the aging station.
The board of directors of NJ Transit, which owns and operates the station, is scheduled to award the first construction contract for the project today and work should start this summer, officials said. A second construction contract should be awarded before the end of the year.
When completed in 2006, the revamped station will have new stores, larger waiting areas, a mezzanine level providing office and community space, modernized heating and air conditioners, escalators and elevators.
The new facility will have about 10,000 square feet of retail space, about three times more than now, and the entire station will be more than double its current 19,100 square feet.
The station, Amtrak’s seventh busiest, was last renovated in 1992 and has consistently been derided for offering few other amenities than a Roy Rogers fast-food restaurant, and for being bland.
“For so long this train station looked like a Roy Rogers that had a train station,” said Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer. “Now we’re going to have a train station that looks like a train station and has all the amenities that the capital should have.”
“This is good for the capital city,” McGreevey said. “It is good for passengers. We believe in the rebirth of Trenton, and we believe in improved customer service.”
Commuters should start seeing signs of construction in July as workers make improvements to the station’s platforms and utilities, said NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington.
“There’ll be hard hats in the area and some parking changes,” he said. “There’ll be drilling and digging outside the current building” near Raoul Wallenberg and South Clinton avenues.
The major renovation of the building should start next spring.
Plans call for 22 parking spaces on the station property to be eliminated temporarily because of the construction and moved across South Clinton Avenue to the parking lot for the new River Line light-rail, he said.
The train station, which straddles tracks used by NJ Transit, Amtrak and SEPTA, will remain open throughout the project. Commuters will be directed around the construction, Warrington said.
“We plan to be extremely informative with our customers and let them know what is happening so they will not be adversely affected,” he said.
McGreevey and other state officials praised Reps. Chris Smith, R-Washington Township, and Rush Holt, D-Hopewell Township, both of whom represent Trenton, for getting $14.75 million in federal funding for the project.
Much of that funding was the work of Smith, who has been pushing the project in Washington for years and in 2000 won support from Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., who was chairman of the House subcommittee on transportation spending.
The remainder of the funding will come from the state, officials said.
Palmer and other officials said the train station project would help Trenton.
“This train station represents an economic engine that we’re going to help utilize to bring more private-sector jobs in and around this area,” he said.
State Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere agreed. “This will not only mean better service for our customers. We can add to the list of jewels in the city of Trenton with this Trenton train station,” he said.
The station serves about 4,700 NJ Transit rail passengers daily, 1,650 Amtrak passengers and 800 NJ Transit bus passengers. Three Greyhound buses stop at the station each day.