Another Broken Promise: Amtrak Station Delayed Another Year

— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 19 May 2008 — Comments Off

During then-Mayor Ed Balico’s farewell remarks this past December, he stated — unequivocally — that the Amtrak station would break ground this summer. Although such an idea was long considered a near-impossibility by anyone with competent knowledge of the situation, the outgoing mayor made yet another promise that will ultimately go unfulfilled…

The earliest the Amtrak station will start construction is next summer, that is, the summer of 2009 (not 2008, as Councilmember Balico foolishly promised). The reason for the delay includes, but is certainly not limited to, the City’s lengthy flirtation with the pedestrian-unfriendly alternate transit center plan, better known as the Szabo plan, which put the location of the train station perpetually in flux.

Now that the Szabo plan has been effectively trashed, the construction timetable for the Amtrak station can finally get on-track (no pun intended).