New station for Tacoma, WA proposed

[rickycourtney]

Are you talking about the current Amtrak station in Tacoma or the Freighthouse Square/Tacoma Dome station Amtrak is moving into?

I agree that the current Amtrak station is pretty bad, the current Freighthouse Square/Tacoma Dome station is long on the tooth but has potential.

 

[zephyr17]

I'm sure it's not remotely relevant to Tacoma's transportation issues, but the Tacoma station must be one of the ugliest places in the universe. It's like they picked the 99 worst aspects of the 99 worst airports of the world, and then glued them randomly together.

Unfortunately, it is a "standard" Amtrak station of the era. The Anaheim station is exactly the same. They built quite a few of those ugly suckers.

 

[neroden]

The "standard" Amtrak station came in four sizes. Rochester, NY got one of the larger ones, and Miami and the Twin Cities got the largest one. They're all hideous, unfortunately. I don't know what the designers were thinking -- but then, it *was* the 70s.

 

[CHamilton]

Tacoma Amtrak station final design ready for public review

 

[Palmetto]

Looks quite uninspired and uninspiring to me. Functional, though.

 

[neroden]

Vast improvement over the existing Amtrak station, compatible with the upcoming replacement of the Tacoma Trestle (a Sound Transit project), and necessary for Amtrak to move to the Point Defiance Bypass. Get it done!

 

[jis]

Unfortunately it looks more like a Flea Market than a station. But whatever....

 

[CHamilton]

Unfortunately it looks more like a Flea Market than a station. But whatever....

Much of the current Freighthouse Square is pretty flea-market-ish, but one can hope that the new station will help its economic viability.

 

[jis]

At least it has good LRT connection, and would share facility with Sounders and be on the correct line to use the Point Defiance Bypass, right?

 

[CHamilton]

At least it has good LRT connection, and would share facility with Sounders and be on the correct line to use the Point Defiance Bypass, right?

Correct on all three counts.

 

[Eric S]

I'll take an odd-looking station (or however you want to characterize it) with good local/regional transit connections over a beautiful station with horrible or nonexistent transit connections any day.

 

[neroden]

I'm not sure if it's fully accurate, but many of the newspaper articles say that there will be a second platform on the south side, so that two trains can stop in the station at the same time. I guess the walk from the north (station) side to the south platform is via East D St. There will have to be a crossover built between East D St. and East C. St.

Initially, however, the Coast Starlight will have to stop twice and block the East D St. crossing. (I suppose passengers could walk via E G St./ E. 26th St. but it would be a *long* walk.) So no train can be in the station at the same time as the Coast Starlight.

When the Tacoma Trestle project is finished, the double track will extend eastward all the way to Reservation Junction, where it meets the BNSF mainline. There will also be an extended platform on the north side (the station side) along the trestle, allowing for the Coast Starlight to stop and load all cars without blocking any grade crossings, which would allow a Sounder or Cascades train to use the south platform while the Starlight is in the north platform.

In any case Tacoma Link light rail will be right across the street, which is great. Greyhound is also across the street; there's a huge parking garage; and most of the local bus lines run through Tacoma Dome station. The old Amtrak station isn't that far away, but it is a few blocks through an extremely sketchy neighborhood. Tacoma Dome station isn't in an ideal location, but it's going to feel a lot safer to arrvie at.

 

[D T Nelson]

The (Tacoma) News Tribune: Freighthouse Amtrak station project in jeopardy

"State transportation officials say they’re making a hurried effort to find a site for Tacoma’s new Amtrak passenger rail station after negotiations to buy a portion of Freighthouse Square for that structure reached an impasse."

 

[neroden]

Oh good grief. This is actually what eminent domain is for, so hopefully they can just seize it now and argue about the money later.

This country does not know how to get anything done any more.

 

[PRR 60]

Oh good grief. This is actually what eminent domain is for, so hopefully they can just seize it now and argue about the money later.

This country does not know how to get anything done any more.

You did not read this part of the story:

...WSDOT now is pursuing legal action to acquire the property through a condemnation process. However, court decisions may not come soon enough, thus putting the entire project in jeopardy,” Matkin said.

 

[Karl1459]

Condemnation is usually only a last resort. Because the compensation for the property is set by a jury results can be unpredictable. Juries occasionally will even decide the property is worth more (sometimes by quite a bit) than the property owner was asking. In addition if the jury decides the property is worth more than the "final offer" most court costs and owners legal costs are paid by the state. There is no backing out for the state, once condemned the state owns the property and the only question is the amount of compensation. Obviously a nightmare for those responsible for project cost controls.

Conversely, the jury could set compensation less than the "final offer" and then the owner gets to pay his own legal fees and court costs.

Sometimes condemnation is used to clear a title of some encumbrance such as a ancient lien or unused easement that the property owner might not be able to resolve (when there is an agreement to compensation this is called a "friendly" condemnation).

 

[neroden]

Yeah. But they're now saying that they might not be able to get it done in time in which case they forfeit... actually, I'm not sure how much money they forfeit, but quite possibly the *entire Point Defiance Bypass* funding, unless they can just stop Amtrak trains at the existing Sounder station. This is a huge amount to put at risk. They needed to start condemnation earlier; risking the entire Bypass is not OK.

-----

(Update)

OK, I found WSDOT's webpage about this:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Rail/PNWRC_PtDefiance/TacomaAmtrak.htm

Should we not be able to reach resolution on Freighthouse Square, we are actively investigating options such as additional funding to supplement the time-constrained federal funding, an unstaffed stop at the platform in Tacoma, or busing passengers from the existing station to the new platform. However, most of these are not long-term solutions and do not meet the future needs of Amtrak Cascades passengers and the community, so our main goal is to resolve the negotiations if possible.

This is good. So they're going to build the platform *regardless*, and the trains are going to stop at the platform. This means they keep the vast majority of the federal funding, and the trains keep stopping at Tacoma.

The only question is whether there will be Amtrak staff and baggage handling present in the near term, or whether they have to settle for an unstaffed location (I don't think a bus from the old station to the new platform is going to last even if they try it).

 

[keelhauled]

The state and building owner have apparently reached a deal, terms of which are unclear, allowing the state to buy the relevant part of the old building. In theory, demolition and subsequent construction will begin in June.

Now all we have to hope for is that it won't be a repeat of the Schenectady fiasco, and the bids that come in will be within the limits of the federal grant.

 

[afigg]

This was in Progressive Railroading several days ago: Washington State DOT set to build new Amtrak station.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) last week awarded a contract to Garco Construction Inc. to build a new Amtrak station in Tacoma, Wash.

Construction is slated to begin June 6 and to be completed in fall 2017, WSDOT officials said in a press release.

So, if there are no more legal or permitting delays, add Tacoma to the list of new or rebuilt/refurbed stations coming on-line in the last half of 2016 and in 2017.

 

[Agent]

Is this the right thread? This video by Railhead1956 taken on Friday shows a "VIP Train" at the new Tacoma station.

 

[neroden]

First regular train tomorrow morning. Finally!

 

[west point]

Is that gauntlet tracks at the station ?

 

[neroden]

No, plain old double track.

 

[jis]

Is that gauntlet tracks at the station ?

Why would they need gauntlet track at a low level platform station?

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

First regular train tomorrow morning. Finally!

And it derails....