Plans have been in the works between Amtrak and state officials for decades to extend Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express line, which currently runs from New York City to Rutland, north to Burlington by 2020.
The daily train would arrive in the evening and depart in the morning, and sit overnight to be serviced, and the crew will be lodged in Burlington.
There are four proposed locations in Burlington where the train would overnight:
• North of the Burlington waterfront, near the Andy “Dog” Skatepark;
• On the Burlington waterfront, in between the ECHO center and the Main Street Landing;
• South of Maple Street, in the Vermont Rail System railyard;
• In Burlington’s South End, just west of the new City Market off Flynn Avenue.
Developers Melinda Moulton and Elizabeth Steele renovated Union Station in the 1990s, hoping to entice Amtrak to bring service to the station.
Now that plans to bring service to Burlington are coming together, Moulton said she was dismayed to learn that the 500 foot long and about 14 foot high train might stay there, every night, on one of the most popular spots on Burlington’s waterfront.
The trains would also likely need to idle during the winter, according to Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams. The train will automatically start up when temperatures drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We’ve been working for 20 years to make this happen,” said Moulton, CEO of Main Street Landing.
“We never had any intention to have a train overnighting and being serviced right next to Main Street Landing property,” she said.
Moulton and Steele, the CEO and owner of the real estate development company Main Street Landing, respectively, went to a public hearing last month to express concerns to officials conducting the study. Moulton then quickly organized a petition, signed mostly by business owners and residents who live and work on the Burlington waterfront, asking officials to remove the proposed storage location from consideration.
“It’s going to block the view, it’s going to block people coming down College Street, it’s going to be noisy, it’s going to be stinky in the winter,” Moulton said. “My tenants and my residents are concerned about their quality of life.”
Moulton said it makes more sense to store the train at a railyard two blocks south of Main Street Landing.
Phelan Fretz, executive director of the ECHO Center, shares Moulton’s concerns. The ECHO Center sits at the edge of Burlington’s waterfront, a stone’s throw away from Main Street Landing.
“We’re excited about passengers coming through, but it may not be the best place,” Fretz said.
“Church Street is one of the most visited locations in all of Vermont. The waterfront is not far behind, so why stick something in the middle of it that that is going to cause both viewscape, economic and human health issues?” he said.
Officials will decide on where the trains will overnight early next year, said Peter Keating, a senior transportation planner with the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. The commission hired transportation and civil engineering consulting firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin to conduct a study looking at where the train should overnight. The commission paid about $23,000 for the firm’s services, Keating said.
Keating said plans are still up in the air.
“Any site might be struck out at some point,” Keating said. “Public input will certainly be a factor in deciding where it eventually will go.”
One of the main advantages of the Main Street Landing location is it’s close to Union Station, where passengers will buy tickets and board the train, Keating said. However, only a single track runs between King and College streets, so a second track, called a siding, would need to be built so the train can pull off the main track overnight.
The train would not block either street if parked overnight at the Main Street Landing location, but the siding would need to stretch between the two streets.
Other locations, like the rail yard just south of Main Street Landing and tracks near the South End City Market, already have side tracks, but are further from the station and lodging for the Amtrak crew.
The state won a $10 million federal grant to upgrade the last 11-mile part of track between Rutland and Burlington in 2015. There has not been passenger rail between Burlington and Rutland since 1953.
