“Deteriorating walls, signs and structures”: Essex Junction plans to fix these and other longstanding issues at its Amtrak station using $3 million in congressional funding, aiming to make Vermont’s busiest rail hub safer and more appealing to passengers.
The funding comes from an earmark by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who said the project would have a lasting impact both on the soon-to-be city, as well as the state.
“For years, the station has been in desperate need of updates to provide modern amenities,” Leahy said in a statement. “Upgrading and reviving this station is another central element in enhancing Vermont’s surface transportation network.”
Officials don’t yet know exactly what changes will be made to the Chittenden County station, but plans will likely draw on proposals in a 2016 study of the existing facility, according to Andrew Brown, president of the Essex Junction board of trustees.
At the time, trustees selected a preferred design from several build options.
The design includes a new, open-trussed canopy over the station building as well as the train and bus boarding areas. It also includes a large clock at the top. In general, it’s meant to echo historic train station designs in the northeastern United States.
Plans also include a new, glass-enclosed waiting area with bathrooms at the southern end of the station building. The roads around the station could be converted into a one-way loop, plans show, to make transit safer for cars, taxis and buses.
The board’s chosen design would create about an additional 3,200 square feet of pedestrian space and 720 square feet of green space around the station.
Brown said Essex Junction doesn’t yet know when it will receive funding for the project from the federal government, so a timeline for the renovations remains in the works.
“I’ve been told that it can take a while,” he said.
Officials have long identified a need to renovate the station. Along with citing pieces of the station that are “deteriorating,” a flier on the project states residents have concerns about safety around the station due to poor lighting and undefined traffic patterns.
Brown said the station is often people’s first impression of the Burlington region, but it’s not one he feels would draw people back to the area for work or school.
The 2016 study also recommends building a new, raised train platform at the station to improve accessibility for people getting on and off the train.
“Those who detrain are left to wonder if they arrived at the right place,” the flier states. “Vermont’s busiest station is not the welcome sight you would expect to see.”
The flier notes more than 20,000 passengers used the Essex Junction station in 2019, which was a banner year for Amtrak in the state. Brown said the village facility is also a key bus stop for local Green Mountain Transit riders.
In response to a question, Brown said the village is expecting that future Amtrak service from a station in Burlington — about a 20-minute drive away, with trains slated to begin operating in July — could pull some passengers away from Essex Junction.
But officials don’t have cause for concern, he said, in part because they feel passengers will continue to be drawn to a station outside the bustle of Vermont’s largest city.
Trains passing through both stations will connect to New York City, though will get there on different routes. Essex Junction is on Amtrak’s Vermonter route, which roughly follows Interstate 89 across the state to White River Junction, before heading south through western Massachusetts and central Connecticut.
Burlington’s station will be on the Ethan Allen Express route, which will run south to Rutland before continuing along its existing route through eastern New York state.
The Vermonter also continues south from New York City to Washington, D.C.
Trini Brassard, special projects manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said the impact of the Burlington station on Essex Junction’s station will be “negligible.”
“There’s no big change that’s going to happen that we can point to and say, ‘Oh, this is because we came to Burlington,” she said.
Brassard said Vermont officials have been pleased with Amtrak ridership in the state since rail service resumed last summer. Currently, fiscal year 2022 ridership on the Ethan Allen Express is about 6% lower than it was during FY2019, she said; on the Vermonter, current ridership is about 3% lower now than it was three years ago.
An Amtrak spokesperson referred VTDigger’s questions about service to VTrans.
Brown said that, even if passenger levels were to decrease at the Essex Junction station, officials are confident the station would see a surge in new use if Amtrak service resumed to Montreal in the future, along the Vermonter’s current route.
Brassard said the “Montrealer” project’s largest remaining hurdles are on the Canadian side of the border. “On the U.S. side, we’re pretty much ready,” she said.
Among those hurdles is construction of a preclearance facility at Montreal Central Station, which would allow passengers to be screened heading to and from both countries. Legislation penned by Leahy allowing the expansion of these facilities in Canada was signed into law in 2017, followed by companion Canadian legislation.
Now, Quebec’s 2022-23 provincial budget includes 1 million Canadian dollars (about $800,000) to fund a feasibility study and design plan for the Montreal facility, according to Marie-Claude Francoeur, the Quebec government’s delegate to New England.
Francoeur said that study could be underway in a few months, and once it’s completed, the entire project may be able to take a big step forward.
“The government is very committed,” she said, speaking about Quebec. “I think that the best proof of that is the money that was put in the budget.”
Francoeur said Canadian officials also are looking into needed track upgrades, centered around security, between the border and Montreal Central Station, though these have not been completed. Upgrades on the U.S. side are finished, Brassard said.
In response to a question, Francoeur said she could not give a target date for Amtrak service across the border — though she maintained there’s political will for the project on both sides.
