A Train Station, Or ‘An Incredible Destination’?
The lobby of the Radisson in Scranton, Pa., formerly the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad station. (Courtesy: Radisson Hotels)
The lobby of the Radisson in Scranton, Pa., formerly the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad station. (Courtesy: Radisson Hotels)
So valuable is some big city real estate that rail yards can’t be just rail yards anymore, and a...
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train station must be far more than a place to get on a train, it must become a “destination” or better still a “a place to be seen.”
If you’re a utilitarian traveler from Washington to New York or from Washington to Philadelphia, you might be satisfied simply with “a clean, well-lighted place,” a crime-free train station with tolerably hygienic bathrooms.
Add a good coffee shop, and perhaps a place to get a glass of wine and a sandwich. And a newsstand, and maybe a book shop, like the late lamented Posman Books in New York’s Grand Central Station.
That’s enough for some travelers.
And most importantly, the train service itself should be frequent and reliable.
But if your calling in life is real estate development, those expectations are far too modest.
Case in point: on Wednesday Sen. Bob Casey, D- Pa., urged Amtrak to refurbish the high-ceilinged 30th Street Station in Philadelphia before people arrive in town for the visit of Pope Francis in September and for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Gerard Sweeney, the head of Brandywine Realty Trust, told the Philadelphia Inquirer Wednesday that his firm is interested in development possibilities at the 3oth Street station.
“Brandywine has an interest in participating in a public-private partnership with Amtrak and other key stakeholders,” Sweeney said.
He envisions high-end retail shops, restaurants, barber shops and salons, and “a grander entrance to Philadelphia.”
This called to mind developers’ plans to expand Washington’s Union Station shopping areas, adding stores, restaurants and apartments atop the rail yards north of the station.
A supporter of the plan, Roger Lewis, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, told WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi that the project will mean “finally making the north side of that iconic structure something that becomes a wonderful destination and activated place.”
He said when the $10 billion project is done “this is going to be, again, an incredible destination that will have so much going on. I mean, it’ll be one of the three or four, five places that you would go to be seen and to have fun and to live and work.”
Meanwhile in Sen. Casey’s home town of Scranton, Pa., there is a fine example of a station that did become a destination – but only after it stopped being a train station.
One hundred and seven years ago, when anthracite coal was a booming business in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad built a new station in Scranton, a depot of the kind no one will ever build again – Italian marble, Tiffany glass, and classical elegance.
There’s no more rail service in Scranton, but there is the hotel that once was a noble train station.