WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A new 300-foot-long concrete platform designed to embark train passengers—complete with a series of enhancements including outdoor benches, modernized lighting and bike racks—is under construction at the Amtrak Station in the heart of downtown White River Junction.
The upgrades, which are slated to be done by November, are a long-overdue refresh of the passenger platform, which had been a featureless beach of asphalt since 1973 when what was then the Amtrak Montrealer began service.
Workers from Engineers Construction Inc. of Williston, which just recently became 100 percent employee owned, poured a section of the new concrete platform this week. All photos © Eric Francis
The Montrealer came and went, replaced by the Amtrak Vermonter, which began running daily each way between St. Albans and Washington D.C. back in 1995, but there were continual doubts as to whether the state would be able to maintain the service—so upgrading the stations along the route fell low on the list of state and federal rail priorities.
Now, with ridership increasingly steadily over the past decade, attention has turned to bringing the portions of the historic train station that are used by passengers twice each day up to the standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The new platform will sweep past the station and the historic Locomotive 494 display, a long-standing symbol of the Town of Hartford.
“The new concrete is going to create a much better loading surface for people getting on and off the train compared to the asphalt pavement, which is much more volatile,” Project Supervisor Chandler Lesperance of Williston, Vermont based Engineers Construction Inc. explained. “This platform is going to be a lot sturdier and it will mitigate a lot of drainage issues that were created by the asphalt itself.”
Because White River Junction’s platform is at ground level, passengers who use wheelchairs or walkers have to be hand-cranked up to the Metroliner cars using a portable lift that is kept at the station. Although the new platform will be about 8-inches higher, the lift will still be required.
The $1.8 million project will create a new platform about 8 inches above the top of the existing rails. “There will still be a step up [onto the train], but it won’t be as much,” Lesperance said. “We are also going to upgrade the entrances to the building with some electric safety doors for handicapped accessibility and we are also adding better sidewalks and some turf improvements around the antique 494 engine that is on display. I like to think we are turning this into Hartford’s new Grand Central Station. We’re just going to make it a little nicer.”
The South Freight Canopy, an antique structure that was a relic of the steam train era which predated the existing 1935 station, was falling apart and was demolished in May to make way for the new rail station platform along the edge of the main line passenger track. A century ago the canopy was used to cover hundreds of large metal milk pails that were put out every morning for trains to take to markets in Boston.
October is usually the busiest travel month for the White River station, with an average of nearly 2,000 travelers getting on and off the train, many looking to see the fall foliage in Vermont and New Hampshire.
Last year the total number of passengers using White River Junction topped 17,000 for the first time and, so far, this year’s numbers are at least on par with that count, explained Stationmaster Chris McKinley, who along with several other paid and volunteer station keepers works for the town of Hartford.
The Amtrak Vermonter is getting more popular with locals and tourists year-over-year and is on track to top 17,000 riders for the second year in a row.
McKinley said he frequently hears first-time users of the Vermonter say they made the decision to try the train because of concerns about congestion and delays at airports and the rising cost of gasoline.