(Rochester, N.Y.) – Rochester’s mayor wants to study an intermodal station downtown, even though a taxpayer-funded study in 2002 dismissed the idea. The mayor’s position could throw a huge roadblock in the way of the Renaissance Square project.
A bus station is planned for Main and Clinton as part of Renaissance Square, which would also include a performing arts center and MCC campus. Meanwhile, the train station is located several blocks north on central Avenue.
The Genesee Transportation Council studied the possibility of an intermodal station in 2002, as part of a broader look at rehabbing the train station. The 154-page study, which cost $70,000 and included representatives from the city, concluded that a combined bus and train station is “not viable.”
The study found that locating the bus station on Central Avenue would inconvenience bus riders. There number of bus passengers is 50 times the number of train passengers. The study also found that moving the train station to Main Street would involve the costly relocation of rail lines, which would provide a barrier to development.
The study recommended a shuttle linking the train and bus stations.
Mayor Robert Duffy, however, wants to take another look.
“I think an intermodal station would work. I think when that study was done there was not the pending stimulus money and someone like Louise Slaughter who could bring the funding here to have high speed rail,” he said.
The study actually did take into account high speed rail’s impact on the train station, estimating that 20 trains a day traveling at speeds of up to 125 miles per hour could use the facility.
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has been a longtime supporter of an intermodal facility and a critic of Renaissance Square.
Duffy said he wants to meet with Renaissance Square’s stakeholders, including Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks and Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority CEO Mark Aesch.
The city sent RGRTA a letter saying the authority would need City Council approval before condemning any of the properties needed for Renaissance Square. The city also raised concerns about the “unfunded performing arts center and the relationship of the transit center to the proposed high speed rail station.”
Duffy said he wants to “get in a room and close the doors.” Aesch wrote the mayor a letter saying that would violate open meeting laws, and he, Brooks, and Duffy are on the Main and Clinton board, which oversees Renaissance Square.
About $17 million of taxpayer money has been spent on Renaissance Square so far, and construction could begin this year. Brooks said she needs to know where the mayor stands, and she’s willing to meet with him.
“We have a project that is fully funded and ready to go,” she said. “We have a study that says what they're asking to look at has already been studied and put to rest. I just don't see how the two are becoming one conversation all of a sudden. I'm very frustrated.”
