A rendering of the new Buffalo Amtrak station. Work is concluding on tearing down the old station, and work on the new buidling could begin in September.
New York State Department of Transportation
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Demolition of Amtrak’s former New York Central passenger station in Buffalo could conclude today, setting the stage for work on a new building.
Passengers on the Empire Service or Maple Leaf have been in a temporary structure since Aug. 12, allowing for preparations to tear down the facility on Exchange Street that was built in 1952. Demolition began last Thursday, and the Buffalo News reports it could be completed today.
Foundation work on the new structure, with a price tag of $27.7 million, could begin in September. The building is slated to open in fall 2020. Plans for the new structure were finalized last December [see “New York awards contracts for new Buffalo station,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 7, 2018].
Thanks for info, Philip, as my parents and I came to Buffalo, passing thru on way to Niagara Falls and it was huge station, high on a hill with offices above it, that was in 1960. Did not even know they had another one, we took a bus to downtown and roamed around until it started raining and came back to the big station We were traveling on Dad’s pass and had plenty of time to kill waiting on another train on our return trip when we ate lunch and dinner in the cafe, the waitress said “are you people still here” and Dad told her traveling on a pass and she understood. We watched drama in the station as people had to run down the ramp for their trains. One guy ran with fishing pole and made it, but a family group right behind him did not. They came back up the ramp disgusted and had to rebook a trip.
This is Exchange Street Station in downtown Buffalo, not the classic 1929 Buffalo Central Terminal, which was closed in 1979.