Proposed $4.65M Amtrak Station could be Grand Rapids' ticket to Midwest connections

The Pere Marquette train already connects Grand Rapids with Chicago twice a day. But with a clumsy turnaround to pick up and drop off passengers, trains stopping traffic and an outdated Amtrak station that is blocks from other public transit, ease of use isn't a phrase that springs to mind.

Construction of a proposed $4.65M Amtrak station adjacent to The Rapid Central Station (250 Grandville Ave. SW) would bring the train into a modern station where passengers are just a short walk to regional and city buses, taxi services and the city itself.

Work has entered the conceptual stage, says The Rapid CEO Peter Varga, with design and engineering recently awarded to Bergmann Associates who have retained Progressive AE, the design firm behind the eye-catching Rapid Central Station. Varga expects to award the contract for construction of the new Amtrak station and rail spur this fall.

"I think we could break ground in the fall sometime, but it's not decided, yet," Varga says. "I think it might take a couple of years to construct, we don't know yet, not having completed the design and engineering."

The new station will move from the current tracks at Market Avenue and Wealthy St. SW to an area directly south of The Rapid Central Station near Wealthy St. SW and US-131. Varga says The Rapid owns the property from Central Station south to Logan St. SW.

A $3.8M Federal Railroad Administration grant and an $850,000 allocation by the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority will cover the cost of the new station, loading platform and a rail spur from near Logan St. SW and US-131, north to the station.

"This was always part of the plan," Varga says. "This is the fifth stage of that plan, the first four were working on central station, and now we're working to improve the ability to use rail and connect to transit."

Source: Peter Varga, The Rapid
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor