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The sun was barely peaking over Durham's skyline when Cora Vincent rolled her blue suitcase from her sister's truck into the city's brand-new train station.
"The ceiling ... I love the ceiling," she said as she looked up with a smile. "The ceiling reminds me of the barn we used to put tobacco in."
Vincent was the first passenger ever to step foot into the newly renovated Walker Warehouse Building at 601 W. Main St. Almost exactly a year ago, crews started converting the old tobacco warehouse into a renovated 10,000 square foot Amtrak station.
"Because Durham is the 5th busiest station in the state, certainly we needed more room," said Joan Bagherpour, Communications Manager for the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division.
Bagherpour said 50,000 passengers got on and off of trains here in Durham last year. Their surroundings were not quite this plush, however.
"The interim station, which was about 1,000 square feet has been in operation since 1996," she explained.
You can still see that temporary station right across the tracks from the new platform.
"The business of the station was a really wonderful addition to the downtown revitalization of downtown Durham," Bagherpour said.
The canopy and platform cost about $1.2 million. The "adaptive reuse" of the interior came with a $1 million price tag. Federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds paired with NC DOT "Moving Ahead" funds paid for the project.
"It's certainly a greener way to travel," Bagherpour said. "With our Piedmont train, it's auto competitive. From Raleigh to Charlotte ... it's about three hours; pretty much the same as it would be in a car."
That's the 7:22 a.m. train that Cora Vincent was taking this morning as she went back to her home in Charlotte. She doesn't drive. Years ago, Vincent left the tobacco fields of North Carolina and moved to New York City. She said there was never really any reason for her to drive since.
"You can relax; you can walk; you don't have to sit the whole time," she said as she got ready to board her train home.
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By Gloria on 07/09 11:47 AM
Better stations are a way to get more people to ride trains? Yeah right. How about improved service and faster times? Anyone who's snobby enough to worry what a train station looks like would probably fly. I just think that improved rails, not rail stations, are what Amtrak needs. It takes 7 hrs to get from Durham to DC, and 4 hrs. to drive. That's criminal.
By lexslamman on 07/08 01:35 PM
A nicer, bigger, better train station is key to getting more folks to use the rails. Too many of our passenger rail stops are concrete slabs and nothing more - if we build it, they will come, and then we can get faster and more frequent passenger rain service on these lines. I know I am not a big fan of driving on I-40 or I-85. The train is superior in every way to automobile travel.
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