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City Officials Hire Consulting Agency For Passenger Excursion Rail Service Plan

Area officials at a ceremonial signing of a contract with Stone Consulting & Design for a feasibility and implementation study for excursion train travel to Jamestown. Submitted photo

A collaborative effort has been formalized to fund a feasibility study and implementation plan regarding passenger excursion rail service to the city of Jamestown.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi invited funders to meet in Jamestown earlier this month to participate in a special ceremony for the signing of the agreement between Stone Consulting & Design of Warren, Pa., and the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency. Stone Consulting will direct and manage the study on behalf of the city of Jamestown, its funding partners and stakeholders.

Teresi welcomed the gathering and presented a historical perspective on the 25-year plus effort to restore and utilize the Erie Train Station, soon to be the home of the National Comedy Center, and the efforts to bring excursion passenger rail service to the new station.

The city of Jamestown is the majority funding source providing up to $30,000 for this study, as approved by the Jamestown City Council in 2015 utilizing First Instance Urban Development Action Grant funds. In August, the city of Jamestown, through the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency, released a request for proposals to approximately 14 qualified firms.

Stone Consulting & Design was chosen to complete the study. According to city of Jamestown development director Vince DeJoy, “We feel that Stone Consulting and Design, P.C. has demonstrated a great deal of successful experience working with other regions around NY state and nationally to help provide the necessary technical and economic feasibility models for excursion train development and sustainability, and fortunately they are just 20 miles away in Warren, Pa.”

The Department of Development for the city of Jamestown worked to put together a coalition of railroad enthusiasts and operators, three county Industrial Development Agencies along the rail corridor (Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Erie), the Southern Tier West and Regional Planning Board, and municipalities along the corridor.

The partners contributing funding for the study includes the Western New York Historical Railway Society with $10,000; Erie County IDA with $7,500; Chautauqua County IDA with $5,000, Southern Tier West with $5,000; Robert Dingman and the New York and Lake Erie Railroad with $5,000; Cattaraugus County IDA with $2,500 and Buffalo, Cattaraugus and Jamestown Scenic Railway Company with $2,5000.

“This initiative is a great example of regionalism at its finest with a cohesive public and private partnership that will multiply the economic benefits across the region,” Teresi said.

Additionally, the city of Jamestown has been awarded a $670,000 grant from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative for a project to install necessary railroad infrastructure to support the advancement of regional excursion train service connecting Buffalo and Niagara Falls at the Jamestown Gateway Station.

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