Beacon gets $9 million for train station

By Rasheed Oluwa
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

Kathy McLaughlin/Poughkeepsie Journal Peter Cannito, president of Metro North Railroad, discusses an architect's drawing of the property surrounding the Beacon Train Station with Gov. George Pataki at a news conference Sunday at the train depot.

BEACON -- Beacon's waterfront revitalization plans received another boost Sunday when New York Gov. George Pataki announced $9 million to expand the city train station.

The money, which will come out of the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities capital program, will be used to construct a walkway connecting the Beacon Train Station, the Dia Center for the Arts and the waterfront, Pataki said at a press conference at the station.

The walkway is another notch in the city's plan for revitalization along the Hudson River.

''When you see a day like this, you want to be down near the river and reclaim what really makes the Hudson Valley one of the great places in the world,'' Pataki said.

MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow said, ''We take in 8 million people a day and while only 1,700 of them come from Beacon, this is an area that is one of the fastest growing segments of any of our routes.''

In addition to Beacon, the Poughkeepsie Train Station will receive $4 million for improvements to its overpass, canopy and platform staircases, Pataki said.

For Beacon, Sunday's announcement followed a week that saw $1.3 million in government money pledged to waterfront projects.

Beacon Mayor Clara Lou Gould said the recent funding would help the city maximize all of its resources, especially the waterfront.

''We all know how essential it is to have access to the waterfront,'' she said. ''But if you can't get to it, it's really just a torment.''