I have the same impression. This, and Raleigh Union Station, are fine works of architecture, but mediocre pieces of infrastructure.
The long walkways to the platform from the station, and unnecessarily long walks to reach the most important destinations from the station, are kind of dead giveaways. Neither of these buildings are built oriented toward the tracks. It’s like they aren’t taking their roles as passenger stations seriously. Either the architects didn’t know how to, or were instructed not to, design buildings that are passenger stations first. This conveys a message that passenger rail is a novelty, and will never be truly relevant as a form of transportation here.
Raleigh Union Station kind of has an excuse in that they reused the existing Viaduct Building. (They didn’t have to do that, but once they made that decision, there wasn’t much else to be done). But this one is cut from whole cloth, had an opportunity to be anything and create its own context, and they still did this.
But hey. Pretty building! And a new board room for (something).
Agreed. Hillsborough loves green and eco-friendly planning, and the constructed wetland between the station and the tracks adjacent to the long walkway that isn’t crossing the NCRR ROW screams green-washing Napolean complex. Look at how we protected the birds and wetland flora! Meanwhile, I’m missing my train…
Thanks for the blown-up imagine. Is that a single track there? Use the dang right away, and bring a station siding closer to the station!!
RUS is a very cool space, but I couldn’t believe the distance to the platform, particularly since I recall riding out of the Southern station across the tracks. Pull up, walk through the building, out on to platform and your train. Well, not your train, Amtrak is still rarely on time.
One thing you can’t tell from the plans is that the station is considerably higher than the tracks. The tracks are in a gully in that location to go under Churton Street. That could affect some of the distances.
Did they? This site was purchased in 2009, but it’s a 20+ minute walk to downtown (i.e., the courthouse). inferior to either (a) the original station location that NCRR owns (now just a gravel parking lot at Eno and Calvin), which is a 15-minute walk; or (b) the house NW across the tracks, which is just a 10-minute walk.
Not to mention the excessive distances between just the platform and the station, which others have pointed out. The entire 5-minute walk shed doesn’t even get you out to the (minor) road in front! The bus stop is further from the train than ANY of the parking lot! I get that the town plans future TOD on the blocks in front of the station, but… it’s not a great location for much of anything except residential. It’ll require long bus detours. Intercity trains themselves don’t create enough of a customer base for retailers, who also won’t choose locations hidden four blocks and two turns off a main street.
My quip about funding was half in jest. Transit projects these days are often laden with a kitchen sink’s worth of other asks… and then we wonder why they’re so expensive, and therefore why we get so few of them.
Definitely not ideal, but something is better than nothing. Not too often we see passenger rail brought to new places in the US (or, brought back to places that once had it). I’ll definitely take this over nothing at all.
I have to wonder if the proximity to South Churton Street may have played a role, being it’s got direct freeway access to I-85. Thus, is this a destination station or just a Park-and-Ride stop?
This is absolutely the reason why; Hillsborough adopted a Churton St. Corridor strategic plan in 2006, three years before they bought that station property. Although the town abandoned its plans for the corridor south of the Eno River (i.e. including this station’s location) in 2015, they never came up with any replacement strategy.
Their Vision 2030 comprehensive plan specifically spells out a desire to preserve its Historic District. This means that the former train station site @paytonc mentioned is sitting in a tiny lot planned for “Neighborhood Mixed-Use” developments, but is blockaded from Churton St. by that historic district as well as the Eno River State Park (which is closed when the sun is down, probably due to wildlife safety concerns). Not only does that mean you can’t meaningfully connect it to downtown, but it’s also impossible to make it a sustainable transit-oriented development in the first place. I think the old site is a non-starter, and the current site is all we got.
I wonder if this could change if someone were to build on the land between the station and Churton St.? Like I pointed out earlier, there’s not much in the way there; a clever developer would see the benefits of creating a walkable mini-corridor there, and bringing walkable developments there.
If you look closely at the map and slide deck, it also mentions a future elevated greenway -and that greenway is drawn to have elevators that go directly down to station platforms. It really only makes sense for that path to connect to Churton St. (and therefore, downtown Hillsborough), anyways, which would enable direct pedestrian access. Assuming that’s the case, aren’t we just crying over spilled milk, here?
Perhaps maybe lease it old things can be historic and flipped on the inside to that property in Hillsborough. To make a station but a lot must be in the way if that’s all NCRR property. It would give passenger a crowded experience.
Start with an Auburn to Raleigh to yellow phase. I think the planners are missing this important part as the first phase because where most ridership is and because I’ll connect Raleigh that itself could help us pay for the rest of the rail through federal funds. Especially with obstacles in, Durham to Hillsborough and Chapel Hill, RTP and Cary. I don’t know if I’ll accelerate the process or construction timeline I can’t say it will but that’s the ideal portion in my opinion. Nevertheless Durham Station is park and ride, Hillsborough folks could drive there, so can the Chapel Hill folks with the Durham-RTP Express. So it’s halfway regional, they have nothing to lose.
Hillsborough residents (like my partner, who’s lived there most of her life) tend to see themselves as a tight-knit, small-town community with a strong focus on small, local businesses -the last respite of that sort in the Triangle. This means they want to make sure they keep their status as a unique alternative to college towns (Chapel Hill), suburbs (western Wake County), and larger cities (Durham and Raleigh) while acting as a beacon of hope to the dumpster fire that is Alamance County.
In that sense, the fact that they’re building an Aldi is still pretty big news for them, and large mixed-use subdivisions are still viewed with skepticism. If they’re like that with private developers (and they have a problem with having lots of unopposed elected positions so they don’t have any incentive to make drastic moves), I struggle to imagine they’d wield that weapon of last resort.
Before anyone calls Hillsborough residents a group of backwater rednecks: there’s solid reasons to think they aren’t your usual anti-government types. Quite a few Hillsborough residents work at UNC, Duke, or even RTP (so they’re familiar with, and directly benefit from, urban developments), and last month’s federal Senate votes for Orange County show that Hillsborough voted solidly blue (which should show they’re not exactly libertarians).
If you look at some of the Commissioner candidates’ profiles (here’s an example), the bigger focuses seem to be on preserving natural resources and sustainable development. I’d argue that Eno River State Park, the Sierra Club, the rural buffer between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill etc. are all the big forces that shape Hillsborough’s identity and politics.
Raleigh to RTP option probably the best bet to go forward. Per the article the some of the new council members support commuter rail. Adding Mayor MAB mentioned today that region commuter rail is still a top priority during her speech.