MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph J. Lhota, MTA Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut, Cortlandt Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi, local and state officials today celebrated the completion of a major project to improve and renovate the Cortlandt Station. Also at the event were MNRCC Board member James Blair and PCAC Associate Director Jan Wells.
The new facility includes an overpass extension that ties the original station east of the tracks with a new entrance on the west side off Route 9A, new parking and a landscaped, canopy-covered, intermodal drop-off plaza. The new overpass has a spacious, heated waiting area with numerous benches and a coffee concession. Both parking lots and the center island platform are served by elevators and enclosed staircases.
The plaza includes a ground-level snack vending area, a parking pay station, a ticket vending machine and a restroom with a composting toilet. The new parking lot has 712 new parking spaces for cars, 9 for motorcycles and 9 for motor scooters. The station has 1,615 parking spaces in total. An additional heated shelter was built on the north end of the platform and the entire facility has new lighting, signage, emergency call boxes and bicycle racks.
The project cost was $34.7 million. The Federal Highway Administration’s Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) program, in partnership with the Federal Transit Administration, contributed $21.2 million. This includes a CMAQ grant to New York State Department of Transportation of $5.2 million for the intersection improvements. MTA Metro-North’s capital program contributed $13.5 million to the project. The NYSDOT funds and highway design guidance allowed Metro-North to improve a long standing traffic concern, the intersection of the entrance to the Railroad’s lot and Route 9A. Now, workers and visitors will have safer and easier access to the VA Hospital across from the intersection, whether coming by rail or by car.
To build the improvements at Cortlandt, several land transfers and purchases had to be accomplished. Local 14 of the International Union of Operating Engineers relocated to property previously owned by the Keon Center Inc., which relocated to a new facility. Metro-North also purchased 2.1 acres from the Town of Cortlandt to put together the 9.5-acre site. The MNRCC applauds this creative solution to an otherwise problematic outlook for the station’s enhancement. Well done!
For a brief video of the new station click here.