Representatives from Amtrak, the City of Connersville, Connersville Chamber of Commerce and others all gathered at the Amtrak Connersville station to cut the ribbon on the newly renovated platform and station. Photo by Matt Sharp / msharp@newsexaminer.com
Representatives from Amtrak, the City of Connersville, Connersville Chamber of Commerce and others all gathered at the Amtrak Connersville station to cut the ribbon on the newly renovated platform and station.
This is a project that has been in the works since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, according to Connersville Mayor Chad Frank.
“They [Amtrak] asked me if we would be supportive of this project, and I said absolutely,” Frank said. “There’s not many small communities that have an actual Amtrak stop in their community and Connersville is one of them.”
Frank praised Amtrak for investing in the community.
“As you can see they invested a lot of money into making the station ADA compliant,” Frank said. “It makes the station more attractive, accessible and usable for people.”
Frank said he is hopeful to see Connersville grow as a part of the expansion.
“One of the memories I have when all of my kids were younger is taking a train to Chicago,” Frank said “Me and my wife were just tired of driving and we wanted to sit back with the kids and just have some fun. It was a great trip and one that well always remember. So, I’m glad that they’ve invested here.”
The project represents a roughly $2 million investment, and went toward makng improvements to the platform and station itself to make the station Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliant.
Peter Baruffaldi, Vice President of Operations for primary contractor for the project Enfield Enterprises, said they were tasked with constructing the 120 foot platform with two rmapways from the sidewalk to the road and a parking lot.
“What was here before with the existing conditions of the brick pavers, it was very uneven and displaced and not compliant for ADA passengers,” Baruffaldi said.
This project consisted of demolition of the existing, installation of support materials and the installation of the 12-inch concrete platform. Baruffaldi said the actual physical on-site work took about six months to complete.
David Handera, Vice President of stations, facilities, properties and accessibility at Amtrak spoke about the benefit this platform can have for the community.
“Train stations are a front door to a community,” Handera said. “So, having a train station, center of town, especially here in Connersville, we have the Cardinal that stops here. It gives us the ability with a compliant station to hopefully expand that service and have this even be a larger front door to the community.”
Handera said Amtrak has invested $770 million in making their stations ADA compliant and will continue to work to make sure they all are compliant.
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