Skip to content
Transportation
Link copied to clipboard

Casey: Spruce up 30th Street Station before papal visit

Sen. Bob Casey urged Amtrak to spruce up 30th Street Station to welcome visitors for the papal visit this fall and the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

Travelers wait for their trains at 30th Street Station on Nov. 27, 2013. (Colin Kerrigan / Philly.com)
Travelers wait for their trains at 30th Street Station on Nov. 27, 2013. (Colin Kerrigan / Philly.com)Read more

Sen. Bob Casey urged Amtrak to spruce up 30th Street Station to welcome visitors for the papal visit this fall and the Democratic National Convention in 2016.

The Pennsylvania Democrat said Wednesday he wanted more retail and dining options and nicer restrooms.

No new federal money is likely to be available to speed up improvements, Casey acknowledged in a news conference at the station, but he said he hoped private funding could fill the bill. He had no estimates on costs, specifics on renovations, or possible private contributors.

But Gerard Sweeney did.

Sweeney, the president and chief executive officer of Brandywine Realty Trust, said Wednesday that Brandywine was interested in development possibilities in the train station.

Brandywine is the developer of the angular Cira Centre office tower that opened adjacent to 30th Street Station in 2005, as well as the new Cira Centre South towers being built next to the old Post Office building south of the station.

"Brandywine has an interest in participating in a public-private partnership with Amtrak and other key stakeholders," Sweeney said Wednesday.

He suggested that higher-end retail shops, fine restaurants, service-oriented retailers such as barbershops and salons, renovated waiting areas, better public spaces, lighting, and signs would help provide arriving visitors with "a grander entrance to Philadelphia."

He said adding modern amenities to "a beautifully classic building" could resemble the remake of Union Station in Washington.

Pope Francis is to visit Philadelphia in September for the World Meeting of Families, and Democrats will hold their convention in July 2016.

Amtrak is in the midst of preparing a two-year redevelopment plan for the station and its University City neighborhood.

That $5.25 million master plan, being prepared with Drexel University and Brandywine, will outline proposed long-term projects in and around the station, including possible development above the rail yards adjacent to the station.

But the master plan isn't scheduled to be finished until the fall of 2016.

Casey said Wednesday he doesn't want to wait that long.

"I'm hoping we can provide a little more sense of urgency," he said.

In a letter to Amtrak president Joseph Boardman, Casey said that "given that Philadelphia will be home to two major events in the span of seventeen months, now is the time to put into motion a plan for revitalization of the station's interior."

He did not ask Amtrak to expedite its plans to refurbish the outside of the 82-year-old station, which is now wrapped in scaffolding to protect pedestrians from loose stonework on the station's facade.

That scaffolding is likely to remain long after the last Democratic conventioneers have left town: Amtrak says that it needs $60 million from Congress to fix the exterior, and that if the money is appropriated, construction will take five years.

Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said Wednesday that "we support the senator's call for both long- and near-term improvements . . . and will work closely with all the stakeholders involved to identify funding and support for priority projects that are consistent with the vision we are now developing."