Stamford (Metro-North station)

Infobox Station
name=Stamford
style=MNRR New Haven
type=Amtrak inter-city rail station
Metro-North New Haven Line commuter rail station
Shore Line East commuter rail station


image_size=
image_caption=A View North at the Main Station Building.
address=490 Washington Boulevard and
30 South State Street,
Stamford, CT 06902
coordinates=coord|41.046937|-73.541493
line=
Amtrak:
ConnDOT:
Metro-North:
other=CT Transit Stamford:
11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 42, 43, 44, I-BUS Express, Stamford Commuter Connection - Central, Bulls Head, North, Route 1 East
Greyhound
structure=
platform=
depth=
levels=
tracks=
parking=
bicycle=
baggage_check=
opened=
closed=
rebuilt=
electrified=
ADA=yes
code=STM (Amtrak)
ZTF (IATA)
owned=
zone=
former=
passengers=
pass_year=
pass_percent=
pass_system=
mpassengers=
services=
map_locator=

The Stamford Metro-North Railroad station, officially known as the Stamford Transportation Center serves commuters both leaving and entering Stamford, Connecticut via the New Haven Line. Some Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains also stop at Stamford.

The station is 33 miles from Grand Central Terminal. Just north of the station is the split for the New Canaan Branch. A few Shore Line East trains terminate at Stamford during the morning rush hour, and originate there in the evening.

Continental Airlines codeshares with Amtrak to provide service out of Stamford station to the train station at Continental's Northeast hub, Newark Liberty International Airport. As such, the train station has the IATA Airport Code (as an IATA-indexed train station) ZTF.

Downtown Stamford is directly north of the station.

Ridership

A total of 30 percent more of the Metro-North riders who use the station are getting off the morning trains to go to work in Stamford than the number leaving for elsewhere. The number of commuters riding into the station in the morning doubled in the decade up to 2006 (2,155 in 1996 and 4,226 in 2006). More office space is being built near the train station to allow commuters to avoid Interstate 95, which typically clogs up at rush hour in Stamford. The Royal Bank of Scotland is building a $400 million office complex due to be complete in 2008 and within 200 yards of the station. The building will have room for 1,400 traders. [Belson, Ken, "In Stamford, a Plan to Rebuild an Area and Build an Advantage", article in the "N.Y./Region" section of "The New York Times", May 21, 2007, page B1]

Stamford is the busiest New Haven Line station outside of New York City. As of August 2006, weekday commuter ridership for Metro-North was 7,147 and there were 2,215 parking spaces. [http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/commutemetro-north.html August 2006 ridership] "New York Times" Retrieved 2007-08-18] That's up from an average of 6,100 weekday inbound boardings in 2001 — 2,942 during peak times and 3,158 during off-peak times. [ [http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/CityPlan/pdfs/PlanningPrograms/ComprehensivePlan/Web_Data_Book/Transportation.pdf New Haven Data Book] "New Haven planning official site" Retrieved 2007-08-18]

The station, along with the downtown Greenwich railroad station, is receiving increasing numbers of "reverse commuters" who work in Stamford but live in New York City. Reverse commuting has doubled from 1997 to 2007 and increased 150 percent since 1990, with 1,900 reverse commuters as of 2007. Younger employees, often single and with enough money to live in Manhattan, for instance, sometimes prefer to live there, although more housing and nightlife have come to Downtown Stamford in recent years. Metro-North has added trains and express service to serve these commuters. As financial companies move to Stamford from Manhattan, some employees often become reverse commuters. Larger companies that are farther away than a few minutes walk from the station routinely provide shuttle service for their workers. [Prevost, Lisa, "Now Arriving: Reverse Commuters", article in the Real Estate section of "The New York Times", August 12, 2007, page 11 of Real Estate section]

Rail services

Stamford receives very frequent rail service on the New Haven Line. During peak hours, trains at Stamford come in intervals as little as three or seven minutes apart. [http://mta.info/mnr/html/planning/schedules/pdf/New%20Haven%20M_F%20June%2011%20Final.pdf Weekday New Haven Line timetable] "Metro-North official site" Retrieved 2007-08-18] Reverse commute trains during rush hours also operate relatively frequently, at intervals of ten to twenty minutes. Off-peak trains in both directions arrive at Stamford every thirty to forty minutes, but usually within a half-hour of each other.

Due to the newfound ridership growth in recent years, eastern Connecticut rail service provider Shore Line East announced on 19 March 2007 that it would extend some of its trains to Stamford station during peak hours. [http://www.progressiverailroading.com/freightnews/article.asp?id=10390 Metro-North, Shore Line East to operate more commuter trains in Connecticut] "Progressive Railroading" Retrieved 2007-08-18] To coincide with the extension of this service, Metro-North added another five trains on the New Haven Line to cope with the increases in passenger demand at Stamford.

Along with seemingly constant Metro-North service, trains run by national service provider Amtrak stop at Stamford station. The Acela Express, the only high-speed rail service in the United States; the Northeast Regional, providing local service along the Northeast Corridor, on which Stamford is a vital station; and the Vermonter, the only train that goes to Vermont and splits at New Haven, all stop at Stamford station. [http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Station/Station_Page&c=am2Station&cid=1080080551776&ssid=90 Stamford, CT (STM)] "Amtrak official site" Retrieved 2007-08-18]

Amtrak annual ridership

Stamford is now the second-busiest Amtrak station in Connecticut, after New Haven's Union Station.

Criticism

In 1987, the New York Times published a review of the then-new Stamford Transportation Center by architecture critic Paul Goldberger. The station was criticized for "a harshness almost unequaled in contemporary architecture" as well as for cost overruns and many functional failings, including the lack of shelter for the track platforms. The route from the cross-tracks waiting room to the platform was so long and indirect that passengers who waited indoors until a train's arrival was announced could not get to the platform in time to board it. [Paul Goldberger, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D91231F934A35751C1A961948260 A Hard-Edged Station for Stamford] ", "New York Times", December 7, 1987] .

A complete renovation of the station in the early 2000s attempted to address these problems. The two platforms were made island platforms, capable of serving four tracks. Added features included platform canopies, stairs and escalators directly from the waiting room for the tracks, and a new platform crossover, connecting to the parking garage.

History

Regular daily train service began in Stamford on January 1, 1849. In 1867, a depot was built one block east of the present location. The railroad at that time consisted of two tracks and passed through town on ground level (crossing the streets at grade). In the mid-1890s two more tracks were added to the line and most crossings were elevated and bridged, so the 1867 depot, shown in the picture below, was razed and replaced. [ [http://www.stamfordhistory.org/ph_1200.htm] Web page titled "Photo Archivist's Selection of the Month: December 2000 / What would be a suitable selection for December? How about the railroad?" at the Stamford Historical Society Web site, accessed March 24, 2007]

In March 1908, a four-day-old baby girl was found abandoned in a soiled, battered grocery basket in the women's room of the station. The girl was taken to Stamford Hospital where she was doing well. A few days later, Clarence Huestead of Watertown, New York, wrote to the hospital, stating that his wife had deserted him but had written to him and said that the baby was abandoned in Stamford. [Walsh, Erin, "From the Archives: The Week of March 9" weekly column in "The Advocate" of Stamford, March 10, 2008, p A5]

On November 25, 2007, a 49-year-old homeless man was killed on the tracks just west of the station by a train just before it arrived at 12:06 a.m. Passengers at the station called police to report that the man appeared to be unconscious on the tracks, but by the time police arrived and tried to stop the train, it was too late. [Ouellette, Veronica, "Homeless man killed on tracks", article, "The Advocate" of Stamford, p 3, Norwalk edition, November 29, 2007]

Layout

The main station concourse straddles the tracks of the Northeast Corridor, and contains the ticket booth, a passenger waiting area, newsstands, a shoe-shine spot, a Dunkin' Donuts, and Java Joe's. Downstairs below the platform level in the tunnel there is an MTA police station, Juan's Barbershop, a watch and shoe repair store, and The Cellar Wine and Beer Liquor Store (home of BeerTrainFriday.com)There is also a Greyhound/Peter Pan office and CT Transit Customer Information Center. Stairs and escalators lead to the platform level. Stamford has four high-level platforms, which give access to four tracks. A fifth track lies between the express tracks, so that Amtrak and peak-hour Metro-North trains not stopping there may bypass the station safely at full speed. On the south side of the station, across an access street, is a large parking garage connected to the concourse by one pedestrian bridge and directly connected to the east end of the platforms by a second bridge (both bridges connect to Level 4 of the garage).

A bus station is located just to the north of the train station, underneath a large bridge carrying Interstate 95. Taxis, often lined up by the dozens, pick up passengers at a stand on the south side of the station. A car rental agency is located southwest of the station building.

Gallery

Within walking distance

The South End of Stamford is on the southern side of the station and is currently a poor neighborhood about to undergo massive redevelopment already approved by city land-use authorities. The West Side of Stamford begins a couple of blocks to the northwest of the station, across the Mill River, and is considered the city's most dangerous section. [Clark, Stephen P., "Immigrant looking to lead West Side's revitalization" article in "The Advocate" of Stamford, Stamford edition, April 28, 2007("Despite efforts to curb it, the area is still a breeding ground for drug dealers, and gangs, such as the Bloods, the Crips, the Merrell Avenue Posse and the Haitian Posse [...] A shootout last year [2006] between factions of the Crips that left two people injured spurred a citywide police sweep called Operation Clean Streets.")]

All of Downtown Stamford, including corporate offices, entertainment and cultural venues, shopping and restaurants is within walking distance of the train station, almost all of it less than a mile and all of it to the north, across Interstate 95. The most direct and well-traveled access is along Washington Boulevard (at the west end of the station). Direct access is also along Atlantic Street (on the east end of the station; past Broad street it becomes Bedford Street). The major east-west streets parallel to the tracks and to Interstate 95 are Tresser Boulevard (a block north) and Broad Street (three and sometimes two blocks north).

These two streets, immediately north of the station, have narrow sidewalks and are less pedestrian-friendly than Tresser Boulevard, a block north: The northeast exit from the station joins with I-95 Exit 7 to become South State Street, a one-way street running east, between the railroad tracks and Interstate 95. North State Street is a one-way road running west that is just north of the highway. Tresser Boulevard is a block north of North State Street and runs parallel to it.

Entertainment and culture

Entertainment and cultural venues include Rich Forum (music, dance and theater) on Atlantic Street and Tresser Boulevard; the Palace Theatre (music and theater), farther north on Atlantic Street; Avon Theatre (arthouse movies), still farther north; Columbus Park (summer concerts); Bowtie Majestic and Bowtie Landmark cinemas. The city's large public library, Ferguson Library, is at the corner of Atlantic Street and Broad Street. A Starbucks coffee house in the same building has direct access to the Ferguson's used book store.

Offices

The only major office building near the south side of the tracks is Metro Center, operational headquarters of Thompson Corporation. UBS AG North American headquarters is immediately north of the station (with additional offices in One Stamford Forum on Tresser Boulevard). Royal Bank of Scotland North American headquarters building is under construction (as of late 2007) on Washington Boulevard across the street from UBS. Purdue Pharma headquarters is on Tresser Boulevard. Several corporate headquarters, including Xerox are not in the downtown area and not within walking distance.

Other Downtown locations

Also on Tresser Boulevard is the south entrance of Stamford Town Center shopping mall and Government Center (at the intersection with Washington Boulevard), the city government headquarters. The Stamford campus of the University of Connecticut is about three blocks north of Government Center on Washington Boulevard and Broad Street. In addition to the mall (in which Macy's, Barnes & Noble and Saks Fifth Avenue are located) large, "big box" stores downtown include Target (across the street from UConn-Stamford) and Burlington Coat Factory. There are no museums in Downtown Stamford. Restaurants and bars are located throughout the downtown area, with concentrations around Columbus Park, Summer Street, Bedford Street and Atlantic Street.

ee also

* Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is the official state advocate for commuters and brings station problems to the attention of officials.

References

External links

* [http://as0.mta.info/mnr/stations/station_detail.cfm?key=226 Metro-North Railroad Web page for the Stamford station]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/ct/Stamford.pdf Fix My Station Photo Campaign Web page for the Stamford station]
* [http://subwaynut.com/mnr/stamford/index.html The Subway Nut Web page for the Stamford station]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/stamford.htm Stamford Amtrak-Metro North-Shore Line East Station (USA Rail Guide - Train Web)]
* [http://www.greyhound.com/home/TicketCenter/terminal.asp?city=060170 Greyhound info]