Watching your step: Amtrak repairs platforms

Sept. 24, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

Contractors work along the railroad platform at the Waterbury Train Station recently. Photo by Gordon Miller

Repairs are made as Amtrak service has now returned to its twice-daily stops in Waterbury in the morning and evening. Photo by Gordon Miller

Passersby in downtown Waterbury may have noticed work at the Waterbury Train Station recently. No, it wasn’t work to prep for a new tenant inside the former cafe space. 

The project was part of Amtrak’s State of Good Repair effort to improve passenger rail facilities and bring stations and platforms into compliance with safety standards, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams explained. 

In Waterbury, damaged tactile sections posed a safety hazard to employees and passengers boarding trains. It was replaced with new yellow cast-iron material that is both a visual cue to the platform edge and an anti-slip surface. 

Platform repairs replaced worn and crumbling tactile pieces along the tracks and sidewalk. Photo courtesy Amtrak

The project was part of a $1 million package used to renovate platforms in Waterbury, Randolph, Castleton and Rutland in Vermont and in Springfield, Mass., Abrams said.  

Meanwhile, efforts continue to recruit a tenant for the former Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Visitors Center and Cafe that closed in March 2020. Company officials at parent Keurig Dr. Pepper decided earlier this year not to reopen the popular meeting spot. 

Karen Nevin is executive director at the local economic development nonprofit Revitalizing Waterbury which owns the train station. She said there have been many inquiries regarding leasing the building, but no serious applicants so far. RW hopes to find a good fit for the space by sometime next year, she said.