The Amtrak Station in Elyria caught fire at 12:30 a.m. on Friday morning, causing extensive damage to the building. No word as to the cause of the fire.
The “Amshack” facility was originally used in Cleveland then moved to Elyria after Amtrak built the current Cleveland station. Since then the Elyria facility has been the occasional target of vandalism.
Obviously, the aging structure is beyond repair and hopefully this may prompt some fast action on the proposal for Amtrak to move to the recently renovated and unused former New York Central Station located in Elyria’s downtown.
The NYC Station was renovated with the hope of using it as a transportation center for not only Amtrak but bus and taxi service as well. Now it’s up to Norfolk Southern to allow work making the facility compatible for Amtrak’s use.
The original access to the trackside platforms have been removed and filled in. Amtrak has verbally committed funds for the conversion at the NYC facility when permission is given by NS.
If this does not happen its going be interesting to see what alternative Amtrak develops for Elyria, maybe something similar to Alliance or nothing at all, we’ll have to wait and see.
Article and Photographs by Dan Davidson
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 
October 28, 2013 at 9:59 pm |
That’s a shame that had to happen to the station. They need to make the station simpler to on in Sandusky.