The train station planned for Warwick should begin receiving passengers heading to T.F. Green Airport in late 2001. Airport and city officials are betting that many of those passengers will be coming from Massachusetts thanks to the convenience of the planned rail link. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has agreed to extend commuter rail service to the station upon its completion. Some form of people mover such as a tram or moving sidewalks would then convey passengers the 1,500 feet or so to the airport.
“One of the goals of this will be to obtain additional passengers from Massachusetts, who can take the train down to Warwick and then jump on the tram and come right over,” said Herb Cummings, chairman of the Rhode Island Airport Corp. “It would be really convenient for them, and we anticipate that, in fact, will occur.”
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Even before ground has been broken on the $25 million train station and people mover project, the airport is already attracting many Bay State passengers. Car license plate surveys in airport parking lots show that more than half of the cars parked at T.F. Green are registered in Massachusetts, said Steve Devine, train station project manager for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
RIDOT expects to select a design concept for the train station before the end of the year, around the same time the City of Warwick taps a developer for “Warwick Station,” its 70-acre redevelopment district around the station site on Post Road and Jefferson Boulevard.
“At the same time, we hope to have some kind of finalized concept that we can then go to final design on,” Devine said. “So, you’re looking at maybe another month.”
The City of Warwick has been working with RIDOT, the airport corporation, Gov. Lincoln Almond’s office and the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. to create the redevelopment area. Warwick officials expect the area anchored by the train station to attract more than $100 million in development in the coming years.
The Airport Area Economic Redevelopment Plan adopted by the Warwick City Council in December in 1997 emphasizes the potential connection between the new airport terminal and the Northeast Corridor, including eastern Massachusetts and Boston. The shops and restaurants that pop up in the redevelopment area presumably would be nourished by locals as well as a steady stream of travelers arriving at the train station for flights from T.F. Green.
Although RIDOT’s train station and people mover project is separate from the Warwick redevelopment effort, Devine said he wants to make sure the two are compatible.
“In our design process, we want to make sure we don’t do anything that’s going to preclude someone from tying into the people mover or something like that,” he said.
As for the actual design of the station, which Devine said could range anywhere from a traditional colonial building to a glass-and-steel structure that mirrors the airport’s design, RIDOT has held a half-dozed public meeting in Warwick to gather input from residents.
“We’ve been going to the community to see what they want to see there. They’re the ones that are going to have to live with it,” Devine said. “I think we’ve gotten a sense that people seem to lean toward a more traditional historic colonial-looking type building.”
RIDOT completed its environmental report on the station site in July and received the needed finding of “no significant impact,” essentially a green light to proceed, from the Federal Highway Administration.
Although construction on the station isn’t scheduled to be complete for another two years, airport officials are already rubbing their hands together in anticipation. The rail link, which will include some of the now overdue high-speed Acela trains from Amtrak, could eventually attract commuter trains from Connecticut as well, Devine said.
“That’s right,” agreed Cummings, “but I think it certainly will be a major attraction for people in southern Massachusetts who can just jump on the train and come down.”
In the meantime, airport officials expect T.F. Green’s passenger counts to increase from 4.1 million in 1997 to as many as 6 million next year.
