The passenger rail station is being cleaned and repaired by Depot Redux, Lawrence Moderns and other volunteers.
Hopes of purchasing and restoring Lawrence's Burlington Northern Santa Fe train depot will have to follow a different track than once envisioned.
City commissioners in June said they were interested in exploring a low-cost purchase of the 1956 depot at Seventh and New Jersey streets.
But city staff members recently have been told by BNSF leaders that the railroad is not interested in selling the land that the depot sits upon.
"They are not willing to have the land go out of their hands," said Diane Stoddard, assistant city manager. "But they are open to discussing options of transferring ownership of the building or perhaps leasing the building to the city."
The city, though, will have to decide whether it is interested in such a deal. Stoddard said the city doesn't want to potentially spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the building to have the railroad decide it later wants to do something different with the land.
In June, commissioners were told that it would cost about $500,000 to bring the building into compliance with the American with Disabilities Act and to make several necessary repairs.
Leaders of a citizens group, however, said they're still hoping the city can gain control of the deteriorating depot. Carey Maynard-Moody, an organizer of the group Depot Redux, said having the city take ownership of the building is the best way to ensure that it ends up being designated as a historically-significant building.
"This is a building that has some worth and value historically," Maynard-Moody said of the building that was built in a modern post World War II style. "BNSF is not in the business of historic preservation of its buildings. It is in the business of freight and the passage of freight."
Stoddard said the city this week sent BNSF a list of repairs that city inspectors believe need to be made to the building. The list includes major work such as replacing the building's roof. Stoddard said the city hopes BNSF would agree to make the necessary repairs to preserve the building. The city is waiting on a response from the railroad.
The Depot Redux group and other citizens already have started to do some basic maintenance at the building. Group member Marty Kennedy said volunteers have cleaned the windows, bathrooms, floors and added a welcome sign and map to the depot.
Kennedy, a former city commissioner, said he thinks the city could successfully rehabilitate the station.
"The city getting control of the depot would be the best long-term solution," Kennedy said. "We know the city would have to do the work in phases. We understand it wouldn't be a quick fix."
About 3,700 passengers a year use the depot to board a pair of Amtrak trains that run through the city. But regional Amtrak supporters say that number could grow to about 14,000 passengers per year if a proposal to add new rail service between Kansas City and Oklahoma City materializes.
Comments
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sjschlag (anonymous) says…
I hope this group can get around this snag. They seem to be very dedicated to saving this interesting piece of architecture.The city has no money to spend on this right now. Hell, they can't even fund a bus system. Maybe the group should look into restoring and operating this depot- not the city.
ukillaJJ (anonymous) says…
BNSF are a bunch of greedy bastards -- it's partially their fault that the buiding is in such bad shape anyway. I think the U.S. rail system needs a kick in the rear.
gccs14r (anonymous) says…
If BNSF won't maintain it and won't sell it, maybe the City can seize it. See how BNSF likes that.
Danimal (anonymous) says…
What would be the point of fixing up a building you don't own. Either BNSF should sell the (whole) property or fix it themselves.
toe (anonymous) says…
BNSF is smart not to give this land away. Passenger trains may come back in a big way in the next 100 years. Having the land in hand would give them a very powerful competitive advantage.
KU_cynic (anonymous) says…
How much can this land be worth? It's besides the railroad tracks, for goodness' sake. It's not as if it has an alternative use with any legitimate economic value (as a site for a home, a condo, a bank branch, a Sonic, etc.). Transferring the land to the city or an independent trust should involve only a very nominal cost of the magnitude that BNSF could easily write off.That said, I believe that any tax dollars spent on this would be a complete waste. Let the financing and the risk be in the hands of a non-government not-for-profit entity.
terrapin2 (anonymous) says…
It seems as though they might have a better chance if they could get the Lawrence depot designated as a historic building for its architecture from the post-WWII era and for its function as one of the few remaining rail stations from that time. Something like that might force BNSF to repair it or turn it over to a historic conservation group at a state or national level with the resources to fund the big repairs, but with the general upkeep handled by local volunteers like the members of the Depot Redux group and other Lawrencians who give a damn about preserving a part of the history of Lawrence. We took the Amtrak train from Lawrence to Santa Fe, NM this past April and it was such a wonderful experience, yet it was also sad to see the Lawrence rail station in such poor condition, especially as the first-impression for people traveling to LarryTown. Worse yet, many of the other rail stations along the way were in far worse condition than our Larrytown depot. After reading some Amtrak reviews online we didn't have very high expectations for our accommodations, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that the whole rail travel experience was much more to our liking than we had ever expected!
8muddyboots (anonymous) says…
What's the relationship between the railroads and Union Station in KCMO?
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
Maynerd Moody says, "BNSF is not in the business of historic preservation of its buildings. It is in the business of freight and the passage of freight." so what??? out of all the times you stuck your noses into other people's business, what do you care what their business is???? How many homeowners got you out of their business, when your group of loud mouthed nosy pokers wanted to preserve a house that should have been demolished/????Do you have two standards????? One for you and one for everyone else/???
can8iv66049 (anonymous) says…
Amtrak leases the rights to run on BNSF owned railways. They have nothing to do with one another. The CEO of BNSF is a KU Grad....btw
Purell (anonymous) says…
Tear the darn thing down! It isn't pretty and it that old, and definitely not historic!!!
Jaylee (anonymous) says…
city commission is wishful thinking on this one.BNSF only wanted to sell the building to the city (the proposed price = $1) so they wouldnt have to deal with managing it.it fell into disrepair and they pawned it onto lawrence.its not all bad though. if you think about how close the depot is to downtown, it could be utilized to bring passers-by into the downtown area for an hour or a day if something could be set up with BNSF.this plan also has a snag in that the train (the southwest chief) that runs through lawrence only stops through once on the way out west and once on the way back (different trains obviously) each day. the east-bound train runs through lawrence at about 5:30am every morning and the west-bound runs through at about 12:30am. not privy to business hours.i can tell you though that lawrence is one of the few towns on the train's path to LA that has anything close to the depot. lawrence city commission should think about that?
Nonsense (anonymous) says…
So if they restore it then what? The train stops in the middle of the night. No one sells tickets. Who would use it?
jhawks1234 (anonymous) says…
We have a group of investors that will raise the dollar then leave the front door unlocked so the homeless have a place to sleep at night. We only ask that the city gives us an abatement en perpetuity of property taxes as this is a charitable and community oriented effort.
50YearResident (anonymous) says…
The fine print in this $1 purchase probably says the building will have to be removed by the purchaser when the railroad requests if they decide to reopen a new terminal there.
scott_webb (anonymous) says…
Tear it down, end of problem, end of discussion