Durham Multimodal Center

[pack-man]

this project seems to be moving at a snails pace. but at least its moving.

[Atlside]

this project seems to be moving at a snails pace. but at least its moving.

[pack-man]

Wasn't this project the Downtown Durham TTA rapid rail station.

[BullDurhamer]

things are moving along. i even saw guys moving dirt around on a sunday afternoon.

[Atlside]

Here are good links to the site plan for the downtown station.

http://www.durham-nc.com/bullseye/Vol4Issu...on-siteplan.pdf

Here's a model

http://www.ridetta.org/Regional_Rail/Trans...lansDurham.html

Downtown Durham Station (2008)

This station will be located over Chapel Hill Street between the Liggett Myers complex and the American Tobacco development. From this station, which will be linked to Durham's Multi-Modal Center, passengers will be able to catch Amtrak trains and local and intra city buses. The shops and restaurants in Brightleaf Square and downtown are nearby, as is the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The Freelon Group architects designed this building

rendering

http://www.freelon.com/portfolio/220

[orulz]

One thing that kind of strikes me about this design is how far the city bus platforms are from the building and waiting room. That looks like it's 100 or 200 feet... eh guess that's not too too far, but it's less than ideal.

[pack-man]

freelon's website still says there will be a connection to the TTA commuter rail. they obviously haven't updated that in awhile. why is that High Point still has the best downtown bus station in the state? Even Durham's seems very small compared to High Points.

[Atlside]

freelon's website still says there will be a connection to the TTA commuter rail. they obviously haven't updated that in awhile. why is that High Point still has the best downtown bus station in the state? Even Durham's seems very small compared to High Points.

[Atlside]

Flicker has a nice view of the construction of the Multimodal Center

[Atlside]

The city of Durham is delaying the opening of the new Durham Station Transportation Center.

Durham delays opening of transit center

Thursday January 15, 2009

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1368696.html

Take a look at the station on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27209755@N03/3154479984/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27209755@N03/3154476958/

[DwnTwnRaleighGuy]

Can someone tell me what the parking is like in this area? I don't see any parking decks for this project? Is there enough street level parking?

[Atlside]

Can someone tell me what the parking is like in this area? I don't see any parking decks for this project? Is there enough street level parking?

[Jones_]

I believe that's the north edge of the American Tobacco parking deck

[former-ga-girl]

Update: DATA passed out flyers to their passengers indicating they will be moving to the new terminal February 22nd.

[JDC]

Can someone tell me what the parking is like in this area? I don't see any parking decks for this project? Is there enough street level parking?

[sax184]

There's a massive parking deck immediately adjacent at American Tobacco. There is also parking adjacent to what will be the new rail station in an old tobacco warehouse.

[Atlside]

Up to date photos of the new station. It would have been great if the TTA rapid rail transit train were using this station as it was being designed for as well.

Source: Flickr

[ERJ170]

That is very nice.. I wonder if they left room for the eventual rail line to go through the station or not. If not, then that might have been a bad oversight because eventually the rail would come. If so, good forward thinking on their part...

[dmccall]

That looks great. It looks like the grand opening is tomorrow (Monday) at 11am.

I haven't been over there in ages. Is this station across Chapel Hill Street from the Amtrak station? If so, why didn't they incorporate the entire shebang into one truly multimodal complex? From their website they tout two modes: buses and taxis.

[Jones_]

I think it is on the site of that old motel slightly NW of American Tobacco. I thought about a single multiple model setup in Durham too, and concluded that the smaller block size in Durham made it too hard to cram everything into the same space without closing streets...this assuming the agencies would work together.

[urbanesq]

I've wondered about the rail access, too (both Amtrak and the eventual regional rail or its equivalent from TTA) and have tried to figur eout how that will work. It's RIGHT across from the Amtrak station, so it looks to me that it's one short pedestrian bridge away from being a fully integrated transit hub. Bery pretty building, but I was slightly disappointed that the City didn't partner with a private developer to make this a mixed-use (in additional to mixed mode) center. Lost opportunity on a very central site to strengthen streetscapes, integrate commercial and possibly residential, etc. But it's much better than what was there, that's for sure. (And yes-- it was the site of the decaying heart of durham motel eye sore)

[orulz]

This is right across the street from the current Amshack (which will probably become a light rail station eventually). The Amshack/Light Rail is right across the tracks from the future Amtrak station which is under construction. These three stations are indeed very close together. The light rail station and the bus station are supposed to be linked with a bridge over Chapel Hill street, but I'm not sure how intercity trains will be tied in. What I'd like to see is an underground passageway beneath the tracks, that gives access to both the intercity platform and the light rail plaform from both sides of the tracks.

[Sharpless]

Maybe Durham can design pedestrian access

[orulz]

That's not likely. DOT and NCRR have a policy that's pretty much set in stone of not building any new grade crossings on the NCRR, be them pedestrian or vehicular, public or private.

A tunnel under the tracks from one station to the other, with stairway/escalator/elevator access to the platforms would be best (similar to Greensboro's station). However, a solution that would be less expensive and probably more likely would be to force pedestrians to go the "long way around" on the Chapel Hill Street sidewalk.

[dmccall]

That would be a lot cheaper than bridges or tunnels. It seems that as long as the tracks are gated, and there is a locking system that engages when trains approach, it should be plenty safe.