White Plains Is the County Transportation Hub
Agreeing emphatically that White Plains is the transportation hub for Westchester County and a key component of the east to west and north to south travel plan growing along the I-287 corridor and in conjunction with bus rapid transit that is part of the new Tappan Zee Bridge construction plan, NYS legislators representing White Plains joined together by signing a letter urging the MTA to make White Plains a priority in its upcoming five-year capital plan.
At a 10 a.m. press conference announcing the letter on Sept. 18, White Plains Mayor Tom Roach, a member of Gov. Cuomo’s Mass Transit Task Force for the Tappan Zee Bridge, said: “White Plains is the busiest stop on Metro-North outside of Manhattan.” Citing statistics that when the White Plains train station was built 27years ago it was the arrival or destination point for approximately 7,000 passengers each weekday and that by 2007 (the most recently available number) the weekday passenger total had jumped to 21,500, Roach noted that the count was undoubtedly greater today and continuing to grow.
Owning much of the property around the train station, Roach indicated White Plains would have a major role to play in what was developed in the immediate area. Having received a $1 million grant from NYSERDA and the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, White Plains will be studying possible developments and impacts and will involve the city’s residents, neighborhood associations and businesses, said Roach. “One possible development could be the establishment of public open space with the creation of a Bronx River Park that would run horizontally along the tracks between the station and the County Center,” Roach added.
State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, also a member of the TZ Bridge Task Force, emphasized the number of passenger trips coming in to the station matched those going out, saying that in the short time they had been at the station that morning 3,000 people had arrived from Manhattan and 3,000 people had left for Manhattan.
Assemblyman David Buchwald said the White Plains station was the top destination for reverse commuters.
With mass transit from the new TZ Bridge expected to hit the area in 2018, the consensus was that the MTA had to get White Plains into the five-year capital plan, now. Discussions on that plan were scheduled to begin this week and would continue for several months.
Congratulating Mayor Roach for the ongoing growth in White Plains, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin said local representatives had convinced the task force on the benefits to the region of making White Plains the multi-modal transit center on the east side of the Hudson River.
The bus depot next to the White Plains train station is also one of the busiest in the region, hosting several-thousand passenger trips each weekday.
Commuters from Rockland County already come into White Plains by bus and take the Metro-North trains to their jobs in Manhattan. That will only increase when the new bridge is finished, Roach said.
