By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s board is set to vote Thursday on another $958,244.48 for the engineering firm planning the Metro Rail extension to Amherst. The increase would bring the firm’s contract, first approved in 2018, to $21,649,358, years before the first train could carry a rider to UB North.
The item, Supplemental Agreement No. 6 with WSP USA Inc., is on the agenda for the board’s regular meeting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the NFTA’s published board book.
What the money buys
The board approved WSP’s original contract for environmental review and engineering on the Buffalo-Amherst-Tonawanda corridor in February 2018. Between November 2020 and June 2025, the authority and WSP signed five more supplemental agreements to finish the environmental review, complete preliminary engineering to about 30% design, and prepare the project to enter the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program, the board book says.
The new agreement pays WSP to redo the project’s traffic model. Staff wrote that “the Project’s traffic analysis must be updated to ensure 30% design plans reflect current traffic and demographic data, planning assumptions, and capital projects that may impact regional travel patterns.” The work includes new traffic counts, a diversion analysis at key intersections near the corridor, testing of operational changes, folding the results into the 30% plans, and reviewing the project’s final environmental impact statement for “any necessary updates required by federal and state environmental regulations.”
The negotiation record is in the board book. The authority’s independent cost estimate was $851,160.04. WSP first proposed $1,045,850.48. The two sides settled on $958,244.48, which staff called “fair and reasonable.” That is about $107,000, or 12.6%, above the authority’s own estimate.
The money comes from New York State Department of Transportation transit capital funds from the 2022-23 state fiscal year, according to the resolution. WSP reported minority-owned business participation of 15.7%, women-owned participation of 6% and service-disabled veteran-owned participation of 6.9%, meeting or beating the contract’s goals.
Where the project stands
In February, the FTA issued the final environmental impact statement and record of decision for the roughly 7-mile extension from University Station on UB’s South Campus to Tonawanda and Amherst, including the North Campus. That closed the federal environmental review.
“Completing the final environmental impact statement marks a pivotal moment in bringing the Project vision closer to reality,” NFTA Executive Director Kimberley Minkel said in an NFTA announcement. “It’s an exciting step forward that will support economic growth and improve transportation for generations to come.”
What remains is harder. The authority’s 2026 Transit Development Plan lists the next steps as completing 30% design, entering the Project Development phase of the federal grant program, and identifying “local funding streams.” It places the start of construction in its 2029-2033 window and the line’s opening “beyond 2033.”
The price has climbed with the calendar. At a public hearing in August 2025, project manager Jeffery Amplement said the cost would grow well past early estimates of about $1.2 billion. “We’re anticipating a construction period around 2030 now,” he said, WGRZ reported. “So if you move that out in another couple years, we’re looking at about a $2 billion light rail project.”
A divided corridor
That hearing showed how split the corridor is. Most of the more than 60 speakers opposed the project, WGRZ reported. “I am against the light rail expansion for a couple of reasons,” said Gary Heckman, a longtime resident. “I think there’s too many people in the area now.”
Supporters argued that rail beats the bus rapid transit alternative. “BRT busses will operate in mixed traffic, as was stated, this will slow and degrade service and reliability,” said Doug Funke of Citizens for Regional Transit. “It also strengthens the foundation for building and funding future extensions.”
What riders and taxpayers should ask
An updated traffic model is a sensible step for a project that has been in planning for years, and it is far cheaper than finding problems after construction begins. But each supplemental agreement adds to the money spent before anyone knows who will pay for the line. The board, and Erie County’s state delegation, should be able to answer three questions in public:
- What is the current cost estimate, and when will the authority publish it?
- Where will the local share of the money come from?
- When does the authority expect to apply for Project Development in the federal program?
Thursday’s agenda also includes four compressed natural gas buses from New Flyer of America and a $317,588.01 change order for Oakgrove Construction’s 400 block of Main Street rail replacement, which brings that contract to $24,729,555.99.
The Chronicle has asked the NFTA for the current cost estimate and funding plan and will update this story.
Featured image: A three-car Metro Rail train at University Station, the line’s current northern terminus, in 2015. Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; cropped.
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