By Elliot Brandt
BUFFALO — The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s long-planned extension of Metro Rail into Amherst and Tonawanda is moving into a new round of engineering, with the authority’s board asked this week to add nearly $1 million to its lead consultant’s contract to update the project’s traffic model for 30 percent design.
The item, on the agenda for the NFTA board’s Oct. 22 meeting, would authorize Supplemental Agreement No. 6 with WSP USA Inc., a not-to-exceed increase of $958,244.48. That would bring WSP’s contract for the Buffalo-Amherst-Tonawanda Corridor Transit Expansion Project, including all supplements, to $21,649,358, according to the board packet. The NFTA had not posted minutes of the meeting as of early Saturday.
Why the traffic model needs redoing
The board first hired WSP in February 2018. Between November 2020 and June 2025, five supplemental agreements pushed the environmental review forward, funded preliminary engineering to roughly 30 percent design and prepared materials for the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant New Starts program, the packet says.
WSP’s original traffic model, built during the environmental review, was used to shape mitigation measures identified in the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement. Staff wrote that as the project moves into further engineering and funding applications, “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 new work includes collecting current traffic counts, running existing, no-build and build scenarios with updated software, analyzing traffic diversion at key intersections near the corridor, testing operational fixes, and reviewing the FEIS for any updates required by federal and state environmental rules.
The negotiated price landed between the authority’s independent cost estimate of $851,160.04 and WSP’s initial proposal of $1,045,850.48. Funding comes from state fiscal year 2022-23 New York State Department of Transportation transit capital funds, the packet says.
Federal sign-off in February
The extension, which would run Metro Rail north from University Station to the University at Buffalo’s North Campus, cleared its federal environmental review in February, when the Federal Transit Administration under President Trump’s administration issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision. The FTA concluded that the rail option best met the project’s needs compared with bus rapid transit and a no-build alternative, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported.
“Completing the final environmental impact statement marks a pivotal moment in bringing the project vision closer to reality,” NFTA Executive Director Kimberly Minkel said at the time. “It’s an exciting step forward that will support economic growth and improve transportation for generations to come.”
BTPM noted then that several federal and local approvals remain for construction and funding. The project still has to compete for New Starts dollars, the FTA’s main grant program for major transit construction.
Support, and a fight on the boulevard
A Siena poll released in August 2025 found 72 percent support for the project across Erie and Niagara counties and 71 percent in Amherst and Tonawanda, with 19 percent opposed, BTPM reported. The same poll found 58 percent acknowledged the construction and noise impacts.
Those impacts dominated a public hearing at Sweet Home Middle School that month, where 67 people spoke, according to BTPM.
Eddie King, a UB law student, described the case for the line. “When I came up here, I was faced with two challenges. One, I had to buy a car, and two, I had to choose where to live based on what was accessible via either my limited car access or access to limited trains and buses,” Mr. King said.
Richard Borrman, an attorney with an office on Niagara Falls Boulevard, warned about construction on the corridor. “Most of the businesses that run along the Niagara Falls Boulevard area are mom and pop or family-owned shops, they don’t have another access point on the rear,” Mr. Borrman said. “They’re either going to go somewhere else or they’re just not going to reopen.”
Nick Henry, a lieutenant with the Kenilworth Fire Department, said his objection was to the design, not to rail. “I don’t want to say no to the people who need better transport. I’m all in favor of transport. In fact, I’m a train nut myself; I love trains,” Mr. Henry said. “I’m opposed to this plan that eliminates my ability to serve my community, as well as other firefighters, EMS and police to serve their community.”
The packet says the updated traffic analysis will also “support continued coordination with state and local stakeholders with jurisdiction over the Project’s impacted roadways.”
A bikeway study on the same corridor
The same agenda included a $198,660 agreement with Toole Design Group for a feasibility study of the Buffalo-Kenmore-Tonawanda Bikeway, running along Kenmore Avenue from the Tonawanda Rails to Trails path, then along Military Road, Skillen Street and Esser Avenue. The study was requested jointly by the Town of Tonawanda and the City of Buffalo and is paid for by the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council through U.S. Department of Transportation planning funds. No NFTA money is involved.
The board was also asked to approve a $317,588.01 change order on Oakgrove Construction’s embedded-rail replacement in the 400 block of Main Street, bringing that contract to $24,729,555.99.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the NFTA for the board’s vote on these items and for the expected timeline of a New Starts funding application, and has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation for comment. This story will be updated with any response.
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