By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It reflects the views of the writer.
There is finally a work crew on the platform at the Buffalo-Depew Amtrak station. That is good news, and the people who pushed for it deserve credit. But sealing cracks is not the same thing as fixing a platform that Amtrak itself said, more than two years ago, it would tear out and replace.
Amtrak should now tell the public, in writing, which job this is. Is the crack sealing a stopgap, or is it the start of the full, accessible rebuild? If it is a stopgap, Amtrak should publish the scope, cost and start date of the real replacement, and Rep. Tim Kennedy should hold the railroad to it.
A promise with a date on it
The Chronicle reported Sunday that a crew from Ideal Concrete was sealing cracks on Monday, Oct. 26, with a CSX flagger standing by, as WKBW-TV first reported. CSX shares the tracks, and the work could not safely start without one.
The delay has a history. In September 2024, Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams told The Buffalo News by email that the railroad would put a temporary asphalt overlay on the platform, that design of a new concrete platform meeting Americans with Disabilities Act requirements would be finished in mid-2025, and that construction would begin later that year.
The design part appears to have happened. Amtrak’s December 2025 ADA progress report lists Buffalo-Depew among 16 station designs “Issued for Construction” between November 2024 and April 2025. The construction part has not. When WKBW visited in September of this year, much of the platform was still fenced off and no construction was underway.
This is the station Buffalo actually uses
Depew is not a sleepy whistle stop. Amtrak’s fiscal 2025 New York fact sheet counts 113,519 passengers getting on or off there, more than twice the total at the downtown Exchange Street station. It is the only Buffalo stop on the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, according to Amtrak’s Great American Stations site. The same fact sheet lists the station’s target year for ADA compliance as fiscal 2027.
That means a lot of first impressions. Gregory Rabb, the Buffalo rail enthusiast who fell stepping off a train there in September, has made the point plainly.
“It makes us look like a dump,” Rabb told WKBW in September. He wants more than a patch: “I want the platform completely redone and restored so people can get on and off the train easily, especially visitors, not just locals, and I want it to be improved to make Buffalo look good because right now it makes Buffalo look terrible.”
He has been fair to the people who work there. “The staff at the station, they’re wonderful people. I love them. But look at this,” he said. The problem is the concrete, not the crew.
The case for patience, and why it falls short
The strongest argument against pressing Amtrak is a real one. The railroad has ADA responsibility at hundreds of stations. Its own report says it has “some type of ADA responsibility” at 381 of them, and that once “all external approvals for a station project are in place, Amtrak must complete construction within 36 months.” Depew also depends on CSX, which owns the track and controls when crews can work beside it. When WKBW asked in September, CSX said: “We recognize the importance of this work and anticipate flaggers to be available to assist with this project in early October.” The flagger came late, but it came.
Some work is better than none, and a sealed crack is safer than an open one. Nobody should pretend a platform rebuild beside an active freight line is simple.
But a complicated job is a reason for a clear schedule, not a reason to skip one. Amtrak gave dates in 2024 and missed them. The public still does not know what the current contract covers, what it costs, whether the fenced sections will reopen, or whether the outside approvals that start Amtrak’s 36-month clock are in hand. Riders should not have to learn the answers from a reporter standing on the platform.
What should happen now
Rabb believes public attention is what got the crew there. “Miracle of miracles, I think in part because of what you’re doing and what Channel 7 is doing and then the congressman’s office, we finally got it going,” he said. He is probably right, and that is the lesson. Attention works, so it should not stop now.
Amtrak should post a plain project page for the Buffalo-Depew platform that says what the current work is, what the full replacement will include, what it will cost and when construction will start and finish. CSX should commit to flagger availability for the full rebuild, not one visit at a time. And Kennedy, whose office has already asked questions, should put the request to Amtrak in writing and publish the answer.
If you ride the Lake Shore Limited or the Empire Service out of Depew, tell Kennedy’s office what you see on the platform, and ask Amtrak one question: is this the fix, or is this the patch before the fix? The answer should not take another two years.
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