Train station project mostly repairs neglect. Clock tower remains!

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) designed the White Plains train station badly in the mid 1980s and neglected it.

http://web.mta.info/mnr/wp-reno/wp-reno.html#p1

The current three year project is presented by both the MTA and the City of White Plains as a major change but no matter how many times I read the MTA's own description I come away thinking: so?

The 1980s work omitted heating and cooling and made a roof which did not cover and protect passengers from water when getting on/off trains. Fixing these mistakes is presented as a "significant makeover", yeah of MTA mistakes.

The work that just started seems to be cleaning and painting, you know, like responsible people do for routine maintenance.

Then MTA will make the waiting areas larger. Nice touch. "On-platform vendor space" will presumably be for coffee for the commuters who really count, the ones who drive and park in the garage and don't want to descend to ground level to get a cup of coffee. That's for pedestrians who live in apartments and walk to the station. The Common Council always takes care of its own.

Oh, and replace the disgraceful restrooms.

There will be an "information dashboard", which they sort of already have. And WiFi, presumably like Hastings Tea & Coffee has had on Main Street for years. USB charging stations! Yippie!

The new side platform sounds good, whatever that is.

Since "only 11 parking spaces will be displaced", that means that the fleeting idea of removing the parking garage was dumped along with any real attempt to get residents to/from the train station other than by residents driving their cars and parking them for ten hours. Not an efficient use of resources, either personal or municipal. I guess they could take the county Bee-Line bus. Nah.

Clock tower remains! Yes, that symbol of MTA incompetence and White Plains mediocrity. The primary photo shows no substantive change in the station design and retains the clock tower, which has not kept correct time for years. About three years ago MTA simply set all four sides to noon/midnight. So in three years when this project is complete, the clock tower will be there but will time be correct? Hey, why not fix the clock NOW?

"Installation of a new sidewalk between Hamilton Ave. and the lobby entrance". Right now there is no crosswalk on the west side of Hamilton on Bank Street or west of the tracks for people on the pathway. What's happening to facilitate pedestrian crossing of Hamilton Ave. anywhere near the train tracks, including people on the Bronx River Pathway on foot or bike? Right now even project workers must wait for a traffic opening and dash across to get from one part of the work area to another. The City did not even have enough common sense to deal with that.

The new station should be a big improvement, if only because the MTA neglected the current station so much for so long. But functionally it does not seem to be very different. Maybe it will at least clear the way for the Common Council to finally put those ground level parking areas to good use, like generating tax money.