Developers Melinda Moulton and Elizabeth Steele renovated Union Station in the 1990s, hoping to entice Amtrak to bring service to the station.
Now that plans to bring service to Burlington are coming together, Moulton said she was dismayed to learn that the 500 foot long and about 14 foot high train might stay there, every night, on one of the most popular spots on Burlington’s waterfront.
The trains would also likely need to idle during the winter, according to Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams. The train will automatically start up when temperatures drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.“We’ve been working for 20 years to make this happen,” said Moulton, CEO of Main Street Landing.
“We never had any intention to have a train overnighting and being serviced right next to Main Street Landing property,” she said.Moulton and Steele, the CEO and owner of the real estate development company Main Street Landing, respectively, went to a public hearing last month to express concerns to officials conducting the study. Moulton then quickly organized a petition, signed mostly by business owners and residents who live and work on the Burlington waterfront, asking officials to remove the proposed storage location from consideration.
“It’s going to block the view, it’s going to block people coming down College Street, it’s going to be noisy, it’s going to be stinky in the winter,” Moulton said. “My tenants and my residents are concerned about their quality of life.”