Hello!  I'm new to the board and this is my first post.  I've been reading some of the topics here and this came to my mind:  Do people prefer that Cleveland have two train stations - the planned North Coast Transportation Center/Lakefront Station for Amtrak and maybe HSR and Greyhound - and Tower City for Westshore, CVSR, and RTA, or is it better that they are all centralized under Tower City?  In addition to which is preferred, which is more likely to happen?

 

I personally prefer centralizing everything under Tower City/Casino Phase II.  Why?

 

The busy-ness of having all rails funneling into Tower City would keep it busy all the time.  The lakefront station as is, is pretty much dead most of the time.  Also, I think it's important for out-of-towners who choose to come to Cleveland via rail that they get the impression of Cleveland as being an active place where people are.  I remember a snarky comment somewhere else on the internet asked that even if HSR connected the downtowns of Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, "who would want to go to downtown Detroit or Cleveland?"  :-(

 

That being said, I think having new arrivals first being funneled into Tower City would provide a favorable first impression, a downtown that people want to be in.  Maybe in a few years the lakefront will be a bustling place where everyone visits, but I think betting on that is a bit chancy.  After all, we've had decades of talks of lakefront development that have been very slow in coming to fruition.

 

Of course, having the NCTC would probably be good for the development of the lakefront in a transit-oriented development sense.  I also liked the winning design of the architectural contest a few years back that designed the station as a terraced hillside to connect the Mall to the lake, so having the station there wouldn't be so bad.  However, at this point, I don't think that Cleveland really has the density and traffic that requires two trains stations, one local and one long distance, a la New York's Grand Central/Penn Station.

 

That being said, I get the sense that NCTC is more likely to happen than centralizing everything under Tower City, since the city went through the trouble of having an architectural design contest for such a station.

Welcome. There is some previous discussion on that.  Check out other threads for A LOT of discussion on this very subject.

Welcome, DontGiveUptheFight. MTS is correct. There has been much discussion on this subject in other threads here in the railways section. I may move your question over the the most appropriate thread, when I have some time to look for a good spot to move it.

Thank you for the welcomes!  Yes, feel free to place the topic where you think it's most appropriate.  I look forward to digging through the forum more thoroughly and learning more.