There has been talk for years of opening the cavernous Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad train shed, with little to date to show for it. That is expected to change in the coming months. After more than two years of track work, the Niagara Frontier Transit Authority plans to open the primarily state-funded $57 million, ground-level DL&W Station in January 2025 with two four-car platforms.
A stair tower at South Park Avenue and Illinois Street is expected to be completed in May 2025, with a skybridge connecting to KeyBank Center at South Park Avenue and Main Street coming in 2026. City passenger rail will share about half of the 100,000-square-foot space with the Yards and Shops complex used to keep Metro Rail cars in service since the 1980s. After more than two years of track work, the NFTA plans to open the primarily state-funded $57 million, ground-level DL&W Station on the Buffalo River in January 2025.
On the second floor, construction is expected to begin next year on a planned $52 million multiuse space that envisions a public market, artists, food vendors and a place for gathering for music and special events. The first phase is expected to open in 2026 with 75,000 square feet of space indoors and 55,000 square feet outdoors that will offer some of the best riverfront views in Buffalo. “The NFTA is excited to soon welcome the public back in the building for the first time since the last train left in the 1960s,” said Darren Kempner, the NFTA’s director of go.
