PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A three-year redevelopment and renovation will bring a lot of changes to 30th Street Station — some of it unseen and some of it right out in the open.
"The largest change you'll see will bring food and beverage options into the main concourse," said Abigail Barman with Amtrak. "We're gonna have a sit-down restaurant. You could grab a drink, grab dinner, as you're sitting, waiting for your train and enjoy the atmosphere inside the main hall."
Barman says, starting in the new year, concessions will be shut down for renovations, and other vendors will take their place temporarily.
She says, eventually, the main ticket area will be pushed back into the empty space behind it.
"Where the current ticket counter is, and where the baggage operation is, will be consolidated into the north waiting room," she said. Additional seating will also be created.
Ticketing and baggage operations will be consolidated in the next three years.Hadas Kuznits/KYW Newsradio
Meanwhile, Ryan Johnson, senior project manager for Plenary, the lead developer on the project, says some infrastructure upgrades are already underway that are not visible to the public.
"Lots of big infrastructure in America has significant deferred maintenance issues, so a big portion of what we do, most of the public will never see," he said. "It's just bringing up HVAC systems and elevators and escalators and all that stuff into 21st century condition."
He says the biggest challenge is the deployment of $550 million of capital improvements in the middle of a major transit station that sees hundreds of thousands of people pass through every year.
"Construction coordination while maintaining operations for Amtrak is a significant lift," Johnson says.
Renovations are expected to be completed in 2027.
