Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Don't let the sparse numbers fool you, NFTA officials say they are pleased - one month in - with how its $57 million DL&W Terminal Metro Rail station is being used.
NFTA officials admit it remains, very much, a works in progress, kind of a development "crawl-before-you-walk" scenario.
"It is going to take a while," said Helen Tederous, NFTA spokesperson. "We know that."
For the first month of the station's operation, the NFTA is reporting a daily inbound rider average of 75 people and an outbound rider daily average of 91 people.
Still, that comes out - at least for the first month - at a cost of $343,373 per rider.
Mind you, since the station's Dec. 8 debut, there has been only a limited number of events at its across the street neighbor, KeyBank Center, and then there was the Christmas and New Year's holidays where ridership traditional slows down, and, there was some nasty winter weather.
Taken together, the NFTA is happy with the early returns.
"Once the weather gets better and there are more events around the station, numbers will pick up," Tederous said.
Building the DL&W station is central to a larger development game plan of totally reactivating the historic South Park Avenue landmark.
An elevated skybridge connecting the terminal with KeyBank Center is due to open by later summer.
The NFTA hopes to see the terminal's second story redeveloped with a mix of restaurants, bars and attractions.
"Our intent, from the beginning, is breath new life into that building," Tederous said.
Since the last train pulled out of the circa-1917 era terminal in 1962, the building has sat largely vacant and closed off to the public. The NFTA used the first level - now the station - to store and repair its Metro Rail cars.
The station is the first new one developed for the Metro Rail system since it opened in 1985. It now has seven stations in Downtown Buffalo and six underground stations.
"We are getting a lot of people coming in, just because they are curious," Tederous said.