Senator Comitta speaks at the groundbreaking of the new Coatesville Train Station earlier this year. She secured $2 million in state funding for the parking and transportation facility that is planned to support the new train station.
State Senator Carolyn Comitta (d-19) announced Monday an additional $2 million in state funding for the parking and transportation facility adjacent to the site of the new Coatesville Train Station.
The latest funding comes in addition to $650,000 in state multimodal transportation grant funding she helped secure for the project in the spring and a $1 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant she announced last year.
“I know residents have been eagerly awaiting this project and construction is finally beginning,” Comitta said. “As we move forward with building the new train station and look forward to making Coatesville’s revitalization a reality, I am fully committed to supporting continued investments in the future of Chester County’s only city – a future that must include economic growth and job opportunity for residents of Coatesville and the surrounding region. This funding is just one more piece of the puzzle in that ongoing effort.”
The funding was awarded to the Redevelopment Authority (RDA) of the City of Coatesville, which is working to construct the parking facility to support the train station, widely considered a lynchpin of the city’s ongoing revitalization plans and strategic economic development vision.
The multi-level 175,000 square foot parking facility is key to the success of the train station, which currently offers Amtrak service but is expected to provide SEPTA Regional Rail service in the future.
The facility will also feature bus transportation integration, covered waiting shelters, bike racks, ample lighting, wayfinding signage, and nearly 500 parking spaces to support SEPTA, Amtrak, and Link and Kraft Bus transportation services.
The multimodal commuter parking facility set for Fleetwood Street is estimated to cost more than $10 million.
Meanwhile, officials recently broke ground on the new train station with construction set to get underway soon. The revitalization project is slated to be completed by 2025 and is funded by support from Federal Transit Administration, PennDOT, and Chester County.
Prior to project design and bidding, PennDOT led multiple planning efforts with the Coatesville community to identify strategies that would revitalize the area surrounding the proposed train station. Streetscape projects on Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue completed in 2019 and 2020 improved access from Coatesville’s downtown area to the proposed new train station location.
The Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) is a Commonwealth reimbursement grant program administered by the Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement projects. RACP projects are authorized in the state budget, have a regional or multi-jurisdictional impact, and generate substantial increases or maintain current levels of employment, tax revenues, or other measures of economic activity.
