Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994                   TAG: 9411150027
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WINFRED D. NOELL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CONSIDER A BETTER WAY TO GET ACROSS THE RAILROAD TRACKS

More than $5 million is being expended just for tourists and conventioneers to walk leisurely across the railroad, with not a cent for the man on the street who will, in the end, be fenced out from crossing the tracks at Jefferson Street. This is more planning by bureaucrats with the big-money boys adding their two-cents worth.

Let me go over the negatives of this project:

The cost is much more than it needs to be.

It's too elaborate and big to accomplish what it was intended to do.

It will block more of the view of the hotel, passenger station and distant mountains.

It doesn't stay as close as it could have to Roanoke's historical past.

It will not accomplish what needs to be accomplished. This one is the heartbreaker because, after all is said and spent, the structure under construction will not realistically do what Roanokers need it to do.

Let me offer my opinion - at no charge to taxpayers - as to what Roanoke city should have done. If my opinion were offered at $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000 in consulting fees, it would probably be taken more seriously. But to me, it's plain old common sense.

First, if Hotel Roanoke, the city and certain individuals think or know there is a need to have the parking garage in the First Union Tower connected to the hotel, then that's fine. This should have been accomplished by a no-frills, inexpensive walkway straight across the tracks from the garage to the hotel, perpendicular to the tracks and placed as close to the passenger station as possible.

Second, the existing underpass under the tracks should have been used - it's a part of Roanoke's past. This underpass would have to be lengthened southward to empty onto the sidewalk south of Norfolk Avenue. On the north side, lengthen it to emerge into the convention center with elevator service. Elevators could also be used on the south side of the tracks for handicapped access, or an inclined ramp would be cheaper.

Also, in the middle where the underpass is accessible from the passenger platform, an area could be opened up with skylights to give the center of the tunnel plenty of natural light. With doors at this point, passengers from Amtrak or excursion trains could have access to the north or south sides of the tracks. New entrances at both ends could be designed to let in plenty of sunlight. These changes would allow the regular guy walking down Jefferson Street to get to the other side, and bring a structure from Roanoke's past back to good use - with a uniqueness that rail fans and others would appreciate! Sure, security could be provided by remote cameras, and a security service provided from the $2 million or $3 million that could be saved from what's now being built.

The third and most important thing I think needs to be done is one that a lot of people will be against. But if you think about this, it makes sense. Open the Jefferson Street crossing to vehicular traffic.

It's time the Gainsboro area, the hotel, Henry Street, and the convention center be truly reconnected in a significant way to the rest of downtown, and to let the whole of downtown function as one entity. Numerous passenger trains and endless coal drags are no longer passing this way. The number of trains passing here is meaningless anyway because, for more than 100 years, the public has been using the Second Street crossing with some inconvenience. But all in all, more benefit has been realized than not. So, if Second Street has been used successfully for so long, then Jefferson Street can be used also because the same trains that pass Second Street are the ones passing Jefferson Street.

If the shakers and movers had considered everybody's needs in planning this project, we'd be able to walk across the tracks overhead, at street level, or underground, plus have the option of driving across.

Some of these ideas could still be implemented, so let's look again at our options, and make this project really do for tourists, as well as citizens, the most good.

Winfred D. Noell of Roanoke is a truck driver.