I don't believe NNEPRA is going to build the new station; MaineDOT is taking the lead on the project, which I think means the station is going to be a government building. That being the case, tax-dollars-wise, the most cost-effective solution would be to renovate the existing Ferguson showroom and spend most of the money on the platforms and any track reconfiguration. And personally, I don't want to see the "urban fabric" enhanced in that location; it should remain industrial and continue to leverage the freight rail access. No station is going to be pleasantly walkable to downtown or the Old Port; the city's topography isn't conducive to that and as much as people have said that in Europe, etc., trains can do X, Y and Z, Portland certainly isn't a consequential enough market to merit trying something that capital-intensive that would potentially involve equipment Amtrak doesn't use anywhere else on its system.
General Portland Discussion
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Cosakita18
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NNEPRA is definitely taking a lead on the station relocation and they have zero ambition to build anything other than a glorified park-and-ride. There's so much potential to build a truly great "North Sation-esque" mixed-use station but it seems like all the involved parties can't see eye-to-eye and make it happen.
Portlander
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Not bad. It lost one floor on the Fore Street side and I like the use of brick and the three separate building look going down India. Any idea when construction will begin?
NNEPRA is heavily involved, but (at least still in the study stage) MaineDOT is officially the lead agency (Patricia has stated this at board meetings herself), presumably because NNEPRA is in the weird limbo of being a QUANGO with no revenue stream of its own.