Metro Rail suspends service in downtown Buffalo for two weeks

The NFTA will not run trains July 8-11 and July 20-25 so workers can safely complete the work, said Buffalo Place Planning Manager Debra Chernoff. Instead, Metrobuses will run from the Allen Hospital station at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to downtown and back.

Workers will drill and pour four new footings for overhead power poles next to the former AM&A department store building at the site of the new railroad crossing and install 15 new overhead power poles on both sides of the crossing and in the median between Mohawk and Church streets. They will then convert the overhead power system that supplies power to trains from the old poles to the new ones before demolishing the old ones in the track bed.

Finally, Chernoff said, contractors and the NFTA will run trains on July 25 to test the new track bed and overhead catenary system to ensure it is working properly.

Work on the west side of the trackbed is nearly complete with the new rail sections being welded on, trackbed plates being completed, and the transition sections being installed. The upper section of trackbed that holds the transition rail in place will be poured before July 4. Work will then move to the other side of the trackbed on August 2.

In the meantime, Chernoff said, construction on the new Church Street subway station will begin in mid-July, installing a temporary aluminum structure before demolishing the 40-year-old stations on both sides of Main Street down to the concrete platforms.