The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority would like to expand its 6.4-mile Metro rail line. It's an idea that failed before, due to outcry from the public. Has the public changed enough to allow this change to come to the region?
"Plans to expand the Metro rail from the University at Buffalo South Campus in Buffalo to the North Campus in Amherst ran aground in the 1980s and 1990s in the face of stiff community opposition and a lack of funding," according to an article by Stpehen T. Watson.
For the first time since the end of the last century, "government officials are again pushing to extend the region's Metro rail system from Buffalo into Amherst," reports Wtason. The question is whether the same residents who opposed the project before will support it this time around.
"Some critics remain, but the organized opposition that sank the Metro expansion plans a generation ago hasn't developed. In fact, in another dramatic change, some business owners and community leaders are enthusiastically embracing the idea," according to Watson.
The remainder of the article digs into more detail about the past and present politics of transit expansion in Buffalo, and begins to speculate about how the expansion would change the lives of those living and working along the proposed route.
Read the full story: Will Amherst embrace Metro rail extension this time?
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