Amtrak has agreed to rename the Rochester Train Station after Congresswoman Louise Slaughter.
That information on Tuesday first came from New York’s U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who say that the station will be named the Louise M. Slaughter Intermodal Station.
Slaughter died last Friday at the age of 88, after being injured in a fall at her Washington, D.C., apartment the previous week.
There has been a call from the senators and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to have that station renamed for the Fairport Democrat because of the push Slaughter made over the years to secure federal funding for the new train station.
The two senators said that renaming the train station was fitting for someone who “busted through every bureaucratic hurdle” to get the station built.
Cuomo had said in his letter to Amtrak that "Rochester finally has a train station of the caliber the region deserves."
President and CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Bob Duffy, says it's a fitting tribute.
"Louise was a fierce advocate for rail, for high speed rail, for that new train station. She secured a huge amount of funding for it. I was there when it opened and she was like a proud mother, when that building opened up, and it's fabulous," he said.
Duffy says he'd like to see Slaughter's name outside the station, and a portrait of her inside the facility, along with a story about what she has done for this community.
Amtrak Board Chair Anthony Coscia says that Rep. Slaughter was “an incredible public servant, and Amtrak and rail supporter, who was instrumental in leading numerous rail improvement projects across New York, including the development and funding of our new Rochester Station. To celebrate her legacy and impact on the station, City of Rochester, and State of New York, we are pleased to announce that we will be naming Rochester Station in her honor through a commemorative plaque at the station or other appropriate means.”
Amtrak will work with the City of Rochester and State of New York on the details of the naming, commemorative plaque and necessary funding for these efforts.
The Rochester Station will be the second Amtrak Station named for a member of Congress. In 2014, legislation was passed to rename Philadelphia 30th Street Station after the late Congressman William H. Gray III.