Proposed expansion of the Buffalo Metro Rail
[2] They are citizens intent on bringing awareness and leading opposition to the expansion proposal currently published by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.
Rail cars continue along the separated trackbed along South Division Street, an abandoned railroad track bed toward the Central Terminal, and available trackage between Walden and Broadway, towards the Thruway Plaza Transit Center.
Later plans show an extension to this trunk line to continue across the airport grounds to terminate at the presently open Holtz Road Park & Ride lot.
NFTA Metro does not offer such a connection, using the bus system, and can prove to be an attractive opportunity to passengers that may not live close to a commercial airport, but still have access to intercity rail.
Starting from the Buffalo Niagara International Airport Terminal, the Lancaster Branch would continue east, to Holtz Road, head south on Holtz (crossing Genesee Street) and then onto its own ROW until crossing Walden Avenue, in which the line would operate into the new Amtrak-Depew Station, and then east, joining the Erie County maintained Depew-Lancaster and Western Railway track bed to Lancaster's village/town line (Walter Winter Road).
The North Buffalo Branch is proposed to split from the Tonawandas Line near Merrimac Street (one stop north-west of LaSalle Station), and continue in a westerly direction on an abandoned railroad right-of-way (ROW) to as far as Elmwood Avenue.
As of 2023, it would appear that this line is no longer feasible with the construction of residential homes on the railroad right-of-way (Rachel Vincent Way) and a new DePaul development off Delaware Avenue.
The stations of the Niagara River Line would be expected to open at Shredded Wheat, Fort Schlosser, Electra, Echota, Occidental, LaSalle Bridge (Grand Island Bridges), 71st Street, Parkvue, Cayuga Island, Lynch Park, Green Acres, Wheatfield, Riverside Park, Gratwick, Roblin, Little River, Twin Cities (new Amtrak connection could be made here) and Tonawanda Transit Center.
The Youngmann Branch is proposed as an alternate to the original light rail metro extension plan to the current Main Line to continue as the Amherst Completion.
After serving the university, it could continue to Getzville and the Audubon Business Park as in the original plans for the Main Street Line (Amherst Completion).
From Embassy Square, the Youngmann Branch would add four to eight new stations, stopping at Parker, Niagara Falls Boulevard, Sweet Home Road; at Flint Loop, Clemens Hall and the Ellicott Complex at UB; then the Audubon Industrial Park and Getzville West on extension.
New rail stations along the Southtowns Line would be located at Cobblestone, Perry, Hydraulics (Larkin Building), Ridge Road (Lackawanna), Smokes Creek, Blasdell (Roland Street), Milestrip and Rush Creek/Athol Springs.
Likely to be heavily used during events at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the Orchard Park Branch is within close distance to a number of the Southtowns regional shopping destinations, and to the south campus of Erie Community College.
The line would then loosely follow Eggert, continuing across the parking lots of Century Mall, Amherst Plaza, Boulevard Mall, and then take a diagonal turn, crossing Maple, descend to become a surface line and then operate along a diagonal path north of Maple to the Youngmann Expressway on its way to the University at Buffalo's North Campus.
Cost restraints due to the need for new tunneling below Main Street and a portion of Bailey Avenue and construction schedules had placed this extension in jeopardy as the least likely to be built with the CTRC proposal.
However, the drawback of the Youngmann Branch is that the service would not serve the south campus of the University at Buffalo, instead, requiring a transfer at LaSalle (Metro Rail).
In recent years, the NFTA, as well as the state, county, and local businesses have deemed the extension of the main line from its current northern terminus to Amherst a top priority, and funding has now been secured for an environmental study.
An additional extension is also proposed that would continue rail cars further north, onto a section of the old Great Gorge line, made popular in early 1900s as a tourist attraction for those visiting the Niagara Falls area.
