A decade after it was first proposed, renovation of Lancaster City's Amtrak station may be coming around the bend.

Station improvements, expected to cost more than $12 million, are on track to go to bid by the end of this year. Construction could start in the spring.

Under that schedule, Amtrak passengers could see — by fall 2009 — increased parking, a separate waiting area for bus passengers, shops, restaurants, new Amtrak offices, upgrades to the nearly 80-year-old station's heating and air conditioning systems and realignment of the station driveway to meet North Duke Street.

"Nothing's come along to convince me that we cannot make that date," said Christopher Neuman, the county transportation planner who is heading the project.

Neuman told members of the county's Transportation Coordinating Committee on Monday that the project had passed a major hurdle. The renovation plans have been approved by Amtrak planners.

Last month, the plans were also given conditional approval by the Lancaster City Planning Commission, he said.

Planners are now working to complete the city conditions and get final approval from the state Transportation Department, said Neuman.

Once the work begins, it will be done while the station continues operating, he said.

"That's one of the complexities of doing a project like this. We have to work around the existing riders, he said.

And the number of riders has been growing. Earlier this year, Amtrak ridership statistics showed a nearly 18 percent increase in passengers using the Lancaster station since additional trains were added to the Keystone line last October.

Last year, more than 368,000 passengers arrived at or departed from the Lancaster station.

It was the second-busiest stop on the Keystone line, behind Philadelphia, but ahead of Harrisburg, Neuman said.

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