Plan to Save Burbank Depot Derailed by Cost Constraints

The Burbank Historical Society has abandoned efforts to save what remains of the city’s 65-year-old railroad depot, saying neither the society nor the city has the $1 million needed to save the burned structure from being torn down to clear the way for a new commuter rail center.

“There’s no use beating a dead horse,� Mary Jane Strickland, the society’s founder, said Tuesday. “We don’t have the money, and they don’t have the money.�

A Los Angeles County Transportation Commission consultant recently told the city that it would cost about $1 million to restore the Southern Pacific depot on North Front Street. The depot was extensively damaged in a fire last year.

Also, the historical group does not want to delay the planned building of a new transportation center on the depot site, she said.

The center is expected to begin operation in October. City officials had expressed concern that restoring the shell of the depot or delaying its demolition would jeopardize the county Transportation Commission’s plan to make Burbank a stop on the Metrolink commuter rail line.

“We have absolutely no desire to hold up that rail line,� Strickland said.

She added that the city had agreed to put a plaque at the new commuter rail stop to commemorate the old depot.

The depot was built in 1927 and had not been used as a train station for 30 years.

Historical society members had previously said the depot was too important to tear down because of its role as a stop on the main rail route north from Los Angeles.

But Burbank Mayor Michael R. Hastings and other officials questioned whether the damaged building was worth saving.