From The Grand Rapids Press:

Work is expected to begin in May on the new, $3.8 million Amtrak station slated to be built near The Rapid’s Central Station.

The station — which will be named for former West Michigan congressman Vern Ehlers — will be situated just south of Central Station and the Wealthy Street overpass.

It will be several blocks east of the existing Amtrak station on Market Avenue and Wealthy Street.

As an intermodal facility, the station will integrate bus and rail transit by allowing passengers to board and detrain on one side of the station and hop on a bus on the other.

Construction was expected to begin sooner, but Rapid CEO Peter Varga last month said a property dispute with CSX rail had caused delay.

Officials previously held a ground-breaking ceremony for the station in October 2011.

The station is being funded through a $3.8 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, earmarked by Ehlers in a 2009 federal transportation spending bill.

Ehlers later voted against the bill that contained the earmark.

The earmark was leveraged using an $850,000 funding boost from the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority, which in 2010 disbursed the money to help The Rapid and the Michigan Department of Transportation purchase the land on which the station will sit.

Follow this link: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/03/work_on_new_grand_rapids_amtra.html