Amtrak is demanding that the Worcester Redevelopment Authority buy its current station on Shrewsbury Street for $550,000 and pay its relocation costs before it will move into the renovated Union Station.

Amtrak also wants the WRA to redesign its ticket office in the new station, arguing that the design of the current ticket office poses a security risk.

The Amtrak issue comes after a state board's approval for the WRA to open the $35 million station while it builds a platform that makes trains accessible to the disabled.

Although Amtrak's demands may seem to have surfaced at the last minute, Amtrak officials say the WRA has known about its position for several years, and a city councilor recently called attention to the issue.

"They knew that was part of our terms," Russell Hall, an Amtrak spokesman in Boston, said of the WRA. "That was part of the deal."

WRA officials did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

This latest sticking point for the WRA comes after the state Architectural Access Board on Monday ruled the agency could open the station, which WRA officials said could happen as early as next month. Wrangling over the platform had set back the opening for several months.

The Amtrak situation now raises the prospect that the station could be forced to open without a key part of its planned services.

The specter of an Amtrak-less Union Station also provides more fuel to those who have criticized the WRA for not solving the platform issue earlier. The critics say it is more evidence of a lack of foresight and thorough planning by the WRA.

City Councilor-at-Large Timothy P. Murray, who raised the Amtrak issue in February, said the WRA should have buttoned down all transportation-related questions before focusing on economic development prospects for the station.

"Somewhere along the line, the WRA ... became overly concerned with the grand design and lost sight of the fact that Union Station is first and foremost a transportation center," Mr. Murray said.

"It would seem to me that the first thing would have been to secure Amtrak, the MBTA, local buses, taxis ...," the city councilor said. "These are all questions that should have been asked and answered years ago."

Other officials with an interest in Union Station are also being drawn into the Amtrak situation.

U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, a leading backer of the federally funded station renovation project, expects to meet soon with former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, a member of the Amtrak board, to try to negotiate a settlement.FEDERAL CONNECTION

The federal connection may figure in some sort of compromise, some observers said.

Amtrak is subsidized by federal funds. Much of the funding for the Union Station renovation came from the federal government. That has led observers such as Mr. Murray to note that since all the money is from the same pot, there should be room for compromise.

"It can be worked out, and Union Station is too important to the economic future of Worcester to derail the process now," said Michael D. Mershon, a spokesman for Mr. McGovern.

It remains unclear what the plans of other transportation providers, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and bus companies, are for the station.

The MBTA, which runs commuter trains out of the Amtrak station on Shrewsbury Street, plans to move its operations to Union Station, where it would like to sell tickets at the Amtrak ticket office, MBTA spokesman Joseph D. Pesaturo said.

"Ideally, we would continue to sell them through Amtrak if the issues raised by Amtrak are resolved," Mr. Pesaturo said.

However, if Amtrak is delayed in moving to the station, the MBTA would approach other vendors, such as a cafe or newspaper kiosk, to sell its tickets, Mr. Pesaturo said.

Mr. Hall, the Amtrak spokesman, said that under the arrangement envisioned by the WRA, Amtrak would sell its tickets in the same ticket office as the Greyhound Lines bus company.

"There's no partition, no glass windows. It's easy access," Mr. Hall said. "It's a security issue."

Greyhound has not finalized its plans for the station, either.

"Greyhound has been a planning partner from the very beginning," said Kristin Parsley, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based bus company. "Nothing has been set in stone, but Greyhound wants to be a part of it."

Publication date: 2000-04-26