Wheelchairs will soon ride the rails in Paoli, thanks to a $36 million project to upgrade the Amtrak and SEPTA train station.

A groundbreaking ceremony last week rolled out the effort to make the Paoli station fully accessible through “a new center high-level platform, elevators, ramps, a pedestrian bridge, and parking lot improvements,” according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report by Michaelle Bond.

The project is just the first phase of plans to give Amtrak and SEPTA a “new waiting area, ticket offices, better bus facilities, a commuter parking garage, and retail space,” the article explained.

The accessibility improvements, which were fast-tracked because of a 2012 lawsuit against Amtrak over wheelchair accessibility, are expected to be ready by early 2018.

“This is the beginning of a renaissance for Paoli,” said Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Trip Lukens.

Read more about the Amtrak-SEPTA project and its groundbreaking in the Philadelphia Inquirer here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of the station here.