The Warwick railroad station will have trains, although it could be some time after the $267 million intermodal facility is completed next September.

Thursday the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board unanimously approved a contract that will extend its existing service to Providence south to the Warwick station and Wickford Junction in North Kingstown. The service is to start in the spring of 2011.

The announcement has sparked interest in development near the intermodal facility. Mayor Scott Avedisian said Saturday his office received inquiries on Friday and there appears to be a renewed interest in new development and redevelopment in the area.

It’s also another step in the process for developer Joseph Piscopio. Piscopio bought the former Malleable Iron Works at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Kilvert Street where he built the Hilton Garden Inn hotel. Within a month he plans to open the adjoining Ironworks Tavern, a grill and steakhouse with seating for 105 on the first floor and expandable to a second floor.

“I was counting on this from the beginning. Lincoln Chafee made the deal,” Piscopio said yesterday.

Piscopio has invested heavily in the area. He has bought up 16 houses in the area and owns another five acres in the neighborhood all based on his conviction that the intermodal facility will generate new business and create an economic center.

Piscopio said he based his investment on the observation that Green Airport accommodates more than 5 million passengers a year, about five times the population of Rhode Island. That means most of Green’s traffic comes from out of state.

“Massachusetts people live by that thing,” he said of the MBTA, “when it starts coming down here we’ll use it.”

As further proof that Rhode Islanders will take to the rails, Piscopio said, “there are 1,500 Rhode Island plates in the Attleboro station every morning. It’s the wave of the future.”

On Friday Michael Lewis, director of the Department of Transportation who attended the MBTA board meeting, called the agreement another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of extending rail service to Rhode Island. With that operating agreement now in place, Lewis said the DOT can pursue the capital funds for Wickford Junction. That element of the project he estimated at $55 million with $25 million to $30 million being spent on a 1,100-car parking garage and rail platform. Other costs include design and an Amtrak right-of-way.

The MBTA agreement, which remained elusive even after construction on the intermodal facility started, is a linchpin to the massive project to connect Green Airport and rail service via a skywalk that bridges Post Road. The premise of the intermodal facility has been a marriage of transportation modes, although what finally put it within financial reach were rental cars and the daily customer facility charge that will pay for a major chunk of the project. Airline passengers will access rental car companies via the skywalk with its moving sidewalk and the garage at the station end will house rental cars.

But rail-airplane connection has been the sizzle from the start. A station without a train would have been an embarrassment.

The MBTA agreement was critical.

“Without this we weren’t going anywhere,” said Lewis. Lewis imagines the rail service as having a dramatic impact on Rhode Island, spurring development and opening the region to intermodal travel. “Success breeds success,” he says, “When this is operating we’ll learn how convenient it is.” Lewis can see additional MBTA stops at Quonset, Westerly and south into Connecticut. Coupled with the growth in traffic and improved means of travel, he anticipates business development and heightened interest in real estate.

“What was a pipedream becomes reality,” he said.

And although Amtrak has not planned a stop at Warwick, if the demand is there he believes that can change, too.

There are skeptics.

Michael Zarum, who has long followed airport related developments, hopes Lewis is right but asks if it all can pay for itself and whether the taxpayers will end up with a white elephant.

Lewis said the MBTA system is modeled on a total of 1,600 passengers daily from Wickford and Warwick. At that level, Lewis said fares would pay MBTA incremental costs of $2.2 million while generating a surplus of about $700,000 a year. In addition the state would pick up Amtrak access fess of $2.2 million and another $1.9 million in indemnification, claims and insurances.

This would appear to put the DOT in the red by $3.4 million from the start. However, Lewis said the state is eligible for funding under CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program). Administered by the FHWA and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the program provides $8.6 billion to state DOTs and other transit agencies to invest in projects that reduce criteria air pollutants regulated from transportation-related sources.

That funding, Lewis said, is available for three years after which time he hopes it would become renewed. He put CMAQ funds at $2.7 million a year.

As for starting Warwick MBTA service as soon as the intermodal facility is completed, Lewis said that may be possible, although it is dependent on Amtrak. For that to happen, Amtrak must complete rail work to support the extended service. However, when that will happen is difficult to project because Amtrak has so much work to do across its entire system.

As for whether MBTA will have the capacity to carry additional Rhode Island passengers and continue serving stops in Massachusetts, Lewis surmised cars would be added to existing trains.

“That would be a great problem to have and one I’m sure they would solve,” he said.

Rather, Lewis said projections show most of those commuters boarding the train in Wickford traveling as far as Providence while more of the Warwick commuters would be going to Boston.

“This is great [for MBTA]; they get to sell a seat twice for the first time.”

The seat vacated by the commuter getting off at Providence would then become available for a commuter going to Boston.