A consulting engineer, Geist represented the Altoona area in the State House for 17 terms (34 years), 14 years of which he chaired the House Transportation Committee; in total, he served as either majority or minority chairman of that panel for 27 years, by far the longest of anyone in Pennsylvania history.
He was unusual in being a Republican who was continuously re-elected from the heavily Democratic and blue-collar Altoona district. In addition to leading on transportation, safety, and highway reforms, he worked on a broad range of railroad issues. For many years, he was a board member of the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum.
His personal friendship with Conrail Chairman L. Stanley Crane induced the railroad to agree to move former Pennsylvania Railroad Class K4s 4-6-2 steam engine No. 1361 off its display perch at Horseshoe Curve, where it had rested since 1957. Under auspices of the ARMM, the engine – built in Altoona in 1918 – was restored, briefly, to operational condition.
Geist often boasted that one of his ancestors had been recruited to a job in the PRR’s 218-acre Altoona shop complex not for his mechanical ability, but for the fact that he was an outstanding athlete, and so made a valuable addition to one of the many shop baseball teams. Geist was responsible for many grants going to the ARMM, enabling it to install a turntable and a partial roundhouse to provide indoor storage and display space to help guard its equipment collection against the harsh Altoona winters. He also was instrumental in obtaining funding for a new ARMM-administered visitor center at Horseshoe Curve, which opened in 1992.
In passenger matters, Geist drafted legislation to create a bipartisan feasibility study for a high-speed-rail line across the state. A high projected cost eventually sidelined the concept, with alternatives ranging from a 125-mph system ($1.8 billion, with four-hour trip times for the 350-mile run from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh) to a French TGV-like system ($7 billion for a 2 hour, 36-minute trip time) to a magnetic levitation system ($10 billion, 1 hour 54 minutes.) Although passenger revenues were an important part of the equation, Geist was convinced that economic development around stations, plus the advantage of locating the first true high-speed rail construction facilities in the United States in Pennsylvania, would ultimately make the project worthwhile.
With regard to Norfolk Southern, he opposed NS’s first bid to acquire Conrail in 1987, fearing that the carrier would close Altoona’s Juniata Locomotive Shop, with the possible loss of 800 to 1,000 jobs of his constituents. Eventually, in 1999, NS acquired 58 percent of the former Conrail system, and while it retained Juniata as its major systemwide locomotive facility, it did close the nearby quarter-mile-long Hollidaysburg Car Shop, which PRR had opened in 1955 as a major car building and repair shop. Then known as the Samuel Rea Car Shop, it had been named after a Hollidaysburg native who became PRR president 1913-1925.
Geist is survived by his wife of 48 years, Jean, and by a mother-in-law, a host of brothers- and sisters-in-law, 11 nephews, and five great-nieces and nephews. Contributions in his memory may be made to the ARMM, 1300 Ninth Avenue, Altoona, PA 16602.
Altoona and Blair county are blue collar but no longer voting heavily democratic. Its voters are basically conservative and the democrats have suffered since their national and state parties moved so far to the left.
PA will probably have a second rail round trip rail west of Harrisburg starting next year and that should suffice for any passenger rail needs. The Blair county commuter airport has seen reduced service but the completion of I-99 has solved much of that problem since the nearby and relatively busy (for a commuter airport) University Park airport in Centre county has been upgraded and is not that much further for the Altoona area.
While he was a rail proponent, if he’s the best Pennsylvania could’ve done for all of those years, we need more. Notably, we need mo’ better industrial policy, especially in such a rail heavy state, as well as strong regional and passenger rail service.
Drive down the Turnpike, US80, US79, US90, etc and you’ll see way too many trucks and cars.
With all due respect to a fine man and legislator, he lost his last re-election bid because the voters of Altoona and Blair county were fed up with his direction of so much money to his pet (read railroad) projects instead of other more worthy causes.
Nicely written, Dan. A fitting tribute to a guy who really made some positive contributions. I had one encounter with him, in 1987, and I came away impressed. Rest in peace, Rick.