SCRANTON, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority has been awarded a $400,000 grant for engineering costs associated with restoration of the Lackawanna Cutoff, already under construction in New Jersey.
The Local Share Account grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority covers engineering costs for construction of track and structures for the passenger rail project.
“For construction to continue engineering and further grant funding will be required and this State grant will provide engineering that is required to continue the completion of the trackage and structures on the project”, said Larry Malski, authority president.
Construction by NJ Transit is currently under way between Port Morris, N.J., and Andover, N.J., with the use of over $60 million in grant funding.
“The remaining 21 miles in New Jersey and Pennsylvania will require state and federal funding to complete the full restoration of the famed Lackawanna Cutoff trackage and complete the through route,” Malski said, “which will be instrumental in taking cars and congestion off of Interstate 80 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, especially during peak travel periods.”
The $400,000 state grant is in addition to a $300,000 federal grant awarded last year by the Appalacian Regional Commission. That grant is being used to address engineering for the next phase of construction.
More information on the Lackawanna Cutoff project is available at the authority’s website.
now is the time to get a passenger route from Scranton PA. to N.Y. , with tolls rising on the bridges and tunnels , plus it can cost you $40-$50 for a couple of hrs for parking youre car and now the city is going to charge cars for going to certain areas of Manhattan . This should be a no brainer. Also I think a passenger route going north and south , say from Albany NY. down to Biinghamton NY. to Scranton to Harrisburg . You have state colleges at Oneonta , Binghamton, and Scranton so maybe its to bring the passenger route of old hay you never know might be a good thing!
So many other issues have to be resolved before this will actually work. Like: funding for new Hudson River tunnels, which is currently a major political football. Another one: overhaul of the NJ Transit administration, which was always a patronage mill, but reached its nadir under the Christie administration. Extending trains into northeastern Pennsylvania through the Poconos will take fundamental participation from NJT, which has plenty of other competitive funding priorities. If NJT is spending $60 million just to extend a few miles to Andover, I can only imagine what it’ll cost to relay track, bring existing track up to passenger standards, and construct maybe 4 or 5 more stations along the route to Scranton. If it’s not going to extend to Scranton, why would NEPA officials even bother?
I have a long memory, too, and when I saw Amtrak run an inspection train on this route 40 years ago (before the rails came up), I thought there was a glimmer of hope. But I don’t see any more likely funding now than I did then. And even more political resistance. Unfortunately, it looks like traffic on I-80 will continue to be a nightmare for the foreseeable future.
There is a series of YouTube videos on this. Chuck Walsh narrated. Worth watching if you want the history and background.
https://youtu.be/1256Oxdsx4Q
Robert – In an ideal world, the freight railroads would in your words “just take care of it”. Yeah, right. I remember once being in a government office. There was a stack of paper six inches high which was proposals from various civil engineering consultants who were competing for a contract to write the environmental impact for a quarter-mile freight spur which would be publicly funded. Six inch high stack of paperwork from consultants who wanted a contract to write an EIS, not even to design the spur.
No wonder nothing ever gets done in this country!
The freight spur was never built and now the rail line itself is a very popular bike path.
Bret, looks to me like you did read. I agree, the freights just take care of it while the Govm’t commutes ask for studies, quotes and handouts.
In another NewsWire article today, they told of NJT transferring about a half $billion from their capital funds into their operating budget. Hard to see where they will get the money to fund more operations.
When this project was first put into motion I was a young man. Now, I ain’t so young. Let’s see, how many years do I likely have left? Nah, I’ll never see it.
Bert, you didn’t read the article very well did you…this isn’t for increased freight capacity, it’s for passenger traffic, hence the reason NJ Transit is doing the work.
Only government chases boondoggles like this. If NS or CSX we’re having capacity issues on intermodal traffic to/from northern NJ, they would have ponied up the money and worked as fast as CSX did in relaying their double track on Ohio and Indiana at the beginning of this century to meet demand.