ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A study on the potential return of passenger service to Allentown, Pa., by Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation and consulting firm WSP was released Wednesday, narrowing from 12 to five the potential routes such service might take.
The full 60-page study, available here, provides a roadmap for the process it would take to restore passenger service to the Lehigh Valley, as well as a preview of the form similar studies are likely to take for potential routes chosen in December for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program [see “Full list of passenger routes in FRA Corridor program released,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023[
The Allentown Morning Call reports the study offers five possible routes: Two to New York, via connections with NJ Transit lines in New Jersey; two to Philadelphia that would require rebuilding of removed lines that are currently rail trails to ultimately connect with existing Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority lines; and one to Reading, where it would connect to a proposed Reading-Philadelphia passenger service.
Costs for those routes would range from $450 million to $739 million, with the routes to Philadelphia being the most expensive because of the need to rebuild lines; infrastructure is mostly in place for the two proposed New York routes. And the study projects a 14-step process projected to take 10 to 12 years before service would begin, no matter the option selected.
Service to Allentown was not among the routes selected for the FRA’s Corridor ID program last year; the study released Wednesday was a necessary step before pursuing acceptance into the federal program, the newspaper reports.
I love studies, nothing ever comes of them. Started reading them in the mid 70s with the Ohio high speed rail plan (sarcasm mine)
The Biden dictatorship? That’s one of the most stupid things I’ve read this week and I’ve read about Sam Bankman Fried being sentenced to prison and Donald Trump selling Bibles.
OK. I’m done. No more reading your insane comments. Dude. Get some help. You’re not grounded in reality. You’re just an old man screaming at the clouds because things are different than they were in 1948 and minorities have had the audacity to claim their civil rights.
Mr. Landey,
I often respect your insight into rail related discussions.
But please, no more radical political commentary, disctatorship???
One thing I have always respected regarding railfans, we stick to the joy of our hobby and leave politics out.
If I were to bet on this, the “trails to rails” would the longest odds, the ex-DLW to Hackettstown would be the shortest odds, but still not a good bet.
Worth examining is why rail passenger service to Allentown was discontinued in the first place.
The only route that will not require a major rebuild of track is the one through Hackettstown, that route is complete. The old CNJ through High Bridge has trees growning through the ties in many places west of High Bridge, I’ve driven beside it. I don’t see enough of a demand for service to Philadelphia.
I seem to be having trouble downloading the final report from the link in this article and so haven’t been able to dig into the details of this study, but it would be interesting to learn about the ridership potential of the five possible corridor alignment options. Given that two of the corridor options would require “rebuilding of removed lines that are currently rails trails to ultimately connect with existing Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority lines ….” I wonder how realistic the noted cost-estimate range ($450-$739M) really is? The capital-cost estimates probably should be viewed with some skepticism.
No doubt, “Amtrak Joe” and ‘Mayor Pete’ probably think this proposal is a wonderful idea, nevermind its financial feasibility, or lack thereof …..
“projected to take 10 to 12 years before service would begin”
Sad or Pathetic are appropriate descriptors for this time frame for a ~75 mile route to Philadelphia via Bethlehem. There are close to 100 other synonyms in Merriam Webster.
Here are some of my synonyms: (1) typical American Government; (2) EPA environmental review regulations; (3) NIMBY misuse of #2; (4) so-called “civil rights” investigations of transportation improvements, an unconstitutional regulation made up out of the whole cloth by the Biden dictatorship.