(erielack) Cost of reviving northwest train service uncertain

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Cost of reviving Northwest Jersey train service uncertain 
Environmental study of Scranton-Hoboken rail connection due this fall 
Tuesday, June 29, 2004 
BY AL FRANK 
Star-Ledger Staff 
DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa. -- New train service linking Scranton and Hoboken, 
N.J., could carry up to 2,800 riders daily in 20 years, or about the same number 
of passengers who now use NJ Transit's least-traveled Pascack Valley line, 
according to a report released yesterday. 
But the cost of activating the "Lackawanna Cutoff" route -- now estimated at 
$350 million, or $150 million more than the last estimate in 1996 -- is far 
more murky. 
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"There's a lot of interest in moving the project but there's lot of 
uncertainty on the financial front, so we have to just focus on the work at hand," said 
Jack Kanarek, NJ Transit senior director of project development. 
The environmental assessment, due for completion this fall, is one of the 
preliminaries imposed by the Federal Transit Administration before a project can 
even be considered as a possible candidate for funding and before engineering 
can begin. 
While the study's preliminary results were released yesterday, the project 
needs a lot more steam because NJ Transit deems a third rail tunnel beneath the 
Hudson River -- at $5 billion -- an even greater priority. 
"This project, like others, will use the Hudson and our top priority for the 
whole system is a new tunnel under the Hudson," Kanarek said. 
With federal funds only picking up about half the cost of new projects, 
agreements are also needed between New Jersey and Pennsylvania to divide the 
balance of the Lackawanna Cutoff's cost. 
Still, rail advocates look at reactivation of the abandoned freight route 
through Warren and Sussex counties and across the Delaware River as a natural 
extension of NJ Transit's train routes -- now used by 165,000 riders daily -- to 
serve places where many commuters already live. 
"The motivating factor for this project is continuing growth in the region, 
particularly in Pennsylvania, and traffic congestion on Route 80 in New 
Jersey," said Kanarek, who is overseeing the assessment. 
One such commuter, Mike Kaplan of Tannersville, Pa., showed up at yesterday's 
forum, held in the borough that could host the busiest station. 
"I'd love to see an alternative," said Kaplan, a refrigeration engineer who 
travels daily to Manhattan's East Side after moving from Queens two years ago. 
For a while, he drove but he said the wear and tear on himself and his car 
persuaded him to switch to a bus eight months ago. He figures the rail link 
might provide an easier and possibly even cheaper ride to his present $351 per 
month commuter ticket. 
Others are not as optimistic. Robert Simpson, who lives near an NJ Transit 
line in the Mount Tabor section of Parsippany, said he does not believe the 
comparatively small number of commuters will come anywhere close to covering the 
annual $22 million operating expenses. "It's going to cost New Jersey taxpayers 
millions just to run that line," Simpson said. 
But Seth Taylor of Rockaway Township said it would cost much more to build 
the highways needed to carry additional traffic, and environmental restrictions 
in the Water Gap itself might make construction impossible anyway. 
Built in the early 1900s by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, 
the 28-mile cutoff was an engineering marvel when a veritable mountain range was 
created through woods, pastures and towns in Warren and Sussex counties. The 
divide was punctuated below by tunnels that still allow roads like Routes 206 
and 517 to pass beneath. 
It was all intended to give Pennsylvania coal trains a straight and level 
shot to Hoboken from Scranton with speeds that just couldn't be achieved had a 
terrain-hugging route forced them to battle gravity at every hill. 
Passenger service through New Jersey ended in 1970 and freight trains stopped 
running in 1982. Three years later, a private developer bought the 
right-of-way from Conrail for $1 million. The state bought him out for $21 million in 
2001, with the idea of holding the 28 miles in reserve for future passenger 
service. 
The environmental assessment will also be the subject of another forum today 
from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Adam Todd restaurant in Andover and on Thursday at the 
Hilton Scranton Hotel. 
The study calls for an initial eight trains daily. They would stop at 
stations in Andover and Blairstown and, along the 40 miles in Pennsylvania, where 
there would be stations at Delaware Water Gap, East Stroudsburg, Analomink, Mount 
Pocono, Tobyhanna and Scranton. 
Depending on whether the trains run express, or make all stops in New Jersey 
along the Morris & Essex line, the trip between Scranton and Hoboken would 
take about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. 
To get to Hoboken by 7:10 a.m., the first train out of Scranton would have to 
leave at 4 a.m. The last train of the day from Hoboken would leave about 9 
p.m. and arrive in Scranton at 1 a.m., although officials emphasize the 
timetables are all conceptual. 
Kanarek said most of the riders in Pennsylvania would come from the Pocono 
region and that ride would take about 2 1/2 hours while, from Blairstown, trips 
would take 1 hour and 40 minutes. 
"The high ridership is in the Poconos," he said. "You have fairly large 
numbers of people who have moved into those areas who are now driving, or taking 
bus service and the growth is expected to continue, and analysis shows 
continuing demand for both bus and rail." 
The study shows the populations in Monroe and Pike counties grew 45 percent 
and 65 percent, respectively, from 1990 to 2000 and are expected to grow 80 
percent and 55 percent by 2025, when Warren and Sussex counties are each expected 
to grow more than 35 percent. 

- --fb.5ab0d76a_alt_bound

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