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RE: (erielack) Cost of reviving northwest train service uncertain

Whoa, hold on - I thought they said they just got funding for the PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING work, not another $%^#$%^#%^ study! What's going on here? Is this the second phase they're referring to? (running to Scranton?)

I thought the first phase would run to East Stroudsburg, with a second phase to run to Scranton?

	- Paul


> -----Original Message-----
> From: KSmollin_@_aol.com [mailto:KSmollin@aol.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 11:23 AM
> To: DelawareLackawanna_@_yahoogroups.com; erielack@lists.railfan.net
> Subject: (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. 
>  Advertisement
> 
> 
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>  
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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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