> Passenger service on this route will never be restored for two simple > reasons. First, the 1850's alignment would be too slow for 21st Century > travellers. Second, assuming Amtrak eventually gets a more reasonable > level of status and funding from an Administration that actually has a > clue, the money will go to corridors that have much higher population, of > which there are many. NYC-Buffalo, Pittsburgh-Cleveland-Detroit, > Chicago-Detroit, Chicago-St Louis, Dalls-Houston, just to name a few. 1. Too slow? well, depends on the NY State Legislature, just like in 1851 <g>. 2. Who says it would be Amtrak? At some point, New York State will act on passenger rail transportation. I realize that one can't predict at what point upstate (especially Southern Tier voters) will catch on to the notion that electing and re-electing jerks who run against the big bad City will continue to impoverish them, drain jobs and raise taxes. But perhaps at some point they will have some sort of Epiphany. And passenger rail will be part of the realization that things can't go on the way they have before, and that outside the box thinking is especially needed. It's interesting to see the population changes/increases and changes in commuting habits. It might also be interesting to see what becomes of Stewart Airport -- perhaps people will want to get there by public transportation from the west as well as NYC. And, yes, a commuter train to Hawley would miss the lower Poconos, but a train via the cut-off would miss Hawley and Lackawaxen too. And there's the fight over the power lines on the right of way. Whether or not this happens is anybody's guess; with the loss of Walter Rich, I suspect New York State may be less inclined to permit it and compromise with or victory for the local populace will result (But get your last photos now before the pole lines obscure everything!). Cut-off or no Cut-off, I'll bet we see some serious proposals on the Tier -- including Port Jervis-Bingo during the next few years. Cheers, Jim The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2008 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.