I picked up John Boehner's books on EL through-line passenger service and found these to be interesting books. Great photos but the narratives surrounding passenger operation is also very informative. More on that later. I have some questions about the Scranton service which was provided by the "Pocono Express" and "The Twilight" in their final years. New Jersey and Pennsylvania seem to be moving forward to reinstate Hoboken-Scranton intercity service. I'd like to say commuter service but that might be a stretch. "The Pocono Express" and "Twilight" took around three hours for their 133 mile run. Are there plans to speed this up. Could the speed on the rebuilt cut-off be raised to 90mph on straight stretches? Something like this would probably attract commuters. How could speed over the Pocono's be increased. I remember reading in EL ETT's that some through-line trains had their speeds intentionally held down between locations. I'd have to look it up but there were orders saying the "times between two mile posts" could not be reduced. It seems like the speeds between East Stroudsburg and Scranton might be improved with more modern equipment. Has there been much discussion about this? If the passenger train is going to compete with the car, and the passenger is going to give up his/her independence for a structured schedule, there there has to be a very attractive reason to do it. Speed would be one very good reason. Ed Montgomery The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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