(rshsdepot) Lancaster County, PA

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Links:
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/photos/images/pc_lancaster_1905.gif  (Lancaster 
j1905)
http://lib2.clark.cc.oh.us/amtrak/amtSTAtionGM/LancasterPAc.jpg  
(current view)

Lancaster County is leader in train travel; Fixing up old rail stations 
lures Amtrak riders

Intelligencer Journal
4/10/02

HARRISBURG -- Lancaster County can teach a lot to anyone who wants to 
bring an old train station back to life. A symposium Tuesday at the 
Harrisburg Amtrak station took up the topic of revitalizing railroad 
stations and train usage, between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It 
revealed that Lancaster County is far ahead of other municipalities in 
both goals. The county Metropolitan Planning Organization plans to spend 
$11.2 million over the next four years renovating three Amtrak stations 
and building a new one. Few other counties, if any, in the Keystone 
Corridor can boast such an active role. And that's why, it seems, annual 
ridership at Lancaster city's Amtrak station eclipses all other stations 
between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In fact, while Lancaster is working 
on four stations at once -- downtown, Mount Joy, Elizabethtown and a new 
one in Paradise -- most representatives at the symposium were scrounging 
for money for just one station. "Most counties except Lancaster need to 
rely on private investment with public assistance (to revitalize their 
stations)," said Elizabethtown Borough manager Peter Whipple. The 
Elizabethtown station, a stone structure built in 1915, was one of three 
stations showcased at the symposium. The station in Greensburg, 
Westmoreland County, was shown as an example of a completed project. 
Built in 1909, the station is on the National Register of Historic 
Places. It now contains restaurants and a microbrewery. Whipple pointed 
out that Greensburg was renovated by a private organization, the 
Westmoreland Trust, which raised funds and applied for government 
grants. Similarly, the example of a brand-new design, an Amtrak station 
planned for Downingtown, is being financed through a cooperative effort 
of the town's residents, Downingtown School District, Chester County, 
the state, Amtrak and SEPTA. It takes advantage of substantial tax 
breaks obtained by having the area declared a Keystone Opportunity Zone. 
By contrast, Elizabethtown is on a much faster track than the other 
example stations, as it was managed entirely by Lancaster County. The 
design is complete, funding is secured and it awaits only construction 
approvals. The magic is in the numbers. U.S. Census figures put 
Lancaster County in its own "metropolitan area." That designation 
entitles it to its own Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Ronald 
Bailey, head of the county planning commission. And that's why 
Elizabethtown had an advantage in securing state and federal funds and 
lining up consultants and designers. Chester County is part of the 
nine-county Philadelphia metropolitan area. The Delaware Valley Regional 
Planning Commission acts as the single MPO for those nine counties and 
allocates federal and state highway funds. That means Chester County 
must vie with eight other counties -- four in Pennsylvania and four in 
New Jersey - - for state and federal money to renovate its train 
stations. With the exception of Greensburg, where the focus of the 
station is really tourism, not transit, municipalities west of 
Harrisburg were conspicuous at the symposium by their absence. "The same 
level of planning and cooperation between county and municipal 
government is much more active here than in the west," Bailey said. 
Also, he added, mass transit "just isn't a local policy issue for them." 
But reducing pollution and traffic congestion in Lancaster is a goal of 
county planners here, so Bailey was pleased that Lancaster's station saw 
279,189 passengers in 2001. Even the Amtrak station in the state 
capital, Harrisburg, fell 4,272 passengers short of Lancaster's 
ridership in 2001. A more telling comparison is with stations in 
Philadelphia's suburbs -- such as Ardmore, Exton and Paoli -- where 
ridership numbers are boosted by SEPTA service. They had 38,289, 25,846 
and 71,237 riders respectively in 2001. Bailey says a big factor in 
Lancaster's ridership numbers is its convenience. The easiest way to 
Philadelphia or Harrisburg from here is by Amtrak, Bailey said, no 
question about it. "You take the train from here and you're within 
walking distance of the state Capitol and offices, or Center City," 
Bailey said. "Conversely, the turnpike runs straight from Harrisburg to 
Philadelphia, so even with parking issues it's relatively convenient to 
drive a car between those points." Still, Bailey admits that the money 
and effort the county has put in to make taking the train a pleasant 
experience, and getting that message out to the public, have contributed 
to making Lancaster an example of "how transportation is done in 
Pennsylvania." In the next year or so, Amtrak will replace its Northeast 
corridor electric Metroliner locomotives with high-speed trains. The 
fast, clean Metroliners will be refurbished and put to work on the 
Keystone corridor. "If you compare Lancaster to other counties, we are 
clearly a leader in smart growth and trying to get government entities 
to work together," Bailey said. "We've been very active and working very 
hard with PennDOT and Amtrak to make some very good things happen here 
in the next few years."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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