[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

RE: (rshsdepot) Lancaster County, PA

what do you know of a train station project in Fort White Florida?

- -----Original Message-----
From: Bernie Wagenblast [mailto:brwagenblast_@_comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 6:23 AM
To: Rail Depot List
Subject: (rshsdepot) Lancaster County, PA


Rail Renaissance; Amtrak to spend millions in train, rail upgrades in
Lancaster County.
Sunday News - Lancaster

1/5/03

Train travel, once considered a prime mode of public transportation, is
experiencing a resurgence on the East Coast and beyond.
And Lancaster County, in the middle of one of Amtrak's busiest corridors, is
part of the renaissance.

In the next several years, government and business plan to invest tens of
millions of dollars in the Keystone Corridor, which runs from Philadelphia
to Harrisburg, to bring passenger rail service into the 21st century.

Ranging from the construction of an Amtrak station at Harrisburg
International Airport to a switch to quicker, electric trains, these
improvements are expected to boost Amtrak ridership along the 104- mile
corridor, drawing additional commuters and tourists. A proposal for a
regional rail system from Lancaster to Carlisle also is in the works.

Increased congestion on the roads and in the skies is prompting more people
to travel by train, said Chris Neumann, deputy director of transportation
planning for the Lancaster County Planning Commission.

"The rails are underutilized."

The Amtrak projects "are a real opportunity to improve our transportation
infrastructure," said Ron Bailey, executive director of the county planning
commission, which is leading some of railroad improvements.

The Keystone Corridor "is PennDOT's No. 1 priority" when it comes to Amtrak,
Neumann said. Ridership on the corridor has increased from 400,000 in 1994
to more than 1 million.

"The demand is definitely there," said Bailey, who notes 70 trains used to
serve the Lancaster station, including the Broadway Limited.

"And it can grow more if we continue to make these improvements," Neumann
said.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Keystone Corridor, from
Philadelphia to Harrisburg, "was the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line,"
Bailey said. But that was before competition from the automobile and the
airplane, the close of the railroad post office system and the construction
of interstate highways caused steep declines in the number of railroad
passengers.

Today, intercity train service is seeing a "resurgence," Neumann said. "More
people take the train from New York to Washington, D.C., than fly."

A high-quality rail corridor through Lancaster County will allow people to
"take advantage of a tremendous resource, with connections to Harrisburg,
Philadelphia and points beyond," he said.

Joe Daversa, director of the Bureau of Public Transportation for the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said the Keystone Corridor is
among the 25 busiest corridors in the country.

A new Amtrak station being built as part of a $222 million expansion at
Harrisburg International Airport, scheduled for completion by 2004, will
have a major effect on Lancaster County, Bailey said, "because over half the
boardings at HIA come from Lancaster."

Daversa said the station will cost $9 million to $10 million; it's part of a
"multimodal" transportation center that's the first of its kind on the East
Coast, according to officials, and will be built next to a new 283,000-foot
airport terminal.

"It will vastly increase convenience," Bailey said.

When the downtown convention center is built, visitors will be able to fly
into HIA, board the train to Lancaster and take a Red Rose Transit Authority
shuttle straight to the complex, he said.

The HIA station "will have a great impact on the viability and feasibility
of the convention center," Bailey said.

A train station at HIA wasn't built earlier because government officials
"didn't think in terms of intermodal service and connection (combining
different forms of transportation) for a long time," he said.

The station was originally recommended more than 10 years ago, Bailey said,
but is only now being realized.

Another recommendation from the early '90s coming to fruition is a $2.6
million Amtrak station in Paradise Township that should be under
construction by the summer. Right now, there's no station between
Parkesburg, Chester County and Lancaster, Neumann said, which is the longest
stretch on the Keystone Corridor without a stop.

RRTA and the county planning commission are working on the project, which is
funded with state and federal money. The rail station is planned for 6 acres
south of the 3200 block of Lincoln Highway East.

"This will improve service to the eastern part of the county," Bailey said,
and could boost tourism by allowing visitors who come by train to the
Paradise station to transfer to the Strasburg Rail Road.

"This way, they can really see the Amish," he said. "They can't do that from
the Lancaster station."

The Lancaster station is in the middle of a $7 million facelift, Neumann
said.

Improvements include doubling the parking and making it easier for buses and
the RRTA shuttle to pick up and drop off passengers so the station is "fully
intermodal," he said.

Other local Amtrak stations in the county are being upgraded, too.

In the western portion of the county, the "very small" Amtrak station in
Mount Joy Borough will be replaced by "a whole new station," Neumann said.
And the vacant train station in Elizabethtown -- a Victorian structure which
hasn't been maintained for years -- is going to be restored and "adaptably
reused" (possibly with a restaurant), Bailey said.

On top of these changes, a regional rail system, CORRIDORone, is proposed by
Capital Area Transit and the nonprofit Modern Transit Partnership.
CORRIDORone will run from Lancaster to Carlisle. The first phase extends
from Lancaster to Mechanicsburg and the second from Mechanicsburg to
Carlisle.

The goal is to "provide commuter rail service with fares comparable to bus
service, and more frequent service," said Dave Royer, senior transportation
planner with the county planning commission.

"There's currently no train service over the Susquehanna," he said.

CORRIDORone, a $75.8 million project, is being pushed by business and
government officials to improve the local economy, Neumann said.

A $140 million, five-year capital campaign to upgrade the 104- mile Keystone
Corridor has also just begun. In the next 12 months, about $20 million of
that money will be used to "make improvements on the line from Lancaster to
Harrisburg, which has the poorest section of rail," PennDOT's Daversa said.

The continuous, welded rail that will replace the old rail "will improve
speed and give a smoother ride," Neumann said. "It's a very secure track."

A portion of the $140 million will pay for electric-powered locomotives,
which can run on the welded track, Daversa said.

And in the next few years, three at-grade crossings -- two in Rapho Township
and one in Leacock Township -- will be replaced with above-grade crossings,
enabling trains to reach 110 mph. Currently, top speed is 90 mph.

Amtrak to remove old crossings

As part of the modernization of the Amtrak line in Lancaster County, three
at-grade crossings -- at Newcomer Road and Eby Chiques Road in Rapho
Township and at Irishtown Road in Leacock Township -- are scheduled to be
eliminated in the next few years.

Chris Neumann, deputy director of transportation planning for the Lancaster
County Planning Commission, said they are the only remaining at-grade
(public) Amtrak crossings in the county.

He also said three electric train sets (from the Northeast Corridor) are
expected to operate on the Keystone Corridor in 2003- 04. "Right now, we
have some diesel electric trains.... With electric trains, the top speed is
higher, and they can accelerate and decelerate faster."

These trains, combined with the removal of the at-grade crossings, Neumann
said, should gradually reduce travel time from Harrisburg to Philadelphia
from the current 120 minutes to 105 minutes in 2003-04; 100 minutes in
2004-05; and 90 minutes in 2005- 06.

- --Paula Wolf


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

------------------------------