(rshsdepot) Elizabethtown, PA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Elizabethtown Chronicle.
 
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Train station in jeopardy 

By Kevin Hensil  
Elizabethtown officials are facing new hurdles in their effort to reopen its  
train station and renovate the platform just off West High Street. The $2.2  
million project has been a priority for the borough for nearly a decade and 
had  been close to receiving final approval from Amtrak before another serious  
problem arose. It marks the latest setback in the long delayed project.  
Elizabethtown Manager Peter Whipple told borough council last week that the  
Federal Railroad Association is requiring the platform to be raised an  
additional seven or eight inches to meet the stricter federal handicapped  
accessibility regulations. The project had been designed to meet more lenient  
requirements. Whipple added that it is a problem for a number of other  communities 
planning train station renovations and could stop a project in  Paradise 
Township.  
``This project has been dragging on and things change, so it is going to be a 
 lot of work,`` Whipple told council. He said raising the platform would cost 
at  least $100,000 and require a major redesign of the platform at an unknown 
cost.  
``I don`t see any good option,`` Whipple warned.  
He said the borough would request assistance from state and federal  
legislators to find a solution. Amtrak is joining Elizabethtown and other  
municipalities in opposing the FRA decision to apply the strict requirement for  new 
stations to renovation projects.  
Meanwhile, there are larger questions and few answers about the future of  
rail in the Elizabethtown area. In a Sept. 22 vote, but only made public last  
week, Amtrak`s board of directors voted to split off the Northeast Corridor, 
the  tracks from Washington, D.C. to Boston, in order to create a subsidiary. 
The  Bush Administration has been pushing to turn passenger rail into regional  
companies.  
The Northeast Corridor is Amtrak`s busiest route with nearly half of its 25  
million passengers annually, however it is also Amtrak`s most expensive route. 
 Amtrak says it hopes to have the subsidiary in place by January.  
Whipple said it is unclear whether the Keystone Line, running from Harrisburg 
 to Philadelphia to New York, would be part of the subsidiary. He noted that 
the  line, which makes several stops daily at Elizabethtown, is one of 
Amtrak`s most  successful.  
Meanwhile, the Cumberland County Commissioners are not supporting a proposed  
regional rail line from Lancaster to Harrisburg to Mechanicsburg. The  
commissioners say there is insufficient evidence to prove that enough riders  would 
use Corridor One.  
Lancaster and Dauphin counties are still backing the project. 

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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1231
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org