(rshsdepot) Middletown, PA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From The Patriot-News.
 
Original story at:  
_http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/123413730475350.xml&coll=1_ 
(http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/123413730475350.xml&coll=1) 
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
End of the line?
With free parking and a convenient location, the  Middletown train station is 
popular among midstaters headed to Philadelphia and  New York. But it might 
not be around much longer.

Monday, February 09, 2009 
BY CATE MCKISSICK
For The  Patriot-News

One of the open secrets along the Keystone corridor, the rail line that  runs 
between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, is the Middletown station. 
 
It's small, but parking is free and right in front of the station. Just  park 
your car and hop on the train. You can even buy your ticket on the train. 
 
But the Middletown station might not be open next year. 
 
Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation are studying whether it  
would be more cost effective to upgrade the station to make it handicapped  
accessible, or to close the station and move the stop elsewhere. 
 
According to Amtrak's Web site, more than 51,000 people used the Middletown  
station in 2008. That's a 30 percent increase from 2007. 
 
"It's cheaper than gas and parking," said Miranda Sandstrom, who lives in  
Middletown and takes the train into Harrisburg every day. 
 
"It's faster. I don't have to worry about traffic or bad weather. It's  much, 
much better," she said. 
 
Not only Middletown residents use the station. 
 
Sylvia Waters of Swatara Twp. said she uses the station a couple of times a  
year when she goes to New York City. 
 
"The Middletown station is very convenient," she said. "Harrisburg parking  
is funny. Here I can park for free. I hope they don't close it." 
 
"It's more cost effective for me to use the Middletown station," said  Debbie 
Loughren of Hegins. "I go to New York about once a month. In Harrisburg,  I 
have to find a parking garage and pay for parking." 
 
"A friend who overheard people talking on the train told me about it," said  
Judee Kearney of Mechanicsburg. "I like that I can park for free." 
 
Ridership is also on the rise at the next station down the line. The  
Elizabethtown station had a 22 percent increase in riders, from 74,091 in 2007  to 
90,644 riders last year. But like Middletown, the Elizabethtown station needs  
to be made compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 
 
Elizabethtown Borough has been working "for years" on plans for improving  
the station, said borough manager Pete Whipple. 
 
The borough has raised $1.6 million toward a $7.2 million renovation plan  
for the station. Improvements would include raising the platform four feet to  
make it easier to board trains and installing elevators on both sides of the  
track. 
 
"Our surveys show that we have a wide radius of people using the train,"  
Whipple said. "People from Hershey, Marietta coming to ride the train. 
 
"We're hoping that by improving the station, we'll increase ridership and  
spur our economic development projects here in Elizabethtown," he said. 
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1847
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org