Federal Railroad Administration Just Announced $16.4 Billion for Northeast Corridor Projects (Pittsburgh: employment, transfer to)

[jetgraphics]

The problem is not that government subsidy is lacking. The government IS the problem. Any funding is first skimmed by "the management" and partisan politics gum it up even more. Look at California's HSR - 30 years and still nothing finished nor completely funded.
End all taxes and subsidies on transportation, and the country will revert back to electric traction rail in a New York Minute.

[quiet life]

I think this would be the answer. Bring high speed rail to the region. I know it will never happen in my lifetime but this would solve the Scranton to NYC boondoggle.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...37459d2&ei=290

Now, Brightline is bringing Brightline West to the other coast. The planned bullet train will travel 218 miles along Interstate 15 at speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour, completing a trip from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, California, in 2 hours and 10 minutes. And the project is fresh off getting funded as part of a $3 billion investment from the Biden administration in transportation infrastructure, allocated to be built with American union labor.

“Brightline West will serve as the blueprint for how we can connect major city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive,” Brightline CEO Mike Reininger told FOX5.

[jtab4994]

Originally Posted by quiet life

I think this would be the answer. Bring high speed rail to the region. I know it will never happen in my lifetime but this would solve the Scranton to NYC boondoggle.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...37459d2&ei=290

Now, Brightline is bringing Brightline West to the other coast. The planned bullet train will travel 218 miles along Interstate 15 at speeds of nearly 200 miles per hour, completing a trip from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, California, in 2 hours and 10 minutes. And the project is fresh off getting funded as part of a $3 billion investment from the Biden administration in transportation infrastructure, allocated to be built with American union labor.

“Brightline West will serve as the blueprint for how we can connect major city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive,” Brightline CEO Mike Reininger told FOX5.

That's interesting. I had not heard of Brightline before.
Here is an article that goes a little more in-depth about how Brightline started out in Florida...
https://nypost.com/2023/08/12/is-flo...of-the-future/

[quiet life]

Yes, I never heard of Brightline myself. One of my co-workers visited his daughter in California and talked about that train they are building in Cali to travel to Vegas and that piqued my interest. IMO, this Scranton to NYC route is a perfect scenario for a company like Brightline to be successful. Among many roadblocks is Amtrak being the railroad of choice for the government, IMO.

[pman]

Originally Posted by quiet life

Yes, I never heard of Brightline myself. One of my co-workers visited his daughter in California and talked about that train they are building in Cali to travel to Vegas and that piqued my interest. IMO, this Scranton to NYC route is a perfect scenario for a company like Brightline to be successful. Among many roadblocks is Amtrak being the railroad of choice for the government, IMO.

brightline isn't going to be interested in scranton. if not for Amtrak, scranton wouldn't be on anyone's radar but it feeds Amtrak's important NYC hub. if the state were to push HSR it would make the most sense to build Pittsburgh first.

[fisheye]

To me all of this is talk. While talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, that would only be a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed to create a modern, fast, safe, rail system to take passengers to the City.

Do a Google "Earth" search of the existing rail tracks. Then take a ride down old Route 611 (if it is open again) to before Portland and turn off on the side road (Slatford Road) that takes you close to the old railroad Viaduct. Park close to the Viaduct and take a good look at the bridge that was built in 1929. It needs extensive work - it should really be replaced because it restricts Route 80 in NJ from lane expansion (probably needed more than the railroad). Also, keep in mind that the proposal is to use two of these old Viaducts (one is farther over in NJ. It would not surprise me that replacing just one of these old Viaducts would not cost more than the whole project is currently allotted.

To further complicate this proposal is the fact that much of the current rails in PA, which they are planning to use on the PA side of the river, have been underwater with Delaware River flooding. If private industry tries to build in a flood plane our government is quick to say NO! Why is it ok for them to waste money on a project that could go underwater?

[skeddy]

how many Americans have any reason to go to Scranton Pa?.

What a waste of money

[SteelCityRising]

Sadly unless this is true high-speed rail (which it won't be) I won't be utilizing the Scranton-NYC link. I will continue to drive from my father's home near the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (proper arrangement of the metro area cities) International airport to the Port Imperial Ferry in Weehawken and take that high speed ferry right into Midtown when I visit. It's about two hours on the nose from my dad's driveway to the ferry. It will be probably like 3 hours and 15 minutes (if not longer) from Scranton to NYC on Amtrak.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by pman

brightline isn't going to be interested in scranton. if not for Amtrak, scranton wouldn't be on anyone's radar but it feeds Amtrak's important NYC hub. if the state were to push HSR it would make the most sense to build Pittsburgh first.

Naw. I live in Pittsburgh. I love Pittsburgh. It's an underrated city with a rapidly diversifying economy.

With that being said it would be extremely cost-prohibitive to get Brightline-like speeds on the stretch of rail between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg due to the intense terrain crossing the Allegheny Mountains in the Johnstown and Altoona areas. While I would love to be able to board a train in Pittsburgh and get to another major city in competitive timing vs. driving I would rather our nation's scarce funds be spent elsewhere. I DO see a benefit in a new line from Pittsburgh to Chicago via Columbus and Indianapolis. Columbus especially is rapidly growing (almost 1,000,000 people in the city proper alone now) and, if I'm not mistaken, just landed a major Intel plant, which will create more spin-off businesses/industries there, too. Columbus has ZERO Amtrak right now, so it makes sense to connect Columbus with Pittsburgh and Chicago (and Indy, since it's on the way anyways) with a basic Amtrak line before spending billions on making the ride faster between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg or spending billions linking the 11 people who will ride Amtrak daily between Scranton and NYC.

[quiet life]

As mentioned above, this Scranton to NYC route faces many engineering and financial challenges. It is going to take some innovation by our political forces to make it happen. Maybe a Scranton-Allentown-Philly HSR would be a better option for HSR/Brightline.