I’m glad that the ridership has increased. Now if we can just get the governor (former mayor of Philly) to understand there is a part of PA west of Harrisburg and a 2nd daily roundtrip passenger run from NYC to Pittsburgh via Philly would help, then PA would really be making progress! Once NS finishes with the tunnels and diverts some of the traffic off the current route, the capacity should be there west of Harrisburg.
Good luck gettin ole fast eddie to do anything that doesn’t directly benifit philly. I don’t see it happenin’.
Adrianspeeder
Maybe in an election year? [?]
…What tunnel work is NS doing now across the Alleghenies…? Thought they were updated back in the late 90’s.
It’s not just eddie…
It’s those legislators that don’t want to spend a dime on anything to benefit their constituents. And that is just fine with many people out in Pennsyltucky.
Modelcar,
Its the work being done in the tunnels in other states so the double-stacks can go to Tidewater country and south w/o having to go through PA on the old Pennsy route. NS says it shoul take about 12 trains a day off of Pittsburgh to Harrisburg route when completed.
…Guess I don’t see the complete picture on why NS would have to spend money to take a dozen or so trains off the old Pennsy route when it for the most part is still a 3 track main across that area.
Do they want to remove trains so they can send “others” across there…?
I know the the Eastern half of the state really needs passenger rail, especially Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Quakertown, Reading, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Stroudsburg, some of the interstates are beyond capacity, especially I-78. It should be more of a state priority to expand passsenger servive beyond, Philly to Harrisburg, I know under the Ridge administration there were plans to buy passenger equipment to serve other parts of the state, but I believe the highway lobbyists killed it, this was back when gas was still a buck a gallon. The counties and state seem to study projects over and over again with no results or actual construction taking place. (SEPTA is known for this). Pennsylvania (Penn Dot)should try to learn from California or North Carolina’s success in re-establishing passenger rail.
Stuck in trafiic in the once great Keystone state,
Jim
…Guess I’m still trying to understand why NS is spending money to remove traffic off the old Pennsy route with the capacity it must have…Is the alternate route shorter to where this said traffic must go…?
It’s the Heartland Corridor project. VA and the Fed. chipped in to do a stack clearance project on the old N&W main. NS is also building new, bigger terminal in Columbus, OH. It’s supposed to help the port of Norfolk compete with other east coast ports. 12 diverted trains doesn’t sound right though…looks to me to be one train pair that would be diverted - 227/228.
…Thanks, oltmannd for shedding a bit of light on the circumstances.