Lackawanna Cutoff Passenger Service Restoration

Quote from above:

Train to Poconos on track: Benefits of rail service discussed

Blake compared the region’s need for better and safer connection with the larger metropolitan area to that of Portland, Maine’s. He cited how impactful a transit line from the town of 65,000 to the Boston area was for both communities.

"I believe that there is a greater economic potential if we took a connection between northeast Pennsylvania and New York City, which has five times the population as Boston,” Blake said.

Bob Hay, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, said over $10 million in state and federal funds have already gone into the project on the Pennsylvania side. He called for federal funding to go into the project, so as to ensure the already-major investment the state has made.
It is time to provide a fair and equitable distribution of state passenger rail funding to other regions of Pennsylvania,” Hay said.

He called the current highway commute congestions a “disaster”, predicting truck traffic will reduce Interstate 80 to a parking lot within five years.

Another source: Times Tribune

Passenger train proponents: Spend big bucks on proposal

POCONO TWP. — One of the largest crowds ever at a meeting aimed at reviving a Scranton-to-New York City passenger train signaled support Tuesday with loud applause they hope will resonate with state and federal officials who must provide the key ingredient.

Money.

At least $551 million just to build it and millions of dollars more to operate it every year.

Almost 250 people at the Inn at Pocono Manor heard local elected officials, business leaders and other rail proponents tell state Secretary of Transportation Leslie S. Richards and Federal Transit Administration Acting Administrator Therese W. McMillan the train would relieve traffic congestion, boost tourism and, most importantly, create jobs in Northeast Pennsylvania.
<snip>
Mr. Blake argued the train will get a lot of use. He pointed to a passenger train that travels 130 miles and connects Portland, Maine, population 66,000, to metropolitan Boston and its population of several million people. Scranton, which has more than 70,000 residents, and metro New York, which has more than 20 million, would be 133 miles apart by train.

The Maine route started with three trains and now runs 12 a day, he said.

Quoting the late Gov. William W. Scranton, Mr. Blake said “the most important economic development initiative for Northeastern Pennsylvania is the restoration of passenger rail service.”

Thank you, Mr. Moderator, for posting the quotes. I was on the verge of taking a nap when I posted the link and was, to be honest, too lazy to do more than that.

Let's all keep hoping...

That's why they pay me the big bucks (NOT).

I dunno, I hear downtown Scranton is hurting these days. All the spots I remember hanging out at back in my time in the region are closed - Tinks, Flashbacks, even The Banshee....tough times if not even an Irish pub can survive in Scranton!

Downtown Scranton will start to improve sometime around Thanksgiving when it's new Intermodel Transit Center will open across the street from the Martz Bus Terminal and next door from the State Office, this will close the Martz Terminal across the vstreet and move into this new Intermodel Terminal as well as it will be the new Hub Terminal for COLTS buses, the Hub will no longer be at Wyoming Av when the Intermodel Transit Center opens but some but not all COLTS buses will continue to stop at Wyoming Av.

I hope that this new Intermodel Bus Terminal will bring businesses and people back to Downtown Scranton.

Hope that helps.

It would certainly be nice to have NJT service run to Scranton. However, I wouldn't count on that anytime soon. In fact, when I rode the excursion behind the 765 down the Delaware and Lackawanna, I saw that there were several circuitous turns of the right of way once you get north of E. Stroundsburg. Those would cause the travel times of the train to slow down miserably and therefore, wouldn't compete with the car or bus, even in moderate traffic. If NJT could get the service as far as E. Stroudsburg and then have people continue on buses for the rest of their trip to Scranton, that would be good. The distance from E. Stroudsburg to Scranton is almost 50 miles, making it not as close to Scranton as most people might think. There is plenty of commercial and residential development in the Stroudsburg area that could contribute significantly if the train were to ever end its run there. It would certainly cut down on the traffic issues that are encountered on 80.

The train from Stroudsburg to Scranton would be slow, but most passengers would not ride the whole line. The bigger problem is congestion on the M&E. The Phoebe Snow did Hoboken-Dover in 58 minutes. There is no way a new train could come anywhere near that time. I don't know if the train could consistently beat Martz, but it would be more comfortable and its times would be more predictable. And it would be vastly better when the roads had to contend with winter weather.
But the train would be a long trip from PA. It would be longer than the trip from Port Jervis is now. That is currently the longest trip on NJT. If I had the misfortune to do the Poconos to NYC trip on a commutation basis, I would much rather do it on the train, but if I had to do it daily I would move.

Ah,someone that is a REALIST.On the news the other night they were talking about the train serving the casinos. As far as I know, the casinos aren't anywhere near the old DL&W. That would require shuttle service. Might as well drive.

From Page 130 of this "epic", may I reintroduce this material for possible review:

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This is prompted by Mr. Joe G's immediate thought.

unless Pennsylvania start coughing up serious money, the line will stop at Andover, anything beyond is just fantasy.
and even to Andover might take another 100 railroad.net pages.

DutchRailnut wrote:unless Pennsylvania start coughing up serious money, the line will stop at Andover, anything beyond is just fantasy.
and even to Andover might take another 100 railroad.net pages.

Apparently I'm not the only one who is a realist.
I have an idea for a pool. Pick which project gets completed first. The Cutoff or service to P'burg/Lehigh Valley. Pick the month/year/decade(?)/century(?)
If anyone is still alive, the closest one gets the pot.

P'burg, July 2026. Over/under?

braves wrote:Downtown Scranton will start to improve sometime around Thanksgiving when it's new Intermodel Transit Center will open across the street from the Martz Bus Terminal and next door from the State Office, this will close the Martz Terminal across the vstreet and move into this new Intermodel Terminal as well as it will be the new Hub Terminal for COLTS buses, the Hub will no longer be at Wyoming Av when the Intermodel Transit Center opens but some but not all COLTS buses will continue to stop at Wyoming Av.

I hope that this new Intermodel Bus Terminal will bring businesses and people back to Downtown Scranton.

Hope that helps.

A bus terminal isn't going to help when all the business's are going under thanks to all the huge named stores opening up bigger more modern stores on the outskirts of Scranton. When I was there around this time last year the mall was nearly littered with empty store fronts. Downtown was a ghost town with the same empty store fronts. Was actually very depressing, not what I was expecting Scranton to be.

There was a hope that Steamtown would help revitalize Scranton.It has been poorly run, has done much less restoration than I had hoped for, and does not utilize volunteers well. It really needs an activist, motivated director, not just an NPS bureaucrat building up pension credits.

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