No Hope for Newtown

I guess I misinterpreted the "stakeholders" bit. I was referring to the "serious stakeholders" that have voting or regulatory power. I assume that includes the board. Does it also include the FRA or the FTA, for example?

PA-TEC is a serious stakeholder in the broader sense of the word and we will hopefully make enough noise to torpedo it but I was wondering which ones could do it by a simple vote. We'd have to do it the hard way.

I suspect that board members in this case would defer to the Bucks appointed board members, veto power or otherwise. I can't see Delco members voting yes on something Bucks members vote no on. So in this case, Bucks probably has veto power, officially or otherwise.

I also suspect that this is unlikely to happen - is there any precedent at SEPTA for giving away ROWs to non-railroad entities? I don't mean leasing them - this particular arrangement would be permanent.

Seems to me the guy you want to get in touch with is Charlie Martin, a Bucks County commissioner who is on the board of SEPTA, and to the best of my knowledge, is in favor of restoration of the Newtown branch.

limejuice wrote:Seems to me the guy you want to get in touch with is Charlie Martin, a Bucks County commissioner who is on the board of SEPTA, and to the best of my knowledge, is in favor of restoration of the Newtown branch.

That's the best advice this thread has seen.

Clearfield wrote:There was an individual at the Silverliner V event claiming to be a member of SEPTA's Youth Advisory Council (YAC).

He's an imposter, and we have pictures of him.

He was also bad mouthing DVARP and naming names and calling them names.

Wonder if its the same person?????

Was this individual caught on camera ???
(insert shameless plug here)

Good news - Newtown and PA-TEC are in today's Metro, in the Northeast section!

John Scott, PA-TEC wrote:Good news - Newtown and PA-TEC are in today's Metro, in the Northeast section!

Link?

John,
Have you attempted to start hearings with Northampton Twp as you have with the surrounding areas?

Also, in my opinion, the r8newtown.com site looked much better before the recent change.

bump (sorry)

Sorry about the delayed reaction.

The web site is unfortunately slightly underfunded at the moment. Maybe it is also having a New Coke/Old Coke moment. Thanks for the feedback.

Now, Northampton.

We have reached out to Northampton, but they have a relatively small board of 5 members and at last contact they seem pre-occupied with some other local issues, particularly around the old Davis Pontiac site. One of the board members is related to a SEPTA board member, so we can assume they have at least some background on the line and its benefits.

Northampton does have a high number of CC commuters (in the thousands), and also a relatively high number of residents (~150) neighboring the line. If you fall into either category, we'd be happy to talk with you directly as we are always seeking local opinions prior to each presentation.

Ya, that stupid supermarket project has been the big issue there for a while now.

I was a regular resident of RIchboro from 1993 to 2009 but I'm quasi-permanently living in Philly now. Its still technically my permanent residence though and my parents still live there.

As far as I know, support of the line is pretty strongly positive, that is, amongst those people who are even aware of its existence and that it once had passenger service. I could forsee some NIMBYism though, especially in Holland east of Holland Rd, where some houses with children living there come fairly close to the tracks. Something would have to be planned to mitigate the danger and disruption to offset this. Otherwise, anyone I've ever discussed the issue with says it would be great to be able to catch a train that close. I and many people I know have had to commute into the city via Warminster, Somerton, Neshaminy Falls, etc. and all have hated it. There's far too much traffic to and from; if you don't leave yourself enough time so that most of the time you're waiting at the station for 20+ minutes, there's some traffic event that makes you miss your train 1-5 times a month. That and the parking lots get packed quickly.

There is some practical merit to the Jenkintown parking garage vs. Newtown reactivation argument. Towards the end of my duration of having to commute, I often just consigned myself to not even trying to catch the train at Warminster or beat it to another station down the line and I just drove to Jenkintown. The drive there and back took longer than if I would have taken the R-2 but the convenience of arriving closer to when I started work and jumping on any train north whenever I got out of work beat that out in my preference. However, if I were catching a train on a reactivated Newtown branch, I likely would have stuck with that. Every station from Village Shires to Southampton is more convenient than Warminster (though the latter, not by much) so if I'm running 5 minutes earlier or later than normal, I have that many more options. Plus its only a 5 minute drive to Holland or Churchville and I still could use the R-2 and R-3 if push came to shove, which makes taking the train everyday much more practical. This added convenience and proximity outweighs the flexibility of using Jenkintown, IMO.

You might try to tie Newtown in with the supermarket issue to make it relevant enough for the board to discuss. One of the big sticking points of the project is the fact that traffic is horrendous in Richboro, especially Second Street Pike and Almshouse Rd, precisely the roads that people use to commute westward or get to Warminster. A usable Holland and Churchville would mitigate the supermarkets impact and them some by diverting some of this traffic to a southern/southeastern direction onto Bustleton Pike and the Holland Roads (which are less utilized for commuting from my experience); negating the need for most of those who live east of Second Street Pike to use it and Almshouse west. This way, it gives reactivation proponents another supporter and them something to point at and say they're doing something to fix the problem (even though in reality they're a bunch of blowhards who couldn't govern a kindergarten class.)

It was reported in the July 29 Intelligencer that the Warrington Township supervisors unanimously approved two resolutions supporting restoration of the Newtown line. While Warrington is obviously not directly served by the line, it does show increasing solidarity in Bucks County for service resumption.

I read this in the print version on Page B3, could not find an online link.

Just noticed this morning that the relay cabinet and battery box have been removed from the Byberry Road crossing. Amazing how SEPTA is broke but still has money to REMOVE infrastructure. Ironically, the relay case at Fetters Mill Road (Bryn Athyn) has recently received a fresh coat of silver paint, assumedly not from SEPTA.

Maybe they're clearing the way for a new one? You do have a good point there Glenn. I have to wonder who is sitting behind a desk downtown looking over what things need to be done. To think there is nothing on the system for a work crew to do other than drive out to the line to remove a signal case. Figure the crew's time driving to and from, lunch and the actual work, plus disposing of the case. That was probably a full day's work devoted just to that task for a few guys.

I assume this is the box in question:

And SEPTA wonders why they have a reputation for the most mismanaged transit operator in North America.

glennk419 wrote:It was reported in the July 29 Intelligencer that the Warrington Township supervisors unanimously approved two resolutions supporting restoration of the Newtown line. While Warrington is obviously not directly served by the line, it does show increasing solidarity in Bucks County for service resumption. I read this in the print version on Page B3, could not find an online link.

Here you go...http://www.r8newtown.com/documents/WarringtonR8.pdf