Allentown takes the lead in calling for LV passenger rail st

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Council’s surprise vote left “flabbergasted” Kirk Raup, who unsuccessfully has been trying for years to get Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton officials moving forward on the idea of restoring passenger service to Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City.

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Service from Allentown/Bethlehem to Philadelphia and New York?

Should we be holding our breath for the restoration of the Bethlehem branch to Philly and Lackawanna cutoff west of Andover? Or is that not a wise at this time...

This is a perfect example of why SEPTA needs to be re-organized as a state transit agency vs a 5 county regional transit authority beholden to one city.

I LOVE This idea. SEPTA Get the bidding with NJTRANSIT for their comets lol. But this would be a great thing to happen. I do not see the STATE forming a state transit agency. Most ppl in that area are open to the idea.

Interesting enough during the transportation funding debate(s) in Hburg " the subject of a consolidated transportation system for the commonwealth developed. The cost savings for bus related transport would be a common equipment menu, centralized management that could / would allow for lower overall costs. Did not move far but it shows the desire to recognize multiple independents are not cost effective. Whole lot of blah blah but rail transport did not come up.
Additionally, the famous subject the transportation tax for Southeast PA is / was still a subject that is discussed.

The best thing that could happen to the state would be for the railroad to be peeled out of their hands and into the hands of a statewide passenger rail authority (Pennsylvania Railroad comes to mind) so we can get connected by rail to places like Hershey, Allentown, Scranton and so on. PA has a lot of great destinations, and being an old coal state, has lots of rail within the state that once had passenger trains.

Not sure how they calculated that the Lehigh Valley hasn't had passenger rail service in 51 years, unless they were referring to the Lehigh Valley Railroad's intercity service to Newark and NYC which ended in 1961. CNJ service ended in March 1967 and Septa obviously ran commuter service until August 1981. However, regardless of how you calculate it, it's been way too long.

NJT service from Philipsburg ended in 1983.

Be careful what you wish for...

I have seen dramatic changes in the Valley in the 20+ years I have lived here and nothing is getting any better. The LV is bad enough now with assorted Philadelphia, NYC, NJ scum moving in and driving up the crime rate. Rail service would only make it easier for even more riff raff to add to the murders, shootings, prostitution, drug deals and other horrific crimes that fill the local papers every day. I also experienced it first hand in Delaware County, most notably Upper Darby with its easy public transit access to some of the worst areas of the city. UD is far from a safe place these days.

As a RR fan and former NYC & current Phila commuter, I never thought I would NOT be in favor of more trains but now I see how quickly the landscape can change with easy affordable access and would rather it be as miserable as possible for as long as possible.

The good news is, after hearing all about "the trains coming back" in the mid 80's when I commuted by bus to NYC from Stroudsburg, and all the nonsense with the SVM and trains to Quakertown...

...I know it will never happen, thank God!!

Trails to Rails wrote:Be careful what you wish for...

I have seen dramatic changes in the Valley in the 20+ years I have lived here and nothing is getting any better. The LV is bad enough now with assorted Philadelphia, NYC, NJ scum moving in and driving up the crime rate. Rail service would only make it easier for even more riff raff to add to the murders, shootings, prostitution, drug deals and other horrific crimes that fill the local papers every day. I also experienced it first hand in Delaware County, most notably Upper Darby with its easy public transit access to some of the worst areas of the city. UD is far from a safe place these days.

As a RR fan and former NYC & current Phila commuter, I never thought I would NOT be in favor of more trains but now I see how quickly the landscape can change with easy affordable access and would rather it be as miserable as possible for as long as possible.

The good news is, after hearing all about "the trains coming back" in the mid 80's when I commuted by bus to NYC from Stroudsburg, and all the nonsense with the SVM and trains to Quakertown...

...I know it will never happen, thank God!!

Rail service to, and from NYC will bring corporate people to your neighborhood. Trust me, I always hear professional New Yorkers, and people from North Jersey wanting to move to Pennsylvania for the cheaper cost of living, and good public mass transit to, and from NYC is the only way this can happen. The thugs will never thrive in good close-knit communities. Upper Darby went downhill, because the original home owners decided to take flight on the onset of unwelcomed residents.

While there are occasional exceptions of benighted crooks who try to make their escape on a bus or train, auto theft is one of the few crimes that can be associated with transit because a stolen car provides a quick getaway. Someone committing neighborhood crime (e.g. a home break-in) almost always has a car to start with.

At the NHSL scoping meeting one of the (very few) negative comments was from a woman who said she was afraid "it would bring THOSE people from the city." (groan) The news is that in many places, "those people" are already present because a lot of them are coming to do the jobs that suburbanites don't want.

And yes, just look at housing prices along the ex-R5 line as we did when we were looking for our first residence. Prices of similar-sized homes actually increased with proximity to the train because more than just the railfans among us white-collar types value convenient access.

i feel darby and upper darby are poor examples in this argument. both of them border the city line, you could walk to either in the time that you might wait for a trolley or el train to either of them. also ,both boroughs began their decline about the same time the neighboring parts of the city did, it's not as if they lived next to a crappy part of for years before going down themselves. the best example i can give is the borough of Yeadon, PA. sandwiched between darby and SW philly, two very blighted and crime ridden areas. yeadon is an attractive, safe, albeit very small community. this is because the local police force is highly professional and all laws down to parking and how close you can plant flowers to the curb are strictly and vigorously enforced.