rcthompson04 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:06 pm
I would rank them in most likely to less likely in this order:
1 - Atglen seems like a no-brainer. Improvements are in the works for Coatesville and Parkesburg stations and the prior interlocking problems that resulted in service being cut back to Downingtown (later restored to Thorndale) appear to have been resolved during the work on the line for the Keystone Service. Going back to Coatesville and Parkesburg are probably going to happen within 5 years. Atglen is not as easy, but the new Park interlocking was designed with the future station at Atglen in mind.
2 - Norristown to Phoenixville is being aggressively pushed the local governments who are doing some of the heavy lifting for SEPTA. The odds of a limited dual-mode peak hour service happening within 5 years seems high. Maybe if it is successful and the money comes along to encourage NS to allow electrification to Phoenixville we will see regular service. I am a little more skeptical of going past Phoenixville though due to the Black Rock Tunnel though. Anything past Phoenixville would probably require dual modes and a limited peak service.
3 - Going to Perkasie seems like a Bucks/Montgomery County version of the Wawa extension. Probably requires both counties to get on board from a monetary perspective.
4 - Going back to West Chester seems to be a battle between cost and impact. I am sure the borough would love it, but would many people still drive to Exton or Malvern instead of going to a station closer to their home. I am about 2 miles from the old West Chester station, but I would likely have a shorter commute if I went to Exton or Malvern still.
5 - West Trenton to North Jersey - LOL
Reading 2, Only Reading and Phoenixville are run by Lunatics that want to "Partner" with Amtrak, which has no business running that line as Amtrak is a horrible national line that partakes in grifting state and local governments out of exorbident costs in exchange for rail 'service'. Further, Amtrak service would bypass the existing CSX and SEPTA ROW, bypassing the NTC, local bus connections, everything, defying all logic. But this is all expected when you get these "Central Planner" types that got their degrees off a Matchbook.
SEPTA is the best and only way to extend these lines. Goijng with SEPTA isn't an "option" either. It's the only way. Amtrak would be higher in cost, higher in ticket price, and we are trying to get away from subsidizing Amtrak, as opposed to giving amtrak more subsidy - hard earned taxpayer dollars to burn.
Whereas SEPTA could run more service with equipment we already own, and all we'd need are dual-power locamotives and leasing of trackage. We have the personnel and the trackage to get downtown and to other connection points. Why any peon would think going with Amtrak is beyond me - a true testament that we really have more brain-dead planers in our counties and boroughs than I could have imagined. Extending all these lines mentioned above would be simple if these planners would just pull up a SEPTA map and draw the lines out further - it's not much more complex than that.