by photobug56
Times and mileage Penn to Scranton? And what interest would NJT have in such a service?
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photobug56 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:42 pm Times and mileage Penn to Scranton? And what interest would NJT have in such a service?Penn Station to Wilkes-Barre on the LV (via Bethlehem and Jim Thorpe) is 176 miles. In 1958 The Black Diamond was scheduled to leave NYC at 10:55 AM, arrive in Wilkes-Barre 3:20 PM. There was a 15min stop at Bethlehem to cut in the Philadelphia section.
photobug56 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:06 pm Let me rephrase. How much faster or slower, more or less mileage would your routing be versus the rebuilt Cutoff be? Would it be viable for commuting to Scranton and the Poconos? Would it it work for people going to the ski resorts? People commuting to Western New Jersey?Well here is the great part of this.
Amtrak Study Examines Scranton – New York Corridor
SCRANTON, Pa. – Amtrak and the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) have released the findings of a two-year analysis examining the potential for rail service between Scranton and New York. The study included operations planning to develop a sample schedule, ridership estimates, economic impacts and an infrastructure assessment for the Pennsylvania segment. The infrastructure assessment estimates costs to upgrade track to accommodate passenger trains along 60 route miles owned by PNRRA between Scranton and the Delaware Water Gap.
“Passenger rail service in and out of Scranton was discontinued in 1970, only one year before Amtrak was created,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “Restoring and expanding this corridor with daily multi-frequency service would dramatically boost mobility and economic development for residents of Scranton and Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the broader Northeast region.”
The route’s outlined vision plan includes:
*Three roundtrips per day with an automobile competitive travel time of approximately two hours and 50 minutes between New York and Scranton
*Trains traveling at a maximum speed of up to 110 mph (on the Lackawanna Cutoff segment) and transporting an estimated 470,000 riders per year
*Stations located in Scranton, Mt. Pocono, East Stroudsburg, Blairstown, Dover, Morristown, Montclair, Newark and New York City
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Service could potentially begin as early as 2028, pending completion of design work and construction by stakeholders including PennDOT, NJ TRANSIT and PNRRA with support and funding from the federal government. The proposed service would utilize upgraded existing tracks in Pennsylvania between Scranton and the Delaware Water Gap, 20 miles of restored tracks on the “Lackawanna Cutoff” between Delaware Water Gap and Andover, New Jersey, and existing tracks owned and operated by NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak between Andover and New York City.
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