Beth Branch...I just noticed

I wanted to ask a question about the Beth branch everyone is up in arms about being torn out...

I was looking at a map and there seems to be another ex-RDG line that paralles the Beth Branch a ways to the west. With both lines under NS now virtually going to the same place (Phili) and with Beth Steel gone, why would, economically, NS need the Beth Branch anymore?

carajul wrote:I wanted to ask a question about the Beth branch everyone is up in arms about being torn out...

I was looking at a map and there seems to be another ex-RDG line that paralles the Beth Branch a ways to the west. With both lines under NS now virtually going to the same place (Phili) and with Beth Steel gone, why would, economically, NS need the Beth Branch anymore?

I'm not sure which line to the west that you're talking about, since there really isn't a parallel line to Philly. Not to mention that SEPTA actually owns the Bethlehem Branch from Hellertown to the South. Maybe you're refering to the former Reading Perkiomen Branch which splits off at Emmaus? If so, it now only exists as far as Pennsburg now, and was a slow, single tracked, winding line. The Bethlehem Branch was a double tracked mainline that basically ran directly between Philly and Bethlehem.

Alex has a great page with goodies about the Perkiomen Branch:
http://charyna.homeunix.com/trains/PerkBranch/

The main reason that we're disappointed with the NS tearing out the end of the Bethlehem Branch, is that once those tracks turn into a walking path, it will be very difficult to ever re-establish passenger railroad service from Philadelphia to the Lehigh Valley. The Northern end of the line from Quakertown to Hellertown has been out of service since the 1980's, (and from Hellertown to Bethlehem since the late 90's) but the potential was still there to someday restore service without having to intrude pesky passenger railroad traffic onto the busy ex LV mainline in Bethlehem.

Over the past several weeks, most of the rails have been removed by unseen (to me) work crews.

The walking path is being referred to by the locals in town as the "Drug Dealers Expressway" since it runs between the nice part of town and the not so nice part of town.

The mayor of Bethlehem has long hailed this project as a great opportunity to help revitalize the south side.

Walking through a failing district of town, between the poorer areas of housing and an abandoned steel mill will no doubt revitalize the town, right?

SemperFi

Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately you're preaching to the choir here.

Check out this thread to see how many times we've been down this path: http://64.78.30.219/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43

I agree that a glorified bike path through the badlands is not going to turn that area around. Unfortunately, NS and the City of Bethlehem have their own agendas and couldn't give a hoot about what really makes sense.....redeveloping the area into something that people outside the immediate area would visit and providing public transit to Philly and NYC so those people can reach it. OH, I'm sorry, we already have the latter, it's called 309 and 78.