central Montgomery county line&line to Quakertown/Allent

Should there be a line running from Boyerstown down PA73 and the NE extention to Chestnut Hill? The line could be connected to the Cynwyd or one of the Chestnut hill lines. Also, I tought of running an R4 though the R5 doylestown line where it would then run up the old quakertown tracks to Quakertown or even Allentown. What do ya think?

Bensalem SEPTA rider wrote:Should there be a line running from Boyertown (Boyerstown) down PA73 and the NE extension (extention) to Chestnut Hill? The line could be connected to the Cynwyd or one of the Chestnut hill lines. Also, I tought of running an R4 though the R5 doylestown line where it would then run up the old quakertown tracks to Quakertown or even Allentown. What do ya think?

There have been numerous proposals to restore Quakertown service; e.g. by restoring the R5 north of Lansdale, running the Norristown R6 up the Stony (or is that Stoney?) Creek branch, reusing part of the old LVT row, and so on. Much depends on dealing with the lack of catenary north of those termini - see many earlier threads on the topic.

Problem is, whether or not these lines or any others are needed, they ain't gonna happen so long as SEPTA and Harrisburg are busily trying to shut down service instead of expanding it(*). About a year ago some Quakertown officials started their own plans for restored service, because as one said, they can't wait 15 years or more for SEPTA to get around to it.

(*)And in Washington, so long as George II never met a barrel of oil he didn't want to burn in vehicles so large they need their own ZIP codes...

I know plenty of Democrats that will ride an SUV and plenty of Republicans like me will ride the train. None of this George II business. He's at fault for Amtrak, maybe. Septa is not his deal.

And Amtrak's self-proclaimed self sufficiency plan is about 10 years behind schedule. How is that the govt's fault? Granted they've let them attract more debt over the years, but maybe because they could see the fall out before it happened.

"Bensalem Septa Rider"...
I like your enthusiasm. Many thought provoking posts.

Like your PA3 question/answer... there was once a trolley on Rt 73. Look at this map.

Ok JeffK.. we know we know.. King George and Republicans = BAD. We get it.

I'm not going to head off into wild political flames - - - check back through my earlier posts and you'll find I'm a 4th-generation registered Republican who worked for Goldwater and Nixon, voted for Reagan, etc. etc. What I don't want to see is my party doing things like:

> Discouraging fuel conservation (yes, from the same root as "conservative"...) , so that our dollars go overseas to line pockets in Saudi Arabia and Russia instead of staying here to grow our economy.

> Eliminating transit so it's harder for people to get to work, earn money, better themselves, pay taxes, and not end up on welfare - all goals I thought we stood for.

Check out http://www.trolleycar.org/, sponsored by the Free Congress Foundation, a solidly conservative group that supports transit as a way of encouraging independence and self-reliance.

Yes, you're right, I drive a 32-mpg Civic and I recently saw a Hummer with a Kerry-Edwards sticker on it...

Finally, remember that the feds do contribute to local transit. But the old 80-20 funding split has been reduced to 60-40 and may even hit 50-50. That makes it a lot harder to get local governments to pony up the difference so many projects are dead in the water. Most of that reduction has happened since 1994, btw.

I'm not even gonna touch Amtrak since that's another swamp and it has its own forum on this board.

We now return you to a discussion of SEPTA.

Guys, there something called an OFF-TOPIC forum on most train sites (not sure if this one has one, but Strappies does). I just thought that the area is growing and could provide a good alternative to the "schuykill valley metro" disaster.

The trolley line to Allentown, as shown on the map in the link posted by Alex C, was the Liberty Bell Route of the Lehigh Valley Transit Co. That service first ran to Chestnut Hill, but was upgraded in 1912 and relocated to connect with the Norristown Branch of the P&W which was then under construction. From 1912 until 1949, LVT cars used the P&W to run from Norristown to 69th Street. After 1949, until 1951, LVT service terminated at Norristown. LVT quit for good in 1951. The last cars used were the 1000 series, which were former Cincinnati & Lake Erie RR "Red Devil" high speed cars which, among other qualifications, were the mechanical and electrical prototypes for the P&W's Brill Bullet Cars. ( Both P&W and C&LE were run by the same team of executives when both car types were developed).

Walt, I was more specifically talking about the Skippack & Perkiomen Trolley. That website has a great page (see link), showing what's left.

LVT ran more up 202-ish to Lansdale first.

I figured that, but the LVT was so interesting, particularly the liniage of their 1000 series cars and their prior connection with the P&W, that I had to mention it.