Scranton Lackawanna Station sold

While reading about the Susquehanna derailment on the Wilke Barre paper's web site I saw this article. Good to know that the new owners will be improving the station.

http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=3974987

Is there any chance that the Lackawanna Station will once again serve train riders as well as hotel guests? It seems to me to be the logical place for the passenger trains from Hoboken to discharge their passengers on arrival. Or did the NJTransit and Pennsylvania authorities have some other site for the train station planned.

It would seem that it would be logical for the station to be used again for what it was built for....trains. One would think that with a little foresight the hotel's owners/managers would be able to get together with the railroad(s) and Steamtown people and come up with a marketing plan for a package that would include transportation, lodging and the Steamtown experience, including a trip behind a steam engine that would be attractive weekend activity for the general public. It would seem like a win-win-win situation for all three parties. With the present gas prices, a transportation included type weekend may be something that people would be attracted to. Throw in a side trip to the restored coal mine and the hotels proximity to the mall with all the restaurants and there's enough variety for just about any family.

It's nice to be nostalgic but the station platforms no longer exist and hotel accomodations and a large bar now occupy the area where the platforms were.

If regular scheduled passenger service ever returns to Scranton it would be very nice to see the station in use, but somehow I don't think the hotel would like to give up it's bar space for a station platform. I imagine they probably would build a new station somewhere near the Steamtown mall.

A) room for a platform east of the hotel proper....towards U of Scranton. But there is no available area for rail only parking.

B) new 'transportation center' just approved west of the hotel adjacent to the garage and the Steamtown excursion platform....plenty of parking available in the present open lot just east of Bridge 60.

How many paltforms and tracks were there at Scranton Station? Was it as many as Hoboken had or half the amount of platforms and tracks?

NJT -

Scranton was a large passenger 'station', not a 'terminal' like Hoboken or Buffalo.

Briefly, after you exited Nay Aug tunnel westbound, the 2-track main went to 4 tracks downgrade past Scranton U. and into the station. The 2 passenger mains were under sheds with low-level platforms while 2 freight tracks diverged slightly on a separate lower plane down into the expansive Scranton freight yards.

Thanks for the info tom, I'll bet those two freight tracks are still here today since I've heard the freight yard in still very much alive and well. But rerouted through a closer area to the statio nsince there is a bar sittign o nthe site where the tracks were. If there were only 2 tracks going to Scranton Station soley for passenger use then would it be possible to rebuilt the two tracks going to the station from the Cutoff and merge it with the hotel? Now that would definanatly bring more guests to the Hotel and resteraunt/bar area.

Just built a structure that can serve as a station that is twice or three times the size of Dover's waiting area in the train station.

NJT -

" I'll bet those two freight tracks are still here today since I've heard the freight yard in still very much alive and well. "

Yes and no. The DL/County(?) rebuilt one of the freight mains just west of the station several years ago. AIR, the former 2-track freight mains heading downgrade in back of the station now merges to 1 main past the tower down into the Steamtown property/yard area. The building of the Mall and large parking garage zapped about one third of the former Lackawanna yard trackage 10-12 years ago.

" But rerouted through a closer area to the statio nsince there is a bar sittign o nthe site where the tracks were. "

The freight ROW is untouched from the old days. The passenger sheds/canopies are gone while the 2 passenger mains lie buried intact beneath the mecadem of what is now a driveway leading to an additional hotel parking lot behide the station.

" If there were only 2 tracks going to Scranton Station soley for passenger use then would it be possible to rebuilt the two tracks going to the station from the Cutoff and merge it with the hotel? "

Unfortunately no. The passenger main ROW is severed forever at the west end of the station/hotel property. This occured with the building of the Mall and it's parking garage. Steamtown uses the freight ROW for it's excursions and this trackage directly leads to both the park boarding platform as well as the new transportation center being built for future commuter bus/rail use.

" Now that would definanatly bring more guests to the Hotel and resteraunt/bar area. "

Remains to be seen....the new trans center and the hotel are not physically linked. A hotel jintney bus certainly would be needed....maybe tied into the University as well.

" Just built a structure that can serve as a station that is twice or three times the size of Dover's waiting area in the train station. "

I get a sense that the new trans center will possibly be akin to the new Bay St. station on the M-B line in Montclair....except with a single track and single platform.

I was hoping for two platforms and two tracks in Scranton since that is the terminating point for the cutoff but since NJT only plans to run 12 trains a day 6 in each direction from Scranton to Hoboken (hopefully atleast 6 car trains) You might be right. Hopefully this doesn't end up like the ACL 10 years after service starts but prospers into one of the most succesful lines NJT has in their route system.

A Jitney would certaintly be needed or something like the Morris Metro if you do plan to have Scranton U along with the Mall and commuters from the Parking garage as well to ride trains.

You don't have to use old railroad stations to have new rail passenger service. In fact it may be better for the service and the passenger if old stations are not used. Part of the problem of 21st Century railroading is too many people have 19th Century concepts (an arguement can be made that rail management's 19th Century thinking helped kill the passenger train). Going to a location accessable by a large segment of the population, a location with room for parking without costing property losses to business or homes, a location that can support growth and change on its own, are all better candidates for a location long since abandoned by the public or too out of the way for both the train and the people. Scranton station: could it be a stop on the line? Possibly, and it would be nice. Need it be the terminal stop? Probably not.

Henry6. I likeyourthinking but don't look for NJT togo beyond Scrantonesp with how long it would take the train to do a Hoboken-Scranton Run. Esp sicne it took Lackawanna's Phoebe Snow 3 hrs and 45 min to do the trip. No I don't think esp ith the curent equipment you wouldn't want to sped an entire morning gettign fromBinghampton-Hoboken esp in a damn Comet Car.

Amtak Equipment like lunges, coaches with reclining seats,cafe cars and possibly lounges would be needed but with amtrak's problems that definantly will not happen esp now that David Gunn is gone and is replaced by a Bush cronie who's main goal is to reduce Amtrak to cooridoor opertion by cutting LD all together or kill it totally. This is what happens when America vote for candidates who are in the pockets of Big Oil and the Detriot Lobbiests.

While I am working on a committe making a concerted effort to bring passenger service back to Binghamton and the Southern Tier of NY, my comments were directed in a general discussion. The final Scranton stop, for instance, could be up by the Keyser Valley wye or down the east leg of the Hyde Park wye or any place there is enough land for a platform and auto parking, and and thus the current station area would not necessarily be a stop on the way to the terminal point but could. Accessablity to the population along with the grounds and the needs of the railroad, would make the decision of a good station or terminal. Scranton Airport is in Avoca!

I'd be surprised at this point to ever see NJT running to Scranton.There's been a lot of time lost to politics and it's going to cost far more to do it now or in the future than it would've 5 years ago.