Bensalem SEPTA rider wrote:All you would have to do is extend double tracking and catenary to Reading. Then have the NS allow for some slots into the line and build the stations.
Getting the slots is not as easy as you think. NS will want improvements to its infrastructure to add capacity, especially if SEPTA wants to run as much service as is on R6 now, let alone the higher-frequency service SEPTA was planning. Figure some sections of third main track, additional interlockings, and some signal work. Probably several hundred million, but it's a lot cheaper than SEPTA's plan to have a separate passenger track/tracks the entire way.
Think of it this way. For the sake of argument, say NS has capacity for 50 trains per day on this route. They run 25 right now. You might think they therefore should welcome 25 SEPTA trains in exchange for a suitable trackage rights fee, since it's all "excess capacity." But then if NS wins some intermodal contract, and needs to add another four trains, there's no place to put them without displacing some of the other freight or reducing the passenger service, or undertaking a construction project under traffic. So in order to preserve opportunities to grow the business, NS isn't going to let SEPTA absorb all (or even most) of the capacity that isn't being used right now.