Why can't PA be more forward thinking?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 6, 2005

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION FOR RAIL MODERNIZATION PROGRAM

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19 Railroads to Receive $40 Million in First Two Years of Five-Year Program
That Will Assist With Infrastructure and Capacity Improvements to New York's
Rail System

Governor George E. Pataki today announced a five-year, $100 million rail
funding program that will help New York railroads make infrastructure and
capacity improvements, which will modernize the State's rail network and
keep it competitive. Known as the Rail Freight and Passenger Rail Assistance
Program, the funding will provide approximately $20 million for improvements
each year through 2010. In the first round of funding announced today, 19
railroads have been awarded $40 million for the 2005 - 2006 fiscal years.

"These critical investments to our rail infrastructure are an essential part
of our commitment to making New York's transportation and rail system the
best in the nation," Governor Pataki said. "Our improvements to freight and
passenger rail service will ensure that businesses and commuters have a
viable transportation alternative that will reduce heavy-truck traffic and
vehicle congestion on our roadways, while improving our environment for
future generations."

Senator Thomas W. Libous, Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee said,
"Governor Pataki has again shown his commitment to improving New York's
infrastructure by creating the Rail Modernization Program. Making these
needed enhancements to our Rail System is critical to enticing new
businesses to come to New York and keeping existing ones here."

Assembly Transportation Committee Chair David Gantt said, "The Assembly,
under the leadership of Speaker Sheldon Silver, reaffirmed its ongoing
commitment to meeting the needs of New York's diverse and interdependent
transportation network by advocating for, and joining with the Senate and
Governor in adopting, a five year capital plan and bond act during the state
budget deliberations. We are delighted that the vital rail portion of that
plan, which will upgrade and modernize facilities across the state, is now
moving forward."

The Rail Freight and Passenger Rail Assistance Program, administered by the
State Department of Transportation (DOT), is financed by a five-year, $17.9
billion capital program. The funds will be used for track and bridge
improvements, grade crossing eliminations or upgrades, construction of
intermodal facilities, and the provision of passenger service subsidies.
Eligible railroads, including shortline and mainline railroads, will be able
to apply for the $60 million available in the final three years of the
program.

Norman Schneider, executive director of Railroads of New York (RONY) said,
"Railroads of New York, which represents freight railroads throughout New
York State, is pleased at the efforts of Governor Pataki and Commissioner
Madison to provide this important rail funding. These funds will enable 19
of our members to make needed infrastructure improvements that will help
move freight in an economically and environmentally efficient manner."

In addition to these funds, the Renew and Rebuild New York Transportation
Bond Act, approved by New Yorkers on November 8th, provides $135 million for
railroads and port facility improvements over the same five-year period, for
a combined investment of $235 million.

The Rail Freight and Passenger Rail Assistance program will immediately help
finance five projects affecting mainline railroads. These include:

* $8.6 million to subsidize Amtrak's Adirondack passenger service
between the City of Rensselaer, Rensselaer County, and Montreal, Quebec;
* $5.2 million to upgrade the signal system on the Metro North
Commuter Railroad line between the City of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County,
and New York City;
* $4 million to expand freight capacity on the CSX Transportation
River Line between the Hamlet of Selkirk, Albany County, and the Port of New
York and New Jersey terminals in Staten Island and northern New Jersey;
* $3.5 million for the Norfolk-Southern Railroad to fund preliminary
engineering work for replacement of the Portage Bridge over Letchworth State
Park on its Southern Tier mainline in Livingston County; and
* $2.5 million to expand freight capacity on the Canadian Pacific
Railway mainline between the City of Albany, Albany County, and Montreal,
Quebec.

Shortline railroads receiving immediate assistance include:

* $1.5 million for track and bridge rehabilitation on the Mohawk,
Adirondack and Northern Railroad in Oneida and Lewis counties;
* $1.5 million for track rehabilitation on the New York and Ogdensburg
Railroad in St. Lawrence County;
* $1.5 million for track rehabilitation on the Rochester Southern
Railroad in Wyoming and Monroe counties;
* $1.4 million for track rehabilitation on the Finger Lakes Railroad
in Cayuga and Seneca counties;
* $1.25 million for track and bridge rehabilitation on the Owego and
Harford Railroad in Tioga County;
* $1.2 million for track rehabilitation on the Arcade and Attica
Railroad in Wyoming County;
* $1.2 million for construction of a rail/truck transfer facility for
the Depew, Lancaster and Western Railroad in Genesee County;
* $1.2 million for track rehabilitation on the Falls Road Railroad in
Niagara and Orleans counties;
* $1 million for track rehabilitation on the Battenkill Railroad in
Washington County;
* $1 million for track rehabilitation on the B&H Railroad in Steuben
County;
* $1 million for track rehabilitation on the Livonia, Avon and
Lakeville Railroad in Monroe and Livingston counties;
* $900,000 for track rehabilitation on the New York and Lake Erie
Railroad in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties;
* $750,000 for track rehabilitation on the Middletown and New Jersey
Railroad in Orange County;
* $500,000 for an additional track in the Harlem River Yard intermodal
facility in the Bronx; and
* $300,000 for grade crossing rehabilitation on the Buffalo Southern
Railroad in Erie County.

New York has led the nation in railroad investment, providing approximately
$248.7 million for rail capital projects since 1995. Investments have been
focused on increasing rail access to New York City and Long Island, as well
as expanding the capacity of New York's upstate railroads to ensure that
future freight increases can be absorbed by the rail industry, helping to
reduce commercial vehicle traffic on state roadways.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Thomas J. Madison, Jr. said,
"Thanks to the efforts of Governor Pataki, New York State has the resources
necessary to improve and expand upon our existing rail infrastructure,
ensuring that it remains a viable transportation alternative for both
businesses and travelers."

Uh, Pennsylvania has a similar program for short line freight facilities, and has been making grants like this for years. PennDOT is also working with Amtrak to rebuild and improve the Keystone Corridor--they've already made some significant track upgrades.

Pennsylvania has similar programs in place:

PR - $13 million in capital budget grants (link):

"Governor Rendell has doubled both the rail freight Capital budget grants to $20 million from $10 million a year and the General Fund rail freight assistance program to $8.5 million from $4.25 million a year, giving ennsylvania one of the largest state-based rail freight assistance programs n the nation."

PR - $8 million for rail-freight improvements (link)

Plus there's the $145 million Keystone Corridor project that Mr Mitchell mentioned.

Why not consider combining the regional Transit agencies into one agency, similar to New Jersey. This would result in a single state wide transit system with lower administrative costs, common equipment base and the ability to adjust equipment without undue concern.

The agency would be charted for both Rail and bus, this way PA could have a system Like NJ and attract new riders with innovative service plans.

• Transit Service between Scranton and Phila and Hburh – Either bus or rail
• Pocono service to NYC, AND Jenkintown to Newark or Hobken on the reading line

• Rail service to ABE on the Bethlehem branch, integrated with bus feeder.
• ABE over the old Reading crossline to Harrisburg.
• York / Lancaster rail commuter service – Feeder system with connections to Baltimore in combination with MARC.
• Reading (plus) 422 rail project to KOP and Philadelphia
• Erie Transit with connections to Pittsburgh
• Alleghany County combined services for rail and bus.

Short list but it would result in correction of service issues like the Bethlehem branch, quicker time to market for the Reading to Philadelphia service.
Your thoughts, Differnt twist but we have the funding it just gets eaten up in certain powerful pockets

I have advocated such an idea before as well. You could also implement some long distance passenger rail across that state, including more frequent service between Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia and other places not currently served like Williamsport and other more remote points.

That's actually an excellent idea, because by extending rail service to these remote areas, we might see some of the rural representatives in Harrisburg come on board -- the railroad would finally be directly benefitting them and their constituents, and not just be a big city thing.

I know the idea of a state wide rail system (or transit agency) makes sense to a lot of people. But for PA it would be a poor choice. States are simply political units, they do not always (or most of the time) represent coherent geographic and economic units. PA is dominated by Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in the west. Philadelphia is clearly oriented towards I95 BosWash "Megalopolis" corridor while Pittsburgh is oriented more towards the midwest "rustbelt" PittChi "Megalopolis" area. In between is a huge area that is part of Appalachia and not really part of either of the previous sections economically, geographically, politcally or culturally.

So why arbitrarily throw these three groups together for transit? How many people in the greater Philadelphia area travel east to west across. Not many, but tons of people move north to south in the i95 corridor. The North East would benefit greatly from a region wide rail system if not for the politics.

The "if you build it, they will come" mentality is also probably a bit dangerous. A lot of the areas this phantom Transit Agency might serve might simply not what or need to be served.

If your friends force you to chip in for pizza you don't want, it's the same thing as simply giving them money. Yeah you could have some pizza but you honestly don't want to.

I have to say I agree, a statewide transit system likely is a bit of a non-starter for Pennsylvania at this point. Looking across the Delaware at NJ I think you'll find some people in Southern NJ who are upset that their tax money does little to ease their daily commutes. The same is likely true of folks in Warren and such counties up north of the NJT service area. It's true that the funding follows population density such that the areas it's applied to are the areas where it can accomplish the most, but the trains and buses say 'New Jersey Transit' on the side, not 'Hudson Watershed Transit' or 'Northern Jersey Transit'. Apply these same inequalities in population density and thus transit system funding to PA and we'll be looking at a total mess.

That said, I do think that some of the routes Rdgrailfan proposed do make some sense but are largely impossible under the current administrative setup. There is a large rail network throughout PA which can be quite effectively utilized to improve transport within the state, but we don't need a single transit agency acting on a statewide basis to do this. I would argue that a state agency acting as a coordinator for all the TAs in the state would be a much better solution than attempting to craft a statewide transit agency. The coordinating agency would attempt to rationalize fare structures across the state, perform some negotiating between host railroads and potential tenent commuter lines, provide for transfers between connecting transit systems. Long term goals could include coordinating services with adjacent states and hopefully working out through-running services across several TA's territories to provide long-distance transfer free trips between points in PA should Amtrak go under (or just to provide through-service to points Amtrak does not serve). I'd argue that this system should be under PennDOT, but really at this point it doesn't really matter.

The first obstacle is of course setting up a few more commuter rail systems throughout the state other than SEPTA which the agency can coordinate. Pittsburgh is a quite obvious choice as it's a large city which still has a respectable amount of jobs in the CBD and has a relatively good rail network. Harrisburg still has something like a plan for a commuter rail network in CorridorOne, and their eventual plans look quite promising. By all rights that system could quite easily extend down to York or Gettysburg, up to Williamstown, east to Lancaster or wherever it could meet up with SEPTA and over to Altoona, or State College. Scranton and Wilkes Barre probably could use something running along the valley, and I believe there's quite a bit of new development off in the hills surround the town which could be used for transit. I've never visited Erie, but that'd seem to be a case where coordination would be extremely helpful. Service to places like State College could be minimal most days, given it's great distance from Harrisburg, but during semester changes, vacations, or even just PSU games a series of specials could be operated to the town from Philly, Pittsburgh, Williamstown, and other points in the state. Currently just about all transit service into State College is provided by Greyhound, which does a good job filling seats during breaks and such, so there's definitely a market there.

Perhaps the most important thing here would be both an extremely low initial cost, low operating cost, and well timed transfer points. DMUs would best for this service as they'd provide a great flexibility in train creation and lower fuel costs drastically, especially in low-use areas. By all rights all PA needs for transit is a few sidings and some stations, making this a relatively cheap solution. Allentown could serve as a point where NJT, SEPTA, Scranton Commuter Rail and perhaps even the eastern edge of CorridorOne would all meet. Reading would easily be a transfer point for SEPTA and CorridorOne services. Altoona would be a good transfer between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg services.

NJ Transit is probably unique among transit authorities, in that its a full fledged state agency AND it serves the majority of the state. But then, NJ is probably fairly unique in terms of the amount of the state that is "metropolitan" versus 'rural."

Some will argue that the NY MTA and the MBTA are state agencies, but they only serve portions of their respective states. The MTA clearly serves the NYC Metro area, and the MBTA serves only eastern Mass., with the rest of the state covered by regional transit authorities.

The only other examples of statewide agencies that come to mind are Maryland's MTA (but aside from MARC this is totally Baltimore focused) and RIPTA (Rhode Island). Both are small, and RIPTA is just a bus company that pays for a few MBTA runs to Boston on the NEC.

Even if such an unwieldy agency could function, what's to say that state politics still wouldn't steer money away from the Delaware Valley and out to elsewhere in the state. After all, NJ still has had north-south squabbles over transit spending even with NJT.

(Sorry for duplicating some of the above poster's thoughts...I typed too slow to get in further up the board!)

Talking here won't change things. Talking to these folks will:

Allen D. Biehler, PE, Chairman
Pennsylvania Transportation Funding & Reform Commission
c/o PennDOT
400 North St.
Harrisburg PA 17120

I agree a statewide transit operator would be inadvisable, for several reasons. First it's better and more efficient to have decisions being made closer to where the service is running, rather than in Harrisburg. Second, the characteristics and needs of transit systems in Pennsylvania are very diverse. Even if you were to take SEPTA and PAT out of the picture, there are big differences as you go from the Class 3 systems to the "Class 5" systems. It would be very hard for a single managerial team to manage all those systems most effectively.

However, I can see some merit in a statewide passenger rail system. There is already involvement at the state level with the Keystone Corridor (and the present work on the segment from Paoli in). It would facilitate extensions of the Philadelphia rail network out from the five SEPTA counties (we already have a model in the Harrisburg line which could be replicated for Reading and Bethlehem/Scranton), and the system is small enough and standard enough that economies of scale are attainable. Economies of scale also would make other passenger rail services a lot more feasible: if you have one state system ordering a decent-sized batch DMUs or other vehicles instead of four or five isolated projects (e.g. CorridorOne, Pittsburgh, Phila-Bethlehem), the cost is going to be more reasonable, and also you can spread administrative costs over a larger system.