One of my readers used to live near Clinton and did a lot of work in Downtown Manhattan. Here's his experience.
"I never - not once - took the train from High Bridge to Newark. Why? Because it made 13 stops between High Bridge and Newark, and took an hour and 45 minutes. Instead, I drove to Summit (about 35 miles away and roughly a 45-minute drive); caught the express train to Newark (about 15 minutes); and, then transferred to PATH.
"For one solitary minute do you believe the State of New Jersey/NJ Transit would allow an express train from A'Town to Newark or Penn Station using its tracks? That would be population suicide for western NJ. The last proposal I saw (a few years ago) would essentially just extend the NJ Transit route to A'Town. The estimated rail time to NYC would be something on the order of two-and-a-half or three hours."
"Based on a rosy estimate of ridership, it was estimated that the per passenger cost would be almost five times the cost of a ticket.
"While in the Lehigh Valley, I often traveled to Manhattan by bus. First with TransBridge; later with Bieber (at Hellertown). The Bieber bus was an express with no stops until the bus reached the PATH Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Travel time (depending on time of day) was between 90 minutes and two hours."
"Game. Set. Match."
The only way passenger rail that could possibly work is hi-speed.. That would never include a stop in the Lehigh Valley. It would be a train between two large cities. If feasible here, private business would have done it already
Also, expansion of passenger rail necessarily means that freight rail would have to give up some tracks or track time. Freight rail is highly profitable and is the main reason why there are not even more trucks clogging up our highways. We would actually be creating more traffic congestion and spewing even more pollutants by interfering with freight lines.
Yes, everyone loves cho-choo trains. But they are unfeasible. What is feasible is expanded mass transit and encouraging the use of buses instead of stigmatizing their use. We could create more bike infrastructure at little cost and start insisting that developers like those who built on Jaindl Boulevard actually be required to install sidewalks instead of treating pedestrians like garbage. We could install bike racks at public buildings and private businesses, especially as ebikes become more popular. I see no rush to do any of those things, but we'll spend millions we don't have to tell us what we already learned the last time we studied passenger rail in 2015. It won't work.
24 comments:
I took the train regularly across northern NJ to college on the NJ/NY border and loved it. Got work done on the train, and no stress.
Someone needs money so I guess we will have another study.
That’s why I posted prior, not likely ! Freight pays more than passengers, it’s economic. Personally I would want to see this ,it would bring an unprecedented number of new people here that would wreck the LV .,upset any stability in rental market, forcing lesser LV incomes from available options of housing, increase displacement of now stable families. Beautiful what you ask for….
Back in the early 80'S, the County had the opportunity to purchase the local rail system that serviced the Lehigh Valley from Septa. The County (Northampton) turned down the offer because It was too costly and didn't provide enough guarantees from septa to serve the Lehigh Valley at a reasonable rate. The cost to Lehigh County wasn't as great because of less rail tracks and right of way in Lehigh. The rails and the rail beds were in deplorable condition and the cost to the County taxpayers was very high when you considered the number of people using the system. Today the rail line serves as bike path/walking trail. The only Council person to see the benefit was Atty. Joe Reibman. There just wasn't enough paying customers to make the idea cost effective. Forty years later it appears Joe Reibman was right.
The bus is very crowded, moderately reliable, and takes well over two hours now. A NJ Transit extension is not a great idea as you suggest but an Amtrak line with three stops between Allentown and New York Penn Station would be rather attractive.
I worked for a NYC bank in the 1980’s and regularly took the trains to World Trade. You are correct. Taking a train from Somerset County in to the city took forever. It involved a transfer to PATH in Hoboken. I learned that the quickest route was to drive to Jersey City, park and ride the PATH to World Trade. In recent years I found driving to Metropark, for a non business visit, parking and riding to NYC made the most sense. I have used Metropark station to catch AMTRAK trains to DC. AMTRAK is cost prohibitive to ride to NYC, A ride can easily cost 50 dollars plus from Metropark to NYC. While NJ transit is 20 dollars plus for the same trip. AMTRAK only makes sense if you want to link to the national railway system. There are times when train travel makes sense over air travel particularly in the northeast corridor Boston to DC. AMTRAK operates like an airline. Early reservations get the best fares. AMTRAK does not receive federal assistance for passenger fares and as a rule does not operate commuter lines. AMTRAK is not the best alternative for Lehigh Valley commuters. The best option is to encourage NJ Transit to extend rail service to Warren County where Lehigh Valley residents can catch a train. Somebody will suggest why not extend that service into Pennsylvania. That will never happen because New Jersey taxpayers support NJ transit. Of course, money talks and if Pennsylvania would meet NJtransit at the border with a big check and a promise for more, extensions are possible. One factor that complicates this is the idea that abandoned passenger stations can be used in Lehigh Valley cities. NJ transit will tell you that a rail station must be safe and offer convenient parking for free or a nominal cost. Both factors are not present in abandoned stations. Mike McFadden, Easton
This "bring passenger rail service back" cry is cyclical here in the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos. Crops up on either side of the Blue Mountain every couple years for decades now. Nothing substantial has ever come of it and the reality of it only gets more astronomically expensive and prohibitive every time the rally cry resurfaces. It ain't happening. Ever. Again.
SEPTA and Amtrak are perfect examples of the black hole that is rail transportation in the US. They are a nasty marriage of government and union interests that lose more and more taxpayer money every year. We buried trains when we built Ike's interstate system that cruelly cut right through cities, but made it easier to get out of them.
There could be 365 day-long free trolleys circling the major valley downtowns affording free travel eliminating the need for impossible-to-find parking.
I agree with you, Bernie. Inefficient and total waste of money. Railroads should be encouraged for freight hauling not passengers in the L.V. Little old ladies like me might try it once and awhile to go into city but really makes no sense for most people. Buses make more sense for most of our area to transport people.
The only reason people want rail is so they can take a quick trip to NYC. There are two primary reasons LV residents go to NYC: 1) for fun/shopping/recreation/see the sights/et al and 2) they work there.
As for #1: No one is in a hurry. If you have to be somewhere in NYC (reservations, show at Radio City, et al), it's no problem to leave early. There's plenty to in NYC beforehand. It's not like you leave here at 6:00 for an 8:00 show. Any trip to NYC from here is planned as day trip. Take a bus to Port Authority or catch the ferry from Jersey City. Easy enough.
As for #2: the virus really showed that remote work is viable. People I know who used to work in NYC five days a week now go in two or three many weeks. The existing bus system seems to work well enough to support that as well.
Rail is a boondoggle and unnecessary.
I'd like to break down this discussion into two very different topics: commuter rail to NYC and passenger rail to NYC. They look the same but the results are very different.
Many people have stated the bus (TransBridge) is faster, especially from Hellertown. They're absolutely right! There's no way we can get to Midtown any faster most days of the week than a TransBridge bus with limited or no stops. Perhaps NJ Transit would like to extend their Raritan Valley service from High Bridge to Phillipsburg, and I'd be fine with that. But it's a lot more convenient to travel from LVIA's lot or Hellertown and show up in two hours plus a short drive from my home in Bethlehem.
Second: passenger rail, or what we know as Amtrak. Two or three round trips a day would change our lives here. We won't see hordes of people streaming in from NYC on Amtrak. Amtrak isn't cheap. What Amtrak to Allentown could be for us is a link to the rest of the Northeast Corridor. You can't get to Boston on a nonstop plane from ABE. A flight to Washington is way expensive and you still have to get from Dulles on a still-unfinished Metro line. And there are a lot of other cities along the East Coast that become a simple change of train away. Moynihan Hall ain't the old Penn Station. It's a sweet place to change trains.
As for the Pocono service: what people north of the mountain have is their own wholly-owned rail line, and NJ Transit and the state are very willing to rebuild the Paulinskill Viaduct across Sussex County. That won't be high-speed rail in PA, but it will be very fast for much of its route in NJ. But, as with commuter rail, much of that is a NJ thing.
Bernie, your wonderful train trip between western PA and Washington is Amtrak at its best, even with flaws. But that's one of the pork barrel routes on the national system. I'm not sure many people want to travel between Washington and Chicago by rail unless they're on vacation. The real money is in connecting areas like ours to NYC. Harrisburg is lucky to have the Keystone Service with more than 10 round trips a day to Philadelphia and NYC. Two or three from here would bring us into the big leagues with no real downsides.
Unfortunately I think you’re right, Bernie. I love riding trains, but in a post-pandemic world I don’t see it happening here. Ask two questions: who does it move, and where does it move them? Go further and ask where a Lehigh Valley station would be. Somewhere with easy car access off 78? Probably not. Grant money would probably be tied to serving the underserved, meaning downtown with no parking. I used to go into New York occasionally for business, education, theater, museums, at most maybe 16 times a year. The Bieber bus was great, super-reliable. Then someone bought it and ran it into the ground. I’ve tried NJT trains and they are ok but it takes forever. The pandemic happened and habits changed. I’ve only gone in for theater once and I car pooled. We’re not suburban Maryland or Virginia, with thousands of folks needing to go into DC daily as both states have developed suburban rail systems. Rail right of ways cost money and I don’t think any existing rail company will share them without a hefty fee. I love train travel, but I don’t see it happening here.
Let's think about things:
First there are numerous people who escaped NYC to vacation homes and get-aways in eastern PA. So there is a seemingly higher response to wanting rail by them to go back home and visit. Tourist by train.
Second. With some companies pushing people to come to the office at least part time there is a need for a number of people to commute to the NY area. Many of those same people over the past couple of years have gotten in a habit of not driving so much and look for easier ways. not enough to justify rail but enough to skew a study.
Third is that the eastern PA housing bubble seems to be diminishing. I have noticed in the past years that there seems to be a correlation to real estate and developers possible diminishment of revenue and the all of a sudden promise of the savior train. As COVID wines why are people who were born and raised in the NY region going to want to stay here.
Just some random thoughts
Take a look at a recently published Transbridge schedule. You will be shocked at all the stops. William Penn (33), Downtown Easton, Clinton, Newark Airport and more. Each one adds 5-10 minutes to the trip.
Agree: The best transportation improvement they could do in this region would be a dedicated bus lane on I-78 from Lehigh Valley to Manhattan with maybe 1 stop (at EWR) to allow buses to drive full speed all the way in both directions without so much as a slow down approaching the Lincoln Tunnels.
Even during the golden age of railroading most passenger trains lost money unless they were hauling a lot of mail. The freight railroads were forced to operate them as a public service.
When the freight railroads started to loose money the long distance trains either disappeared or folded into the government subsidized Amtrak. States started to subsidize the commuter operations until everything folded into Conrail. Conrail went to court and won a decision to drop commuter operations and then the states had to form agencies like Septa and NJ TRansit to operate commuter operations. It has nothing to do with a union plot. NJ Transit became a premier commuter operation until it was wrecked by Gov Chris Christie. He never realized how many NJ commuters depended on NJ TRansit and cut its funding. ONly now is it getting back on it's feet. NJT will never come into Penna. If as predicted the REpublicans take control of congress next year then look for big cuts in rail funding.
AS for the NJT Raritan Valley Line, Before the pandemic I parked free at High Bridge but many of the stations to the east have lots operated by the local town and charge a hefty fee. Also, daily commuters can buy a discounted monthly pass fsrom NJT. And finally, most if not all trains operating on the Raritan Vally line now have "dual service" locos which can run on diesel or electric so its a one seat ride into NY Penn Station. No more switching from a diesel train to an electric train at Newark for the ride thru the Hudson River tunnels.I rode round trip beteween High Bridge to NYC with no change at Newark.
In our history, the reason so many rail lines lost money and were abandoned is because they were heavily subsidized by public money. So much so that the constitutions of many states, including Pa., specifically prohibit the direct infusion of public cash into private enterprise. That has changed, and freight rail now is both very profitable and provides an immense public service. In addition to providing a cheap source of transportation, they are far less damaging to the environment. The only problem is that there are too few - about six or seven - in existence.
In stark contrast to freight, passenger rail is heavily subsidized, inefficient and except for dense communities, takes very few drivers off the road. The only use I see is as a tourist attraction like the one in Jim Thorpe.
Talking about passenger rail from Allentown to NYC would necessarily mean that freight lines would have to give up track. That is not doing to happen. If you were to build a track somewhere else, it would be simply impossible. This is not Communist China. Land here is privately owned. And there are numerous utilities running thru. The county cannot even do a bridge repair before it spends years getting agreements from the utilities impacted. A rail line would be prohibitively expensive, require decades of work and would provide very little value for the public investment. And Amtrak is one of the worst run transit systems. Try and book a ticket.
Does Lamont support the widening of Route 22?
BERNIE: The tourist operation in Jim THorpe is operated by A freight short line known as the Reading and Northern. The R&N has received heavy subsidies from Penna over the years. When JIm Thorpe wanted the R&N to collect a amusement tax the R&N threatened to leave town.
My dad took the train from Bergen county new Jersey into the city every day. He loved it as one said he could work on the way in and out of the city. It was a wonderful time. I'd take a train to the next town as a kid to volunteer at the hospital. It was safe. Today I am sad to say I fear more crime as it would be easier to travel to and from cities. And for all of the good reasons mentioned I strongly disagree with a rail service proposal and don't see the feasibility and too much concern about increased crime
"Does Lamont support the widening of Route 22?"
You'd have to ask him. In his op-ed, he doubts that widening 22 will decrease congestion. But I have never spoken to him on that specific issue.
1052 BOH. Thank you for the feedback. Back when Rendell was Gov, Route 22 was in full steam. Than folks like RenewLV pushed Rail as if it was a "one or another solution." Also, certain member(s) of Easton City council opposed widening of Route 22 and demanded upgrades to 13th St Interchange. There is no doubt there is a bottleneck between Cedar Crest and Airport road. People in all 4 corners of the valley trying to get to their valuable jobs, how is this not seen as economic development? Also the fatality count in that secion is higher and in some cases due to sudden stopped traffic. While Route 22 is stuck, I78 is being widened for more truck traffic. Instead of widening Route 22 for existing commuter traffic we have widening of I78 to favor more truck traffic, a new interchange to spawn more warehousing. Ah, the dreams if an inland port have come true but it is no cruise vacation.
European nations have figured out how to make passenger rail fast, efficient, and affordable. It is heavily subsidized by their governments and the people love it and use it regularly. We have many busy corridors in this country that would benefit greatly by fast, on-time rail. Just bc some folks here don't commute or want to travel easily between here and other metro areas on the east coast doesn't mean lots of us don't. In addition, a local train running along routes similar to our highways with city stops and industrial park stops would also take lots of traffic off our truck laden highways. But we just keep subsidizing our ridiculous highway system with most vehicles carrying 1 or 2 people. Time for the Valley to break into the 21st century.
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