422 Tolls Proposed to Fund Road Improvements, Train Line

A study released today on restoring passenger train service between Berks County and Philadelphia recommends a detailed study of charging a toll on Route 422 to generate the money needed not only to support the train line, but to make critical improvements to the highway.

[Alex Showers -Pottstown]

The idea that taxpayers in the surrounding towns of Route 422 should fund the expansion of mass transit and roadway expansion on Route 422 is simply a joke. The townships who have been involved in suburban sprawl that has been crippling the 422 roadways for the better part of the last 5-10 years should take responsibility for their lack of “land use planning.” How many new residential and commercial developments have been built in the Pottstown, Phoenixville, Royersford, Limerick, etc surrounding towns, with no improvements made to local roadways? It makes sense that when you add thousands of new homes and commercial business’s into an area traffic will get congested.
What future roadway and transportation planning was built into these township plans when zoning for a new townhome development in Phoenixville was approved, or the new Commercial Business “Town Center” on Rt29 and Rt422? The answer is simple, none. Townships & surrounding counties for that matter are guilty of approving development at a rate that local roads and highways can not sustain and appropriated very little if any funding into ways to alleviate the traffic burden these developments would have. Local townships have benefitted from the increase in tax revenue that these new commercial & residential developments bring in annually, but now want to pass the burden and cost of the traffic onto all individuals using Rt422? When attracting new residential developments and commercial business’s to the surrounding area consideration should have been made as to the impact it would have on the traffic in the area as well as how to appropriately fund future improvements that would be necessary.
Changing Rt422 to a toll road will do what to alleviate traffic nightmares? Looking at the history of how townships and the county have spent tax revenue from new development I would probably bet very little. How many people from the Reading, Pottstown, Phoenixville areas are trying to get to areas not accessible by an extension of the rail system from Norristown to Reading? Poor planning has gotten us this far, hopefully someone in a decision making position has a new idea of how to solve self created problems that our townships and counties are continuing to impose on us the tax payers.

[Traffic Jam]

I agree with Alex,tolling 422 is a verry stupid idea,thats probably why they will do it. They had rail service that ran from Potsville through Philadelphia for years. They stopped it righ around the time 422 was opened up through the expressway,where was the foresight?Unfortunately when you are dealing with governmental bueracicies Lack of plannining on their part always constitutes a problem for the residents. I still can't believe they are even considering such a dumb thing. To quote Forrest Gump"Stupid is as Stupid does"

[Good night]

and may God Bless!

[john james]

I'm against tolling 422. Instead it would be nice to have couple more bridges over Shuylkill river for people commuting to malvern or West Chester.