Rail plan study phase to be submitted by fall

A plan to restore passenger rail service between upper Bucks County and Lansdale is scheduled to move into a phase by September to determine whether the federal government would provide up to half the funding, ...

[Monorail]

These railroad proposals are simply dreams. Look at the millions of taxpayer monies that must be spent. The railroad will run at a deficit i.e. SEPTA and the taxpayers will have to bail it out...year after year after year. Same thing with the Lehigh Valley proposal. Sounds like the Simpson's Monorail episode.

[joseph]

Monorail wrote:

These railroad proposals are simply dreams. Look at the millions of taxpayer monies that must be spent. The railroad will run at a deficit i.e. SEPTA and the taxpayers will have to bail it out...year after year after year. Same thing with the Lehigh Valley proposal. Sounds like the Simpson's Monorail episode.

Look into the future,high price fuel,depleting oil supply,traffic jams on major highways,and it does happen maybe rails will have a rebirth,a casino connection should also be consider

[Brent457]

Why must this be paid for by tax dollars ?

If there was a demand for this service, let the private sector take care of it.

[only in america]

My biggest concern on this as a whole, is that SEPTA is currently losing millions a year as it is. How much more will they lose if they extend their service to an area that may not use these services heavily. Not to mention the millions that are going to spent in just preparing to open these lines. They keep asking for more money from the state every time they do there budget so they can keep operating yet they have no problem paying out millions to there top people who can't seem to run them in the black. IT doesnt make any sense to me. How about they fix there current financial problems before extending to areas that will only cost them more in the long run. I am not against trains in Upper Bucks, I just feel they need to take of there current problems first.

[bigjwalt]

If there was a line that had 4 stops (Shelly, Quakertown, Perkasie, and Hatfield) then I would consider it. But if this line will have 15 more stops before Philly, or if I have to transfer at Lansdale, then it is a waste of time. Today's society likes the convenience of having a car at work in case of emergency or for whatever other reason. Plus in this area of the country, we want to rush everywhere. Sitting on a train for 90 minutes to get to Philly is unacceptable.

[Dennis Mac]

Sharing the track with freight trains?

Do they think they'll be able to maintain a schedule if the commuter train is stuck behind a slow-moving freight train?

Anyway, the head-on crashes are going to be awesome!

[only in america]

Today's society likes the convenience of having a car at work in case of emergency or for whatever other reason. Plus in this area of the country, we want to rush everywhere. Sitting on a train for 90 minutes to get to Philly is unacceptable.

I have said this a thousand times and no one wants to agree. But it is a fact of our current life. People will not want to wait for the 3:30 train if something happens to their child/children at school or daycare at 2:00.

[Dennis Mac]

Yeah, and other people don't like paying over $3 a gallon for gasoline to waste sitting in traffic on the Extension.

[Disgusted in Richlandtown]

The proposal is for the service to be provided by a private entity other than Septa.

We already spend millions of tax dollars on improving our road infrastructure why should it be any different for rail. Especially if it offsets the need for road maintenance and improvement.

There are two tracks which can be switced from one to the other. This is how you can handle freight and passernger service. It's also how two trains can pass each other going in opposite directions.

If you take the TransBridge or Bieber buses to New York, you'd relaize that not every commuter is locked into the convenience and expense of driving themselves. Grated NYC is further than Philly from here, but as gas prices rise....

[Sick Transit]

only in america wrote:

SEPTA is currently losing millions a year as it is.

As others have pointed out, this service would be run by a separate entity. SEPTA would not control it. Agreed, SEPTA is by almost all accounts a poster child for the word "dysfunctional", but it's a red herring to use their failures to conclude that transit systems are inherently inefficient. The fact is that all over the world transit systems receive public funding because they CANNOT both follow standard business rules and serve the public at large. Transit is a public service like the mail, schools, police and fire protection, and so forth. These services benefit society as a whole whether or not a particular individual uses them, so all of us have a responsibility to pay for part of their operations. Could the Post Office decide not stop delivering letters to Alaska because it's too far away? Would the fire department let your house burn until you agreed to pay the full cost of putting out the fire?

Brent 457 wrote:

Why must this be paid for by tax dollars ? If there was a demand for this service, let the private sector take care of it.

Putting almost any public service on a pay-as-you-go basis would raise its prices so high that hardly anyone could afford them. If you have children, did you pay school taxes anywhere near the amount that it actually costs to heat the buildings, buy the books, and pay the teachers? We tried private transit systems a long time ago and it didn't work. Anyone old enough to remember when the LVT system just shut down one day, leaving people stranded at stations for trolleys that never showed up? Or when the PRR and Reading collapsed?

monorail wrote:

taxpayers will have to bail it out...year after year after year.

Then it seems equitable that we should also stop bailing out all of the highways and airports that receive tax money year after year after year. Does anyone REALLY think their gas taxes and landing-fee surcharges cover the whole cost of these operations?

[BigJWalt]

Fuel is expensive. I also choose to drive a diesel vehicle that gets 16 MPG, and I drive over 3000 miles a month, you do the math. Its all about choices. If anyone doesnt want to pay that amount, work close to home and walk or ride a bike. Or buy a hybrid. Stop complaining about gas prices and thinking rail is the answer.

[Disgusted in Richlandtown]

BigJWalt....No concerns for global warming?

[Alison]

BigJWalt wrote:

Fuel is expensive. I also choose to drive a diesel vehicle that gets 16 MPG, and I drive over 3000 miles a month, you do the math. Its all about choices. If anyone doesnt want to pay that amount, work close to home and walk or ride a bike. Or buy a hybrid. Stop complaining about gas prices and thinking rail is the answer.

I'm happy you're proud of your gas guzzling truck responsible for increasing hatred against America and killing American troops in needless wars.

[Sick Transit]

Let's see ... 3000 miles, 16 mpg,$3/gallon. That's about $600 a month. Over 60% of our oil is imported, so maybe $350 to $400 of that money you choose to spend goes to the oil sheiks, Vladimir Putin & Co., and Hugo Chavez.

I'd rather see Americans being paid good wages to build and run trains that carry other Americans to work and school.

[A GROUP OF NYers]

It's about time Pennsylvania had some kind of passenger rail service! We recently bought a house in the Bethlehem area and would love to see passenger rail service between Allentown and Newark, NJ!(Wishful thinking!) With the population growth in the Lehigh Valley, and many commuters to NYC,
eastbound passenger service is really needed. It would also bring people from NYC to the new casino!

[bigjwalt]

Sick Transit wrote:

I'd rather see Americans being paid good wages to build and run trains that carry other Americans to work and school.

I would like that too., but in reality that money will never funnel down. It will stay at the corporate level and the employees will be treated as commodities.

[bigjwalt]

Alison wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm happy you're proud of your gas guzzling truck responsible for increasing hatred against America and killing American troops in needless wars.

Yes, thats my fault. I should drive a beer can on wheels and jeopardize the safety of me and my family. Thanks anyway!

[Disgusted in Richlandtown]

If your're truly worried about the safety of your family....I suggest you rely more on public transportation. Trains and busses tend to be safer. Also, your exposure to traffic risk is minimized by decreasing the amount of miles you drive.

[John-27]

Please, whoever plans this, PLEASE put the station immediately south of the Lehigh-Bucks county line so that the idiocy of not extending it into Bethlehem will be apparent. Let Lehigh County figure out how to deal with the traffic moving on and off of Route 309 at the county line on roads which haven't yet been built.

Has anyone approached the Bethlehem casino about a joint venture, or some kind of contribution to the project? The train, if it went to Bethlehem the way the old line did, will pass right by the the new slot parlor.

You have to think regionally about these solutions, not just by considering an arbitrary line on a map separating one populated area from another.

[trevorhorn]

Brent457 wrote:

Why must this be paid for by tax dollars ?
If there was a demand for this service, let the private sector take care of it.

If there is a demand for highways, let the private sector take care of it.