Lehigh Valley mayors want to reboot passenger rail service plans

The mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and Phillipsburg, N.J., have been meeting the past couple of months to see how they can get rolling again talks to restore passenger rail service to the Lehigh Valley.

The mayors have met with each other, representatives of the Lehigh Northampton Transportation Authority and the new secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, as well as the deputy secretary for rail. On the agenda is how they can get to the table with federal, New York and New Jersey transportation officials to find the cooperation and funding needed to make such a project happen.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto said the discussions are at a very early stage, but just talking about passenger rail service for the Lehigh Valley is important.

“Exploring rail is on a lot of regions’ minds, and if we don’t put it on the front burner we’re going to be left behind,” he said.

He said one of the things that stalled previous talks on extending commuter rail service to the Lehigh Valley from New York was a 2010 study that didn’t show the rail service to be feasible because of the high cost and lack of demand.

Panto called the study flawed.

“People will use it if it’s built,” he said. “More people will move here.”

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski said he would expect a population boom if rail service could cut the commute time to New York City.

“The area’s cities will explode,” he said, adding that the region’s population could expand to rival that of the greater Pittsburgh area.

Pawlowski said the line extensions that would be needed to bring passenger rail to the Lehigh Valley aren’t as extensive as people might think. He said rail could be extended from Clinton, N.J., to Easton by adding only about 10 miles of track. From there, he said, there is infrastructure in place that would just need to be rehabilitated.

“It is going to take a long time,” Pawlowski said.

Panto said he doesn’t expect to see passenger trains rolling into the Lehigh Valley while he is mayor.

“But you have to start sometime,” he said. “You have to get the ball rolling.”

Panto also countered those who use cost as an argument against rail.

“Yes, it’s going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. But he noted that the federal and state government are already spending hundreds of million dollars on bridges and highways in the region that would see relief with rail service.

And, he said, it might be the region’s only option.

“You can’t make the roads wide enough in the Lehigh Valley anymore. We’ve spent a lot of money on the reconstruction of Route 22, and it’s not going to be enough,” he said.

Both mayors said an important component of jump-starting talks on passenger rail service to the Lehigh Valley is public and political support.

While the mayors are not affiliated with it, there is a petition on Change.org that is calling on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others to come to meet with Lehigh Valley leaders and begin working together to restore passenger rail service.

Source: LVB.com