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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Obama wants new Philly-Pittsburgh trains; who'll use them?

The Obama administration -- with Vice President and Amtrak-lover Joe Biden large in the picture -- wants to spend $8 billion on new high-speed rail, partly to make it easier to get from Center City to downtown Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. It doesn't explain why anyone would want to. View the new high-speed rail plans here.

UPDATE: "Your questions are best directed to the state. They're the ones proposing new service," says federal railroad spokesman Warren Flatau. Our Harrisburg bureau is following up with Gov. Rendell's office.

EARLIER: Seems to us the only obvious users are politicians and lobbyists who'd like a new taxpayer-subsidized route to commute to our state capital. Otherwise the train would run to State College and the Nittany Lion stadium, or maybe to Hersheypark -- the only upstate destinations that matter to most big-city Pennsylvanians.

Wouldn't most commuters be better off if the feds spent more improving and expanding Septa and other commuter service, which is awfully crowded, and rundown? Or improve the busy Amtrak Northeast Corridor, the only intercity line in the country that comes close to making financial sense. Or do something about those ridiculous, rising tolls on that politicians' playground, the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 2:10 PM  Permalink | 22 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:36 PM, 04/16/2009
    @MCaasar "Otherwise the train would go past State College and the Nittany Lion stadium, or maybe to Hersheypark -- the only upstate destinations that matter to most private-sector big-city Pennsylvanians." - I think the writer of this story already knows that
    — pdditty
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:54 PM, 04/16/2009
    Just flush the 8 billion down the toilet - it will be cheaper in the long run. We'll be subsidizing it forever.
    — JingoGuy
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:10 PM, 04/16/2009
    Yes, I know State College is way northwest of Harrisburg up US 322. I also know where Erie, Scranton, Altoona and Pottsville are. My point is that I'm not sure there's a lot of demand for Philly-Hbg-Pgh trains, and too bad the route doesn't go by State College, which would at least guarantee weekend ridership during football season. Joe D.
    — distefj
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:15 PM, 04/16/2009
    PORK. Plain & simple.
    — smurgnox
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:16 PM, 04/16/2009
    Now you see why there were Tea Parties yesterday...
    — fafafooey
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:24 PM, 04/16/2009
    You are right, it is silly to get from Philly to the state's capital in 20 min or from C.C. Philly to downtown Pittsburgh in < 2hrs, when we can all be sitting in traffic on the sure-kill expressway, guzzling gas or waiting in the airport for an hour and a half, for a 40 minute flight, which guzzles as much gas per person as six months of driving, only to arrive at the outskirts of Pittsburgh, and have to waste time renting a car, so that you can spend money parking it in a downtown garage. The author and posters on this blog simply have no vision. Also, the line is one of many proposals. The more important one is the northeast corridor line: Philly to NYC 20 min, Philly to Baltimore 30 min, Philly to DC under an hour! Yeah that would really suck. I trust all the posters on this blog think that the nation's highway and airline infrastructure isn't federally funded?
    — centercity19146
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:26 PM, 04/16/2009
    Completely agree. High speed rail needs to happen first in the few places it makes sense: Boston -> Washington corridor and maybe LA->SF (I don't know the numbers). Nothing else has the slightest possibility of making economic sense, and will unfortunately serve to brand the technology as pork, rather than the implementation.
    — Rodzu
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:37 PM, 04/16/2009
    what else does my king want?????????
    — PhillyInVa
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:40 PM, 04/16/2009
    I think it makes a good amount of sense in the Philly-Pittsburgh segment. I think this was originally posted by a ten year old. Just last weekend I tried to take the slow train to Pittsburgh and it was sold out in both directions. If people are taking it at 7 hours, there will be a lot more taking it at 2 hours. You can free up those Pitt slots at the airport for longer haul flights. There's already ta train to Harrisburg and since they invested money in it ridership has doubled. SEPTA will also be eligible for intercity grants which might be Reading. I think it's ridiculous americans get upset about $8 bn on things people actually use and overlook $1 trillion into banking.
    — dreinterests
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:42 PM, 04/16/2009
    By the time any of this even begins to materialize, we'll all be out of the rat race, playing checkers at the retirement home.
    — The Baron
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:12 PM, 04/16/2009
    I totally support a high-speed link to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. State College can be added later. History has shown that rail lines spur development along those lines. A recent case in point is the Riverline in NJ, which is already having a positive economic effect on Burlington and the other towns along that route. We need to get away from cars and highways. Think ahead.
    — Philly Friend


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About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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