Nexis4Jersey t1_j8t3tu1 wrote on February 16, 2023 at 7:34 PM

Reply to comment by TrafficSNAFU in This Urban Planner Wants to Build a Massive Circular Rail Track Connecting Jersey City, Newark, Paterson by 66nexus

The Waterfront Connection and Hunter Flyover along with the Passaic River Bridge replacement are in the funding phase... With Amtrak seeking to operate service to Eastern PA on the RVL and M&E I think you'll see those funded soon. They should run full weekend Montclair-Boonton line service not just the shuttle. The Union County BRT should be dropped in favor of the resurrecting the sheveled Newark-Elizabeth-Cranford LRT which was absent from this proposal.

TrafficSNAFU t1_j8t5zgd wrote on February 16, 2023 at 7:47 PM

Big question, did any agency out in the Lehigh Valley apply for FRA funding for a passenger rail corridor? Compared to other hopeful corridors, I've heard next to nothing from that area. As for the other projects, I've seen them mentioned in the NJ Transit capital plan but without any firm funding commitments.

Nexis4Jersey t1_j8t77cf wrote on February 16, 2023 at 7:54 PM

Both plans are oddly different from the state plans from 2010s which go all the way back to the 90s. The Amtrak 2035 plan calls for 2x service per day from Allentown and Scranton to NY. Under the PA State Rail proposal which i'm told is still the recommended plan , service would start in Harrisburg head east servicing all the major towns like Lebanon , Hershey , Reading then Allentown then more or less express to Newark with one intermediate stop. NJT would provide hourly service from Allentown to Newark-Hoboken. The same has been proposed for the Lackawanna cutoff which under the NY State rail plans restores service to the Southern tier / Buffalo/ Syracuse with at least 3x service from NYC. NJT would run trains every 2hrs from Scranton to Hoboken. The Lackawanna recently received funding for construction to Andover with phase 2 receiving some funding on the PA side.

TrafficSNAFU t1_j8t9uqg wrote on February 16, 2023 at 8:11 PM

I know all of that but there's a still a fair bit of money needed to make these projects a reality. One of the most important ways to get funding is through the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor Identification and Development program, which allows passenger rail corridor to get Federal money to establish service. In the case of the Scranton-NYC service, the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority is both submitting an application to the FRA and is working on a ridership study in partnership with Amtrak. As far as I'm aware the same can not be said for the Lehigh Valley area.