Lackawanna Cut-Off - Update #9 - President Biden Endorses NYC-Scranton Amtrak Service
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- President Joe Biden publicly endorsed the establishment of New York City to Scranton Amtrak service (which would travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off) during a speech at Amtrak's 50th Anniversary celebration on April 30, 2021. Chuck describes this exciting development and gives us a brief rundown on how the roll-out of this service might work, including stations at which Amtrak might stop in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the phases of the project, including the possibility at some point of extending service beyond Scranton into the Southern Tier of New York State.
Great video Chuck. Keep up the good work.
And the good news is it will be completed in 48 years!
How long did it take to dismantle it? A couple months?
Jonathan Ng: The railroads will go under very soon thanks to Biden!!!6
@@albertcarello5489 If he keeps killing the economy everything will fail.
@@1940limited The economy will keep getting much much much worse!
@@albertcarello5489 Best way to take down the nation. Biden's leading the charge. Shame on America for allowing this dolt to get into the oval office.
It will be great if this could come to pass. Definitely would love to ride Amtrak over the cutoff!
I hope we get Amtrak over the Cutoff. There’s probably tons of potential for any train that people in NYC could use to access some of Scranton’s tourist attractions like Steamtown.
Or live in Scranton and commute if the commute isn't too long? I have been in Scranton and it has some gorgeous early 20th century houses.
If I were to live in the 9 state Northeast region, I would live in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre areA in Scranton or Pittston.
NYC needs a place to ship all of the illegal aliens. Hello Scranton.
Let's go, Brandon!!!
I'm just finding you now and working my way through your videos, great stuff! As an Amtrak fan, and general lover of trains, who grew up in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area (now near Hershey) I see a lot of financial feasibility here. Anyone from NEPA will tell you how popular bus trips are from the WB/Scranton area to NYC, ESPECIALLY around the holidays. If this comes to fruition and Amtrak can offer a competitive rate and comparable time (I think it should be quicker), I can see a lot of ridership already. Not to mention the daily busses that already run into NYC for commuting workers.
I’d love to be hopeful about this happening but I don’t think the infrastructure bill will get passed. The GQP won’t let it go through the senate and Manchin won’t pass a democrats only bill because he wants BiPaRtIsAnShIp.
We'll see. The disagreement with the GOP is over the definition of "infrastructure". I don't think there's any quibbling over whether Amtrak meets that definition or not.
@@LackawannaCutOff you make a fair point. But I’m still really distrustful of them actually wanting to pass something
awesome news i love your videos chuck keep them coming sir :-D
Thanks for posting this great info. I wish this project a lot of luck. I'd love to see it happen.
Barry
Biden's entire speech was fun to listen to because its obvious that he cares about Amtrak alot, even if the government in the past hasn't. Hopeful for the future and the cutoff!
Amtrak has always gotten short shrift. Biden seems to care about anything he can spend tons of money on that we don't have.
@@1940limited, I'm glad to see that you are being so vigilant about our tax dollars.
@@LackawannaCutOff Thanks!
Very cool. I don't live in that area of Pennsylvania, but I will cheer for and support any expansion of Amtrak service. The Clark Griswold in me pictures extra long trains taking people home for Thanksgiving over the Cutoff.
I'm not a fan of Joe Biden but I'm very happy he is supporting Amtrak and the Lackawanna project. And I really like your channel!
Thank you very much!
NJ is quickly running out of landfill space, let's hope the big picture doesn't end up as a garbage train if the commuter-vacationer lines don't generate enough revenue.
Garbage trains? That one is so old it was a family and grandkids by now. Not happening.
I think Mt Arlington which didn’t exist in the original Cutoff maps and plans being relatively new would be valuable. Its an intermodal site with parking and is also served by Lakeland Express bus svc to Port Authority Terminal in NYC. gives some more options for Travelers going to mid town.
Good point. We've actually suggested Mount Arlington as a second-tier stop to our legislators. What I mentioned in the video was what we considered to be first-tier stops. Other second-tier stops we've proposed would be Brick Church and South Orange.
@@LackawannaCutOff also Summit offers other Bus connections. Note that Mt Arlington is unique in that NJ DOT owns the undeveloped land along rt 80 eastward between eastbound lanes and JCP&L transmission line right of way all the way to Berkshire Valley Rd. Possibility to expand parking.
@@sethtaylor5938, Congressman Frelinghuysen looked into this years ago. There are issues with going to the south of the right-of-way. I'm not sure what they are--environmental in nature?--but that is why I believe they haven't expanded the parking.
@@LackawannaCutOff there are some wetlands there, true. That transmission line is from 1923. I looked at the plan profile of the line before I retired from JCP&L. They couldn’t build that line today.Also there’s the Hercules property which is now owned by Roxbury Twp and has been “cleaned” up. Short walk to station. Maybe could build an underground passage way to other side or safe pedestrian walk way under bridge.
Conrail needs to be held liable for destroying the original Erie lackwann cut off and be sued and have to pay damsnges
Pigs will fly first. We need to concentrate on the doable, not the impossible.
Removing the rails is not nearly as bad as selling off the right-of-way would have been. The rails would probably be replaced for the new service anyway.
Obviously conrail didn’t want anyone else to run the line
Thanks for the update, Chuck! Things are looking much more positive than they did a few years ago
Aww, too bad, I live along the Montclair-Boonton Line and it would blow my f*cking mind to see an Amtrak train cruising through Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Montclair, and onward but I get that past Montclair State University, it's single-tracking only. There are only Montclair-Boonton trains past MSU going towards Hoboken or coming from it in the morning and afternoon/evening respectively anyways, so taking the Montclair alignment shouldn't entirely be off the table because of the very large gaps in scheduling. The Morris Essex Line at least has an express track in the middle but sees far higher train traffic, including the fact that it's NJ Transit's second best line. I guess it is a matter of which alignment a train could get to Denville (which is where the two lines converge) the fastest. If an Amtrak train from Hoboken or New York to Scranton could stop at South Orange, one of my favorite places in NJ, the town's economy would BOOM. Having a direct rail link from there to a city like Scranton would be deeply meaningful. Though Newark Broad Street would need a redo. You'd need to fit the station with Amtrak ticketing and customer service. Same with South Orange which has very very limited NJT services in its main waiting area under the tracks. Though I did not know Amtrak once operated a service from Hoboken to Scranton!! I guess it obviously took the Morris-Essex Line (the old Erie Lackawanna main line) since the Kearny Connector didn't exist then.
Yes, the Nov 13, 1979 Amtrak special went from Hoboken to Scranton via the Morristown Line (I saw it pass my house in South Orange). Speaking of South Orange, we are proposing it as a second-tier choice along with Brick Church and Mount Arlington. Ultimately it is all up to Amtrak.
@@LackawannaCutOff ^ I am almost beside myself. I always fantasized about an Amtrak line going out west through New Jersey by way of the Morristown Line (or any line, really, since they all meet up with tracks eventually that all go out to Chicago) but I never imagined that it actually existed at one point!! It just breaks my heart, trains went absolutely everywhere in this country and that's far from the case any more. Counting on Biden and progressive attitudes towards trains to fix this!
@@rominn2184, historically the trains did well from the Southern Tier east. But I'm skeptical about going any further west than Elmira/Corning. There's also the proposal to go to Syracuse, which is also interesting, assuming that trains don't need to go into downtown Binghamton first. One proposal would put a new Binghamton station east of Binghamton, which would save a lot of time. The market is different now than in the Phoebe Snow or Lake Cities days of the 1950s and 60s. The service will have to lure people out of their cars, at least for the trip. If the trip from the station to where they're going can be made seamless, it can work. There will have to be partnering with resorts or other attractions. Business travel would also be part of this. None of this will happen overnight. Even the interstate highways were empty when they first opened.
Great news lets hope it all happens!!
This news had to be like a kid in a candy shop for Chuck... And now we now the Infrastructure money will be there. What a nice 2021 Chuck. So happy for you, but also sad for the loss of Riley.
Cannot wait for the next few years, and Chuck's updates. HAPPY New Year to you and your family Chuck.
Given the endorsement, what is the possibility that New Jersey Transit delays work on the line to Andover station even further, hoping that the federal government--in the form of Amtrak--takes over (re)construction? The route to Scranton certainly can't operate without the link NJT has been "working on" all these years. Were the commuter line to convince Amtrak to take on the entire route rebuild, could not Jersey Transit divert the allocated funds for Andover to other projects? After Amtrak finishes the project, the commuter carrier then arranges for trackage rights to Andover. Such is the nature of politics/public funding.
We're always a day late and a dollar short with these projects. Amtrak could have taken it over back in the 70s, but no one was interested. Monroe Country tried to buy it for 7 million in 1984, but had to build a new prison instead. If anything ever does come to fruition I'm interested to see how they cut a railroad through the backyards of the residents in Slateford who probably have no idea anything was ever there. That could be the biggest stumbling block of all.
I can't predict what NJT might do, although the Andover section is already paid for, so Amtrak isn't going to get involved with that. Also, consider this a "Biden project" now. If you're NJ Transit and are looking for $$$ for other projects--the Gateway Tunnel for starters--do you think you want to be seen as futzing around with this project?
@@1940limited, the right-of-way (including at Slateford) is all publicly-owned now. You may not realize it, but that puts this project near or at the top of the heap. Just about every other project on Amtrak's wish list has to deal with a private Class 1 freight carrier, which is going to be a stumbling block for those other projects to have to overcome.
@@LackawannaCutOff Then lets get on with it!
@@LackawannaCutOff Didn't mean for you to put on your Amazing Karnak turbin and try to definitively figure out Jersey Transit's future actions, Mr. Walsh. Mine was more an open musing based on how other public-sector projects just here in the New York City-metropolitan area (i.e., the Second Avenue subway) have sometimes gone over the, not years but, decades.
When it comes to taxpayer-funded projects of this scope we all know local (town/county/city/etc.) governments try to get the state to foot (as much of) the bill, and states always look toward the feds. Given that Democrats control New Jersey, both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate (at least through January 2023), and the presidency, it is not outside the realm of possibility that NJT attempts--perhaps through backdoor negotiations--to have Amtrak assume responsibility for the entire Cut-off rebuild and then put the former's all-ready appropriated funds toward something else--like the Gateway Tunnel (a project for which I'm willing to bet the commuter carrier has much more of an appetite.) Of course, any legislation needed to make the diversion of old funding "legal" is certainly doable when there is one-party control.
Joe Biden can’t even spell train !
Has Amtrak done any ridership studies or are they shooting in the dark.
That's up to Amtrak.
In the last 50 years, how many have been profitable for Amtrak? What a great business model, let's keep using our tax dollars to support this modern form of transportation.
How much profit does your local highway make? I'll wait.
@@LackawannaCutOff Let me check with the CEO of the highway.
@@stevej5276 you're right for equality sake we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build a national network all in one go and then once it's finished will have tickets cover up to 70%, but probably closer to half of the entire network's maintenance and operating costs.
And yes I am including gas taxes there