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Re: (erielack) NJ/PA - Environmental Assessment for Lackawanna Cutoff now ava...
On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 7:50 AM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com> wrote:
> I can see them squeezing a Station in some where , but yards and all that
>> comes with it including engines running all night long? West of
>> Gouldsboro
>> I don't see it and certainly not in the City of Scranton. Fortunately I
>> don't have to worry about it, and as I've been saying for the last 20
>> years,
>> "probably won't see it in my life time".
>>
>
The plan right now is to build an "intermodal" facility where the State
parking lot is today. That is the lot next to the Steamtown Mall and across
the tracks from the Steamtown parking lot and Tower 60. My understanding is
that the station will also handle buses and the current Electric City
trolley. If anyone wants to see what we are talking about, the ELDCPS will
have its NKP sleeping car open for tours in this parking lot on the
Strawberry Barnch which cuts through this lot.
>
> I don't think you need mych in the way of a yard to store 2-3 equipment
> sets overnight -- which is what the plan seems to be.
>
> There are huge stumbling blocks -- the biggest being who'll pay for
> Andover-Slateford Jct. I suspect this will have to be on Pennsylvania's
> budget. But the good news on that would be gaining some extra minutes by not
> making any other local stops on the Cut-Off than Andover. It also removes
> some of the clout of local NJ NIMBYs, including the Sierra Club, which,
> thanks to financial support form the highway lobby and, perhaps Martz, has
> called for adding lanes to I-80 and opposes restoring the cut-off.
>
> Monroe and Lackawanna Counties have already spent lots of money in
> anticipation of this -- DL's operations don't exist on their own business
> merit, after all. Preservation and improvement of the DL&W main line has
> always been sold on the basis of future "High Speed [sic] Passenger Rail"
> and there would be h*** to pay if the work stopped.
>
I take exception to this. I think the Counties have been well served by the
money spent on buying and restoring the DL&W between Scranton and Slateford
Jct. (as well as the Carbondale LIne and the Erie/L&WV line to Moosic). The
DL is carrying something like 9000 carloads a year and they and the county
are constantly working to locate new industry on the line. The combination
of saving existing companies that need rail and locating new ones that
generate jobs and revenue are a worthy goal in and of themselves. The
former Chrysler unloading facility in Mt. Pocono has become the grain mill -
without rail service this would certainly have remained an empty field. The
Steamtown operations to Moscow, Tobyhanna and occasionally East Stroudsburg
and the Delaware Water Gap add to the tourism in the region as will
hopefully the ELDCPS. The passenger service would be nice but it hasn't
been a wasted effort without.
Tim
>
> Cheers,
> Jim Guthrie
>
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