(rshsdepot) Elizabethtown, PA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From the Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster, PA

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications/


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



E-town station expecting key funds for renovation; Official announcement
planned Monday
8/16/03

In dire need of repair after 25 years of neglect and vandalism, the historic
Elizabethtown train station reportedly will be renovated with funds provided
by a non-profit organization created to build a regional rail service in
southcentral Pennsylvania.
Concern over the fate of the station, built in 1915 on the campus of the
Masonic Home of Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania,
grew recently when the national passenger rail carrier, Amtrak, backed out
of a commitment to renovate the station due to budget constraints.

Elizabethtown has been working for about 15 years to renovate and reopen the
abandoned station. Officials had lined up grant funding for the $2.2 million
project, then Amtrak backed out of a pledge to supply $464,500.

Although 37,385 riders boarded Amtrak trains at the station in 2001 and
roughly 20 trains stop at its platform each , the closed building on Wilson
Avenue is in such poor shape that it recently topped an annual list of
Pennsylvania's most endangered historic properties.

The summer issue of Preserving Pennsylvania reported the station was
designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Zantzinger, Borie &
Medary. The limestone structure with a slate roof created "a visual and
architectural relationship to the Masonic Home campus."

About 25 years ago, the station was abandoned by Amtrak.

Although Elizabethtown Borough officials have garnered $1.1 million in
federal grant commitments, $200,000 in county grants, $15,000 from the Great
American Station Foundation and put up $400,000 of borough money, the final
piece of funding was to come from Amtrak.

After Amtrak withdrew funding, the rail corporation also denied having the
resources to review and approve the renovation project.

But federal, state and county legislators have announced an 8:30 a.m. press
conference Monday at the train station and are expected to say Modern
Transit Partnership will provide the funds Amtrak withdrew and allow
renovation of the station to move forward.

MTP officials have said Elizabethtown will be one of the stops on its
planned CORRIDORone regional rail line, which would ultimately run on tracks
between Lancaster and Mechanicsburg.

CORRIDORone initially would operate from Lancaster to Harrisburg, beginning
in 2005.

As it stands now, Amtrak trains go to Harrisburg 10 times a day at a cost of
more than $11 per ticket, MTP officials said.

Under the CORRIDORone system -- which engineers say could use self-propelled
electric rail cars similar to Philadelphia's larger SEPTA trains running on
Amtrak and Norfolk Southern tracks -- trains would run every 20 minutes
during peak hours and every 30 to 40 minutes on off-peak hours at an
estimated cost of $3.50 per one-way ticket.

John Ward, president of Modern Transit, and other proponents would like to
see the rail expanded to Mechanicsburg in 2007. Connected lines also are
planned for York, Lebanon, Hershey and Carlisle by 2014.

In order to get commuters out of cars and onto the trains, Ward said, the
stations have to be user friendly and have either in or around them services
commuters need, such as child day care, dry cleaning, convenience stores and
plenty of parking.

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------