By Railfan & Railroad Staff
A new New York City to Scranton, Pa., passenger train would carry 470,000 passengers annually, according to a new report released by Amtrak and the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority this week.
Passenger service to Scranton, by way of the Lackawanna Cut-Off across northern New Jersey, has been a dream of rail advocates for decades, and in recent years New Jersey has put some funds toward rebuilding the route. Now Amtrak is putting its weight behind the effort by releasing the findings of a two-year study.
“Passenger rail service in and out of Scranton was discontinued in 1970, only one year before Amtrak was created,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “Restoring and expanding this corridor with daily multi-frequency service would dramatically boost mobility and economic development for residents of Scranton and Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and the broader Northeast region.”
According to the study, it would cost a minimum of $99 million to rebuild or improve the trackage in Pennsylvania (including upgrading the former Delware, Lackawanna & Western main line between Scranton and Delaware Water Gap, currently operated by the Delaware-Lackawanna). Amtrak would also need between $70 million and $90 million to buy new equipment for the service.
If everything goes according to plan, passenger trains would be able to run up to 110 miles per hour on the Lackawanna Cut-Off. The train would make stops in Scranton, Mt. Pocono, East Stroudsburg, Blairstown, Dover, Morristown, Montclair, Newark and New York City. The train would make three round trips per day, covering the distance between New York and Scranton in about two hours and 50 minutes.
“This study reinforces what we have advocated for decades that rail passenger service to this region is a huge economic positive,” said PNRRA President Larry Malski. “The study’s release is extremely timely with last year’s passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that for the first time makes available federal funding for developing Scranton service, especially restoring the Lackawanna Cutoff and upgrading PNRRA trackage.”
