If it’s put into place, proposed Amtrak service between New York City and Scranton, Pennsylvania would provide a $2.9 billion one-time financial boost to the region, followed by about $87 million in economic activity annually.
That was the conclusion of an Amtrak analysis released this month that provides some, but not all the fiscal information about resuming rail service between the Big Apple and the Electric City. The analysis includes a map that identifies three stops along the line in the Poconos and one stop in Warren County.
The service proposal is part of the rail carrier’s larger “Amtrak Connects US” plan. It’s the same larger plan that aims to eventually establish an Allentown-NYC service that passenger rail advocates in the Lehigh Valley have long sought.
On the Scranton-NYC service, the plan predicts an annual $87 million in economic impact of the three train trips per day, citing 10 universities in three states on the line that could provide passengers, as well as tourist attractions in Scranton such as indoor water parks, ski areas, hiking trains and parks, including Steamtown National Park.
“These are impacts measured in terms of employment, wages and output generated throughout the economy from the spending associated with building and operating the services in the envisioned network,” said Jason Abrams, an Amtrak spokesman. “This spending generates measurable direct, indirect and induced impacts in terms of output, income and employment on a region’s economy.”
In its larger “Amtrak Connects US” expansion plan that includes Scranton-NYC service, Amtrak includes a wide range of spending in its consideration of economic impacts, like rail labor and construction wages, direct spending to buy goods and services, advertising and related services, and spending at food and beverage establishments in areas of economic impact.
It also forecasts $2.9 billion in one-time economic activity from “one-time capital investments,” but it stops short of estimating a price tag for resuming rail service. Construction costs, labor and spending on new trains are among the one-time economic impacts.
That doesn’t mean the project will cost $2.9 billion, though. It would be “much less,” Abrams said.
The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, which owns the tracks that would be used in that state, has contracted with Amtrak to estimate the cost, he said.
Significant portions of the cost would be funded by the proposed infrastructure bill being negotiated now in Congress, Abrams said. That legislation contains $60 billion for Amtrak.
The line would have 10 potential station stops along proposed 136-mile-long route, four in Pennsylvania, (Scranton, Tobyhanna, Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg), five in New Jersey, (Blairstown, Dover, Morristown, Summit and Newark Broad Street) and New York Penn Station. These towns were selected due to a combination of ridership potential, road access, and facilities, Abrams said.
“The most interesting is the new information, the economic impact figures of $2.9 billion from one-time construction and $87 million annually. I’d also note that both of those are much higher than the other two (rail service restoration) projects in Pennsylvania,” said Tyler Kusma, executive director of the Scranton Rail Restoration Coalition.
The economic information could help sell the concept and includes many arguments advocates have made previously for restoring New York-Scranton Service, said advocates who support the project.
“I think that will be of great use when advocating for this project, because obviously we’re talking about a good deal of money required to build it and then operate it,” he said. “So if we know what it will bring in then we can talk about a nice return on investment.”
Other advantages cited by Amtrak included a reduction of traffic on I-80 and I-380, which narrows to two lanes in each direction in Pennsylvania.
‘I think Amtrak did a wonderful job of summarizing the potential economic impact of NYC-Scranton rail service,” said Chuck Walsh, North Jersey Rail Commuter Association president. “My personal opinion is that Amtrak is going to do the service, and this is only in a sense documenting Amtrak’s enthusiasm for the project.”
Amtrak has already undertaken some analysis of the route, Abrams said.
“We look forward to more detailed study in cooperation with PNRRA, state and local officials, host railroads, and other stakeholders,” he said. “Over the next several weeks, we plan to meet with many of these groups to design the joint analysis to best meet the needs of all parties.”
In a role reversal from the busy Northeast Corridor line, Amtrak trains would be a tenant on NJ Transit’s Morris & Essex lines and on the 7.3 mile Lackawanna cutoff, which extends the M&E from Port Morris to Andover.
That project is slowly being constructed, with the next step the anticipated rehabilitation of the Roseville Tunnel in Byram. NJ Transit has budgeted $62 million for the Lackawanna cutoff construction to Andover.
The concept of restoring rail service to Scranton has been studied in the past. In October 2009, a variation of Amtrak’s current plan, called the Lackawanna Cutoff restoration project received an environmental ruling of having no significant impact from the Federal Transit Administration for NJ Transit’s “minimum 7.3 mile operating segment” of the cutoff and for the remaining 80 miles to Scranton.
That 2009 study provides a glimpse of what work Amtrak might need to do to get the trains rolling again.
Stations on the Pennsylvania side need to be constructed or rehabilitated, a train storage yard built in Scranton and a track maintenance facility constructed in Greendell, New Jersey. In addition, 20 miles of new track would need to be laid and 60 miles of track used by freight trains in Pennsylvania would be to be upgraded for use by passenger trains.
In 2006, the cost was estimated to be $551 million to do the work to restore service.
Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad in 1911, the cutoff was named because of 11 miles, steep hills and sharp curves it knocked off an existing route. New Jersey bought the right of way in May 2001 to save it from development.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
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