The Lebanon Daily News is running an even-handed report on “Corridor One” and “Corridor Two.” These projects propose inter-city rail service among several cities, including Harrisburg, Lancaster, York and Lebanon. To an outsider, it is a puzzle.
Of course, it doesn’t really matter. No reason to get on this any time soon. 2020 or even 2030 should work just fine.The price of gas won’t be going up and there won’t be any more population or highway congestion. Besides, who needs convenient transportation anyway?
But, if you still want to read the story, be my guest.
Filed under: Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy, Regional USA Passenger Rail
Trains For America 
What a crock. Here we have another anti-rail voice digging up the old canard about “it would be cheaper to buy every single rider a brand new car” than to build the rail line.
Provable nonsense.
The estimated amount to build the line is for up-front capital costs, which are only paid once. Railroad rolling stock can last up to 30 years. I think anyone that drives a car realizes that if you get a car to run for five years without signifcant maintenance costs (which the critic is also NOT taking into account) you’re doing very well. There are also routine maintenance items like oil changes, new tires, etc.
Also, he’s not including the costs of maintaining all the roads and highways that these brand new cars will be driving on.
Trains are also expandable and can accommodate increases in ridership by just attaching more passenger cars.
Translation: Building a commuter rail line is much, much, much cheaper, per passenger, per mile, than buying all the riders of said line a brand new car.
These corridors essentially link major cities in PA to Philadelphia, along old railroad lines. Together with the existing passenger rail routes (some of which need some serious upgrades), they’d interconnect most of the population centers in PA — except for the Scranton area, which is pinning its hope on NJ Transit’s long-delayed Lackawanna Cutoff connection to NYC.