Casey, Cartwright announce $9M toward restoring passenger trains between Scranton and New York City

SCRANTON — The long-sought restoration of passenger rail service between Scranton and New York City through the Poconos and New Jersey advanced with a $9 million federal grant for bridge and rail line construction in Pennsylvania, officials announced Tuesday.

During a press conference, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Scranton and U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright of Moosic called the funding a “key step” in the Amtrak project to restore passenger trains in Northeast Pennsylvania.

The funding will remove old fill that ends the Pocono Mainline just below Delaware Water Gap, rebuild a vehicle bridge over the removed fill and restore a rail connection to the Lackawanna Cutoff section of the Amtrak route in New Jersey, said Larry Malski, president of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority that owns the Pocono Mainline.

The funding represents a milestone in the Amtrak project because it will finally result in construction, in the form of rehabilitating one of three main bridges that need work, as well as installing rails, ties, stone and other elements to upgrade the rail line to reach a top speed of 80 mph in certain straight, level areas needed for the Amtrak Corridor service; and to achieve a one-way-trip time of 2 hours and 50 minutes between Scranton and Penn Station in Manhattan.

“This is the real deal. This is finally construction money,” Malski said. “I’ve waited many decades to be able to announce construction money for this project and it’s here today. And it’s only here because of the people here today and especially due to the efforts of Sen. Casey and Congressman Cartwright to deliver what we’ve got.”

Passenger rail service that previously ran for decades directly between Scranton and New York City was discontinued in 1970. Currently a freight line, the Pocono Mainline would still accommodate freight trains when passenger trains return, Malski said.

The funding comes from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant program, which was made possible by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Casey and Cartwright backed.

“I have fought to restore rail service between Scranton and New York for my entire career in the Senate and this investment from the infrastructure law means we are now closer than ever to making it a reality,” Casey said. “Passenger rail service to and from New York will be a game-changer for our region, meaning more family time, more economic investment and more job opportunities. I won’t stop fighting for this train until it pulls into Scranton.”

Cartwright also said restoration of passenger trains would create jobs, improve the quality of life and offer convenient travel options for commuters, college students and tourists.

“We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something transformational for our region’s economy and our quality of life,” Cartwright said.

Both Democrats, Casey and Cartwright are each seeking re-election in the Nov. 5 general election against Republican challengers. Casey faces Dave McCormick and Cartwright faces Rob Bresnahan.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll, Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and Amtrak official Joseph Barr also spoke during the announcement held at the Electric City Trolley Museum, a Lackawanna County facility housed in a building on the grounds of Steamtown National Historic Site.

Steamtown NHS was established in 1986 to preserve, interpret and protect the history of steam railroading in America. Steamtown NHS encompasses 62 acres on the site of the original Delaware, Lackawanna & Western rail yard. People from throughout the nation come to Steamtown, particularly train and rail enthusiasts.

Economic boost

A restoration of Scranton-to-NYC passenger trains has the potential to bring more people to Scranton and NEPA. Amtrak passenger trains would travel in and out of the footprint of Steamtown NHS and a platform would be constructed behind the intermodal Lackawanna Transit Center fronting on Lackawanna Avenue, Malski said.

Along with Scranton and Penn Station, Amtrak passenger trains would have stops in Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg in Monroe County, and in New Jersey in Blairstown, Dover, Morristown, Orange and Newark, Malski said. The passenger trains would enter and exit Manhattan via existing and new rail tunnels under construction under the Hudson River, he said.

An Amtrak study released in March 2023 found that passenger-train restoration would generate $84 million in new economic activity annually. Proponents believe those benefits would manifest in Northeast Pennsylvania and the Poconos in the forms of new white-collar, manufacturing, tourism and recreation industries, growth in residential and commercial real estate markets, easier means of commuting to NYC for work or pleasure, and more hybrid and remote workers locating here.

“This line will open up our economy in ways that I don’t even think that people in this room have thought through,” Cognetti said. “There are so many ways that our economy can grow with this line.”

Cartwright also said the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau estimates the restored line would generate $73 million in additional economic activity in the Poconos.

“It’s hard to wrap your head around all the different ways that it’s going to help Northeastern Pennsylvania,” Cartwright said. “But it’s a return, really, to our former glory that we’re able to connect such a major center of commerce as greater metropolitan New York City to our area.”

Back to the future

Malski also called the restoration of passenger trains “a rebirth of what we had” years ago, when the region was built on coal and railroads. The old passenger service was the genesis of many who live here now, because they descend from ancestors who came here from New York City on trains, he said.

“This basically is a return to the future from the past,” Malski said of restoring passenger service between Scranton and NYC.

The Amtrak project cleared a major milestone in late 2023, when the Federal Railroad Administration chose it for its Corridor ID program, designed to identify viable, new passenger train routes.

The $9 million grant puts the amount of money secured in Pennsylvania for the project at $20 million from state and federal funds, Cartwright said.

The project has many more steps ahead and will need funding obtained incrementally over time to continue advancing it. A prior estimate of 2028 for project completion likely would be the soonest passenger trains could roll, Cartwright said.

Malski expressed confidence that passenger trains could be running within five to six years because of infrastructure funding available. The legislators and Cognetti credited President Joe Biden for leading the way on getting the bipartisan infrastructure funding law enacted. Carroll also credited Casey and Cartwright for backing the bill.

“Absent that bill, we are not standing here today,” announcing the $9 million grant, Carroll said. “It’s critically important and a wise investment by the commonwealth.”

In acknowledging Gov. Josh Shapiro, who last year pledged millions in matching funds from PennDOT to further the project, Cartwright quipped that the passenger train should be called “The Shapiro Cannonball.”

The bridge that will be rehabilitated with the grant funding is in Slateford, Northampton County. The other two bridges that will need rehabilitation are the Delaware River Railroad Viaduct connecting Pennsylvania with New Jersey, and which is a short distance south of the Slateford bridge, and the Paulinskill Viaduct near Blairstown, New Jersey, Malski said. The project now moves to a second phase of the Corridor ID program called the service development plan, which will produce details of laying out stations, determining how often trains would run, what amenities are going to be needed along the line and the overall cost of the project, Cartwright said.

“The people of our region deserve this,” Casey said. “We’re going to finish this project no matter how long it takes us to do that.”

Originally Published: October 29, 2024 at 3:48 PM EDT