PA: 2nd Amtrak route to New York City included in new PennDOT rail plan

he state wants to know what people want in passenger and freight railroad service, funding, safety and economic development during the next five years.

The input PennDOT receives will become part of a 2025 rail plan that will serve as a guide for state and federal investments over the next two decades.

PennDOT will conduct a virtual informational meeting from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Dec. 10 that will provide an update on rail services that is part of the effort to develop a 2025 statewide plan, PennDOT said.

A new service included in the plan is a second daily roundtrip train from Pittsburgh to New York City.

To increase ridership on the two daily Pennsylvanian trains that the state expects to have operating between Pittsburgh and New York City in late 2026, the Pittsburgh-based advocacy group Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail said the 2025 rail plan should identify and implement opportunities to increase the existing bus service to the stations along the route or start new connecting bus service.

Greensburg and Latrobe, where Amtrak's two Westmoreland County stations are located, are served by the Westmoreland County Transit Authority.

A tentative schedule for the Pennsylvanian has one train leaving Pittsburgh at 7 a.m. and another at 12:30 p.m. A westbound train destined for Pittsburgh would leave Harrisburg at 9:45 a.m. and another at 4:40 p.m., according to a PennDOT report.

Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail also wants renovations and upgrades to stations between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, as well as Erie, to be completed so that the facilities comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act by the time the second daily train begins operations. The new aero trains, which can run at speeds as high as 125 mph, are expected to be available in 2026, according to PennDOT.

The rail advocacy organization also wants the five-year plan to show how PennDOT and other state departments, like the tourism department, will work with local agencies to promote the enhanced passenger rail service after two Pennsylvanians are operational, said Mark Spada, president of Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail.

To pave the way for the second daily Pennsylvanian on the Keystone West corridor between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, PennDOT is investing $200 million in improvements to the rail lines owned by Norfolk Southern Corp. Eleven projects have been designed to help reduce the delays in passenger and freight trains along that route.

One of those projects will be the creation of a new main line track at Pittsburgh's Amtrak Station. It will bypass the station and serve as a second main line track, allowing Norfolk Southern to use two main line tracks for its freight trains during longer passenger stops at Pittsburgh, said Alexis Campbell a PennDOT spokeswoman.

Improvements also are planned to a set a signals, tracks and other rail appliances that are interlocked, allowing trains to switch or cross over to an adjacent track in order to pass another train, Campbell said. Those projects, which help prevent train collisions, are planned for Altoona, Johnstown and Pittsburgh, according to PennDOT.

___
(c)2024 The Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)
Visit The Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) at www.triblive.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.