by 2nd trick op
An open meeting was held in Bethlehem, Penna, this week regarding possible restoration of rail passenger service to the Greater Lehigh Valley; here is a link to the story in the Allentown Morning Call.
In reading the article, I'm particularly dismayed by the short-sight and lack of familiarity with the real-world limitations of all the participants. This area had limited commuter service to New York (via CNJ) until late 1967, and to Philadelphia (via SEPTA/RDG) until the early 1980s, but no one was willing to pony up the bucks to sustain them.
Now that the need has clearly been demonstrated, politics, and the desire of the various participants for a system geared to their own terms, are likely to impede any solutions that workable in the immediate future.
Perhaps the greatest single roadblock is an invisible one; the presence of a state boundary. Thus, one faction talks of reviving a service that would involve an unwieldy consortium of state, local and municipal bureaucracies, while the Light Rail crowd pushes a capital-intensive project that won't get out of the Lehigh Valley. Still another group continues to push for highway expansion, and regards easier access to the cities as a threat to the community's remaining open space.
Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done here, and the format of the article itself seems to generate more heat than light.
In reading the article, I'm particularly dismayed by the short-sight and lack of familiarity with the real-world limitations of all the participants. This area had limited commuter service to New York (via CNJ) until late 1967, and to Philadelphia (via SEPTA/RDG) until the early 1980s, but no one was willing to pony up the bucks to sustain them.
Now that the need has clearly been demonstrated, politics, and the desire of the various participants for a system geared to their own terms, are likely to impede any solutions that workable in the immediate future.
Perhaps the greatest single roadblock is an invisible one; the presence of a state boundary. Thus, one faction talks of reviving a service that would involve an unwieldy consortium of state, local and municipal bureaucracies, while the Light Rail crowd pushes a capital-intensive project that won't get out of the Lehigh Valley. Still another group continues to push for highway expansion, and regards easier access to the cities as a threat to the community's remaining open space.
Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done here, and the format of the article itself seems to generate more heat than light.
