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FRA just announced the NYC - Scranton route via the Cutoff is moving to Step 1 of the CorridorID program. This is great news for the restoration of the line.

First blast of the western portal of Roseville tunnel was conducted around noon today.

They are blasting the western portal to shorten the overall length to 1,000 ft.

I am hearing that they will begin blasting at the Roseville tunnel next week to shorten then length to 1,000 ft

Yes, they are co-sponsoring the FRA application with Amtrak and the PA side. they are on-board with the project. The proposed train schedule done in the Amtrak report outlines how / when Amtrak would use those lines. Cant imagine Amtrak could figure this out without the help of NJT.

Nope, and the report indeed includes zero consideration for this, apart from explicitly calling out that the cost estimates do not include any viaduct (or any other part of the cut-off) restoration work. Then again, Roman aqueduct bridges are still standing 2000 years later so… The Amtrak report di...

I'm not sure why NJT would sink any money into this (or build an MOW facility for a service Amtrak would be running). Andover is getting done, the rest would be up to Amtrak (since PNRRA presumably can't spend money in NJ). A 20% local match would be needed, though I wonder if NJT could claim that ...

NJT is rebuilding to Andover. It sounds like Amtrak will handle everything west from Andover to Scranton. Amtrak does not have to wait for NJT to finish their work to start theirs. Sure, the released report doesn't include the western part; that's likely to end up as an add on. Yes, if the project ...

Amtrak study says no earlier than 2028. I’d say you wouldn’t see anything until the 30s as we know it takes forever get anything done nowadays. I’d love to be proven wrong though.

Big items would be the restoration of the viaducts and getting the new stations built.

All the stars are aligning to finally get this line restored. Just have to hope now that the FRA selects this route as a Corridor ID this summer

Absolutely right. The traffic isn't there. The travel time between Scranton and NYC by highway would be an hour faster. The usefulness of this line is much more than the commuting aspect. So many debate the reactivation of the cutoff solely on the commuting figures. Do I plan on commuting to work? ...

Amtrak's plan calls for 3 daily NY Penn - Scranton OK Mr. Volpini, let's add The Westerner to the schedule; '60 vintage DL&W, save The Owl, is back. But still, rebuilding almost 100 miles of present "Class 0" and 1 up to 4 just does not represent prudent use of public funds. Joe will ...

Bids are again delayed, now into next year, on the hopes more federal funding is approved to finish the Andover segment I feel like NJT is purposely kicking this down the road in hopes that Amtrack will pick up the project. With the infrastructure bill now passed it seems likely. Out of the many Co...

Would it drastically increase the cost? I am genuinely interested to know. I was thinking it would be cheaper by just blasting a new cut in, but I’m not an expert. Surely the technology as was mentioned above is far better then a century ago

As I said before, daylight the damn tunnel already, historic preservation be damned. If the rehabilitation is that much of an issue to the point where it’s not feasible to fix I’d rather it be removed then to shelve the project altogether. It’s not like it’s easily accessible or even “legal” to visi...