Lackawanna Cutoff Passenger Service Restoration

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Nov 11, 2022 7:17 pm May we not lose sight that, according to a Wiki article, Joe had left Scranton for Wilmington during 1953 at age eleven.

His father needed a job and found one in Wilmington. I have no idea what his father did for a living, but I do know that my father, at that time, had piles of drivers (hauling cars) and factory workers and engineers working for him at the time. After the mines were pretty much dead (take out any more and the city would have collapsed), the city was slowly dying. Cutting off train service likely accelerated that, but lots of people were commuting from near Scranton to NYC daily. Add Steamtown, the area ski resorts and the like, and train service done right could really help.

What really hurt Scranton was the closing of the Erie Lackawanna shops in the late 70s. They were a major employer and kept many employed providing services and materials for the shops. Hard to recover from a gut punch like that.

THAT, the closing of Scranton Lace, loss of train service, big reduction in freight rail service though much of that has come back. When I got out of college in 77, only jobs were in hospitals or the 2 main colleges, so many of us had to move away.

As NJT is on record that service to/from Andover won't start until 2027 at the earliest, I will assume that finishing the Andover-Slateford Pa. segment won't happen until the 2030s regardless of whom takes on that project. There just isn't any urgency aside from Brother Malski and his memories of riding the Lake Cities as a youth and that only gets one so far at the federal funding trough.

In the year 2525, . ..

From Hyatt Regency Greenwich---

Mr.Decell, considering we have a report here that track is now being laid, it will take four years to lay eight miles of such?

track is easy. tunnel rebuilding, less so. Getting anything done at NJT ,near impossible.

Don't forget that construction can only happen for a few months out of the year due to endangered species in the area. And indeed the tunnel work is the most complex and lengthy.

Gilbert, I mustered out as an E-5 so need need to call me Mister. As to the timeline, it has taken NJT nearly a decade to clear vegetation to Andover and install 3 unconnected sections of ballast, ties and track. An arthritic snail on crutches can move faster than NJT.

Lest we forget, they are doing this job in their "spare time", with no federal funding. It's not in the budget.

I think that they don't want this project but have to look like they are doing it. I also figure that a public railroad (pick any of the big ones) could do this entire project, double tracked, in one year - NJT figures on several decades.

Any of the big boys could get herzog or rj Corman to fix it in a year.
Brightline could, too.

Give Brightline a right of way, few grade crossings, some challenges, and they'd be done all the way to Scranton in a couple years.

Brightline is the wave of the future. I wish they'd take over Empire Service as well. Could you imagine them on the NEC, too?