Improvements planned for Harrisburg-to-Philadelphia line
President Barack Obama announced Thursday that Pennsylvania will be receiving more than $26 million of the $8 million federal stimulus grant for high speed passenger rail service.
The eastern half of the so-called “Keystone Corridor” that runs from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, will be receiving $25.6 million of the money being dished out by the federal government for the construction of high-speed passenger rail lines.
The funding won’t make the trip from Harrisburg to Philadelphia any faster, but it will go towards the elimination of three grade crossings in Lancaster County, the construction of two new bridges, and improvements to the tracks and signals.
Lancaster Train Station
“It’s a huge benefit for the Commonwealth, and we should be thankful for that grant,” said Representative Joseph Markosek (D-Allegheny), chair of the House Transportation Committee. “I’ve always said that any stimulus money should be spent on infrastructure because that’s the most job-intensive way to spend the money.”
Governor Rendell also welcomed the grant. He said the projects will help increase ridership, improve competitiveness, and create jobs over the next two years.
An additional $750,000 in stimulus money will be used to determine if high speed passenger rail service on the western portion of the Keystone Corridor – between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh – is possible.
The White House said in a statement that the project is expected to create or save tens of thousands of jobs, but the government is no longer tracking the jobs created or saved by the stimulus after several controversies surrounding the reporting of that data.
In addition to the $8 billion in stimulus money that will get the project off the ground, the plan also includes an additional $1 billion per year for five years in the federal budget, described as a “down-payment to jump-start the program” in the White House press release.
The eastern Keystone Corridor already meets the standards of a “high-speed” line, with trains that run at a maximum speed of 110 MPH, but the average speed along the line is closer to 70 MPH. In reality, the 104-mile trip takes between 100 and 120 minutes, depending on what time of day you travel, according to Amtrak timetables.
Taxpayer-funded rail breaks down to the many subsidizing a service that few use, said Randal O’Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
“Interstates paid for themselves out of gas taxes, and most Americans use them almost every day. Moderate or high-speed rail would require everyone to subsidize trains that would serve only a small elite,” said O’Toole.
Erin Waters, a spokeswoman for PennDOT, said the department believes there is a strong future for rail travel, both in the Commonwealth and nationally.
“These stations are being used, and people are learning that it’s a great service. I think the more people try it out, the more they will see how viable it is,” said Ms. Waters.
Ridership on the eastern portion of the Keystone Corridor has increased from 890,000 in 2006 to 1.2 million in 2009 after improvements costing $145.5 million were used to upgrade stations and increase top speeds of trains on the line.
The cost of a one-way ticket for a trip from Harrisburg Station to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is $23. The same trip by car – assuming 25 MPG and a fuel cost of $2.71 per gallon (the current average for the Harrisburg area) – would cost $11.49.
According to Amtrak data, the Keystone Corridor is the fourth most traveled rail corridor in the country, with more than a million passengers a year. However, that total is barely ten percent of the ridership on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which carries more than 10 million people between Washington D.C. and Boston each year.
