Additional Service from New York/Philadelphia to Pennsylvania

[Septa9739]

I was a little confused about the reference to "Doylestown to Center City via Norristown" - I assume this is via the Stony Creek Branch? That would be a very circuitous routing.

That is correct. The routing would be very circuitous, but, because Lansdale to Doylestown is a branch, it is rather circuitous, does not offer close to a competitive travel time. I think it would be better for service, including to the Lehigh Valley, if Lansdale were established as a transfer with SEPTA Norristown trains continuing to Doylestown via the Stony Creek. This would facilitate better service from Doylestown to job centers in central Montgomery County. It would also allow people in e.g. Manayunk who are more likely to be carless to connect to service to the Lehigh Valley without hindering the less tolerant ridership traveling between Philly and the Lehigh Valley or vice versa. It also would add service to a piece of Montgomery County with wretched traffic. It is one of my more controversial opinions.

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

Or they could simply acquire appropriate DEMU sets. The world is absolutely awash with those these days. Indeed NJT should have acquired those instead of the ALP45DPs if they had half a brain and were not fixated on locomotive hauled trains more appropriate for perhaps the cornfields of Iowa and Nebraska.

I guess the issue here would be getting ones that can meet FRA crashworthiness standards, which has always been an issue with off the shelf European equipment.

 

[jis]

I guess the issue here would be getting ones that can meet FRA crashworthiness standards, which has always been an issue with off the shelf European equipment.

It is no more an issue than getting the Venture cars based on Viaggio was. The alternate Tier I specification makes it relatively easy to get off the shelf European equipment certified. Usually the more time consuming exercise is figuring out hot meet the Make in USA requirement of federal funding. In any case we even have that figured out for Stadler FLIRTs and KISSs certified for operation in the US and they both have multi-mode versions available.