Northeast / Mid - Atlantic 2040 Rail Map

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Nexis4Jersey

Nexis4Jersey

Service Attendant
Joined
Apr 16, 2010
Messages
172
Location
Along the Pascack Valley Line
In light of Amtrak's plan i thought i roll out the Northeastern master plan for Commuter Rail and DMU lines. Its mostly taken form the states 2020-30 plans so its not made up lines. Some is private Freight companies looking to get back into the Passenger rail business.

Blue is DMU

Dark Red is Electrified Lines

Green is Push - Pull Diesels

Orange is Intercity Rail lines

Virginia

Current system size : 90 mi

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 116

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 517

New Hampshire

Current system size : 0

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 43

New Jersey

Current system size : 570 mi

added Miles of DMU Rail : 160

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 78

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 567

added Miles of Intercity Rail : 133

Lower Hudson Valley

Current system size : 156 mi

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 185

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 47

Northeastern PA

Current system size : 0

added Miles of Diesel / Intercity Rail : 193

Southeastern PA

Current system size : 450

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 229

added Miles of DMU : 92

added Miles of Intercity Rail : 108

Amish Country

Current system size : 0

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 36

added Miles of Intercity Rail : 108

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 47

Connecticut

Current system size : 132

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 248

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 74

added Miles of Intercity Rail : 58

Massachusetts

Current system size : 368

added Miles of Intercity Rail : 270

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 102

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 342

Maine

Current system size : 0

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 29

Delaware

Current system size : 20 mi

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 249

Maryland

Current system size : 187 mi

added Miles of Diesel Rail : 89

Rhode Island

Current system size : 30

added Miles of Electrified Rail : 76

Current JCT cities

Newark

Philly

Rahway

Trenton

NYC

Boston

Springfield

Norristown

Lansdale

Baltimore

DC

Secaucus

Future JCT Cities

Harrisburg

Allentown

Philipsburg

Dover

New London

Worcester

Providence

Reading

Binghamton

Hartford

Waterbury

Danbury

Beacon

Wilmington

Fredrick

Newark,DE

Richmond

New Brunswick

Camden

Lynchburg

Northeast / Mid - Atlantic 2040 Rail Map

So any input? Questions?
 
Northeast / Mid - Atlantic 2040 Rail Map: I always love to read about these long-range plans for passenger or other rail service that, if they ever come to fruition, will do so long after many of us are probably dead. :(
 
Adding service in Northeast PA seems to come up every so often and then nothing happens (cost, I suppose). Parts of the Pocono Mountains serve as a bedroom community for New York and it's amazing how early the bus park-and-rides fill up in the morning.
 
Pastor Dave said:
Adding service in Northeast PA seems to come up every so often and then nothing happens (cost, I suppose). Parts of the Pocono Mountains serve as a bedroom community for New York and it's amazing how early the bus park-and-rides fill up in the morning.
Click to expand...
Actually some progress is being made on restoring service to the Poconos, but it is minimal. New Jersey has started work on restoring the first 5 miles or so of track that is needed to reach PA. But that still leaves things some distance from PA and at present I don't believe that NJ & PA have yet worked out an operating agreement.
 
AlanB said:
Pastor Dave said:
Adding service in Northeast PA seems to come up every so often and then nothing happens (cost, I suppose). Parts of the Pocono Mountains serve as a bedroom community for New York and it's amazing how early the bus park-and-rides fill up in the morning.
Click to expand...
Actually some progress is being made on restoring service to the Poconos, but it is minimal. New Jersey has started work on restoring the first 5 miles or so of track that is needed to reach PA. But that still leaves things some distance from PA and at present I don't believe that NJ & PA have yet worked out an operating agreement.
Click to expand...
I guess any progress is some progress. Some have suggested that Martz bus lines is powerful enough lobby against rail development from Scranton - Mt. Pocono - Stroudsburg - Delaware Water Gap. I don't know if that holds much water, but it would seem that train service from Scranton through the Poconos into New York would be well received.
 
Pastor Dave said:
AlanB said:
Pastor Dave said:
Adding service in Northeast PA seems to come up every so often and then nothing happens (cost, I suppose). Parts of the Pocono Mountains serve as a bedroom community for New York and it's amazing how early the bus park-and-rides fill up in the morning.
Click to expand...
Actually some progress is being made on restoring service to the Poconos, but it is minimal. New Jersey has started work on restoring the first 5 miles or so of track that is needed to reach PA. But that still leaves things some distance from PA and at present I don't believe that NJ & PA have yet worked out an operating agreement.
Click to expand...
I guess any progress is some progress. Some have suggested that Martz bus lines is powerful enough lobby against rail development from Scranton - Mt. Pocono - Stroudsburg - Delaware Water Gap. I don't know if that holds much water, but it would seem that train service from Scranton through the Poconos into New York would be well received.
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure that Martz is that powerful. But they have nothing to fear except for perhaps losing the incredible profits that they currently reap. They charge far more for a ticket than does a similar company on the I-78 run. But if Concord Bus lines can survive while sharing a station with Amtrak in Portland, Maine, then again they have nothing to fear except for maybe finally having to charge a fair amount for their tickets.

And I've no doubt that train service would be well received by most in the Poconos. Yes, there are the typical NIMBY's, but the majority want it. The Poconos is a bedroom community for NY. Many, many people commute to NY for work from the Poconos. My mom works for a new home building in Bartonsville. Easily 3 to 4 out of every 5 people shopping for a home want to know "when is the train going to finally reach here?" It's one of the most asked questions by people considering building a new home there.
 
Rant alert!

What is even more interesting is that a huge number of people commute to Morris and Essex counties from the Poconos area, and they have no Martz bus, so they just drive and clog up the highways. Meanwhile NJTransit is focused on Poconos - New York traffic (which is already served by Martz to some extent) to the exclusion of anyone that commutes to New Jersey. Afterall NJTransit being an NJ outfit, why would they want to worry about bringing those that work in NJ to NJ right? They are fully focused on taking Pennsylvanians to New York :) and then coming up with numbers like only a few hundred would use the service.

NJT has a similar attitude towards extension of service to Phillipsburg. None of their plans call for connecting bus service from NJT stations to business parks in the Somerville area for example. Afterall they appear not even to concede that such hopeless people exist who actually come to work in NJ!

This is one reason that support for the NJT only exclusive tunnel to New York is not as widespread in NJ as they thought it would be. No wonder that a significant number of rail advocates in NJ have had it upto their eyeballs with NJT RO and would rather see that outfit dismantled and replaced with something that is more in tune with customer service for people who live and work in NJ and not just the Northeast Corridor Line, for a change.
 

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