Color me confused.
First, the head of the local transit agency
drives to the Amtrak station, then complains he can't find a place to park. Next, we find he's not even going there to catch a train...instead, he has a "meeting." If parking there is so notoriously bad, why schedule a meeting there? Or why not, I don't know, take a BUS?
But assuming he didn't gin up the story for the sake of his argument, let's examine the solution he proposes:
He wants commuters to pay more than $50 a month for the privilege of parking
a mile away from the train station. Seriously? I mean, yeah there's a shuttle bus that runs every 20 minutes during the morning rush, providing relatively easy connections to most of the morning Philly-bound trains. But good luck catching
that shuttle back to the garage if your train gets back to Lancaster after 6 p.m, as most Philly commuters would do. So it's either a 10-block walk back to your car, or take a taxi. (None of the transit agency's other bus routes provide a logical connection.) Plus, that shuttle is only free to monthly pass-holders, so the whole arrangement has little appeal to occasional riders.
Anyhow, I know it's not the transit agency's responsibility to find a solution to Amtrak's parking problems, but this arrangement stretches credibility to the point that it's at risk of scaring away train riders. ("Didja hear parking there is so bad you have to park a mile away from the station?")