When will Keystones resume?

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Oreius

OBS Chief
Joined
Jun 5, 2012
Messages
695
I’m just wondering when they will restart the Keystones again—at least the Harrisburg to Philadelphia portion. I want to hopefully take a long-distance trip to Florida later in summer, but would like to go from Elizabethtown.
 
Wolf is (hopefully) going to start reopening the state May 8. It will probably start off by relaxing the shut-in (with precautions in place) for the northwest and north central counties. Philly will be the last place to open up. I know many people ride the Keystones between Harrisburg (especially Lancaster) and Philadelphia. All the counties the Keystones pass through (with the exception of Dauphin) have high numbers of cases.
 
I'm not sure why this has its own thread but the Keystone and Pennsylvanian cancellations are extended through 5/31.
 
They may be running deadheads to keep the tracks "clean".
Or for crew qualifications. After a six-week long transit strike in Edmonton we took steeple-cab electric 2001 out for a trip grinding grade crossings to make sure that signals worked. The union okayed it as a one day exception for safety reasons. The engineer and fireman were both electrical engineers. The flagman was the system's Marketing Officer. Perhaps the non-revenue train in PA was doing both purposes: qualification and signal safety. As I lost a couple of friends in the Nisqually crash, I hope they are doing both tasks.
 
Just found out: Wolf has extended “The Great 2020 Shut-In” until June 4 for all counties in the “Red” Phase. This includes all counties served by the Keystones. He did state some more counties would move to “Yellow” in the foreseeable future.
 
Just found out: Wolf has extended “The Great 2020 Shut-In” until June 4 for all counties in the “Red” Phase. This includes all counties served by the Keystones. He did state some more counties would move to “Yellow” in the foreseeable future.

The reality is that nothing is going to change. The virus isn't going to give up, and go back home (China?) on June 3.

I know the feelings here (AF), but the virus was worse in NYC, and you can see how NYC residents tried to escape it by heading west, bringing the virus with them, first nailing NJ, and then nailing eastern PA (the "red zones"). In some ways its better that trains like the Keystone stopped running. That helped slow down the NYC migration westward.
 
Unfortunately, that is the truth. Berks, Northampton, Lebanon, and Luzerne counties in PA saw an explosion of cases in early April. This is because of the counties lying on the I-78 corridor; in the case of Luzerne, the I-80 corridor. Many people now living in Reading (a city of 90,000 people) are from NYC and travel constantly between the two cities. I live in Lebanon, and have seen many NY license plates in the city.
 
There is good news. Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, is moving into the Yellow phase next Friday, as well as the central and western counties The Pennsylvanian serves. Why can’t Amtrak restart the service initially from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh? As I said, Amtrak could restart the Keystones between Harrisburg and Philadelphia only for now, and just run a few trains a day until demand improves and those counties are cleared.
 
There is good news. Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, is moving into the Yellow phase next Friday, as well as the central and western counties The Pennsylvanian serves. Why can’t Amtrak restart the service initially from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh? As I said, Amtrak could restart the Keystones between Harrisburg and Philadelphia only for now, and just run a few trains a day until demand improves and those counties are cleared.
Pennsylvania will need to determine when it can run. It's a state supported route.
 
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