Quote:
Originally Posted by Skintreesnail
I can only speak as a Philly resident; I think given the growth of the Lehigh Valley, the extension of the Lansdale line out past Quakertown to Bethlehem/Allentown would be very beneficial. Also, while Reading hasn't seen the same growth, the traffic on 422 is horrible due to the population density along that corridor. Extending the Norristown line towards Reading would help relieve that. SEPTA is already working on an extension of the Norristown high speed line to King of Prussia which will help, but I still think the regional rail extension is needed on top of that. Problem is that Norfolk Southern is fighting it and I'd expect they would want to electrify the service (septa regional rail is all electrified), since that was the reason they discontinued the original service to Reading; it used diesel engines after Norristown. West Chester would also be nice (322 and route 1 get pretty backed up) and SEPTA is already building an extension to Wawa and I believe are doing studies for continuing out to West Chester. That line was electric all the way to west Chester, so not sure why they cut it to begin with.
The Northeast corridor extension is an interesting idea but I don't know if Amtrak would fight that since they want to run more trains. I always thought that Philadelphia and NYC are close enough where it would make sense to kind of integrate into a single massive regional network (I know, doubtful). Local trains on the NEC between the two cities could run on this network on the outer tracks while Amtrak runs express trains down the middle 2 tracks. this would replace the current NJT and SEPTA lines that currently run on it (you currently need to change trains at Trenton between the two systems). NJT is looking into resuming service out to Easton in the Lehigh Valley and the current North Trenton SEPTA line could tie into the NJT Somerville line using existing track. I also read Scranton PA is working to get a NJT line extension there, but Scranton is pretty isolated due to the mountains.
The others listed are nice to have but not sure if the ridership would be there.
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For the South Jersey ones, the PRSL ROW is largely intact and the layout of the region -- as in the whole Philly metro -- supports high commuter rail ridership. The River Line linking Camden and Trenton has been a success, and there's ongoing work to extend it to Glassboro. What I want to see is all those old PRSL routes (and the PRR route to Toms River) returned to passenger use, and eventually tied into the Regional Rail network.
That is of course in addition to extremely useful extensions such as those to Quakertown (and eventually Allentown), Atglen (which used to be a major junction where the PRR passenger and freight main lines from Philly to Harrisburg diverged), Pottstown, West Chester, and Newtown, and into the fast-growing area around Kennett Square, all of which have been proposed amongst transit activists since forever. There are also some routes I've dreamed of, e.g. to Middletown, DE, up the Perkiomen valley, and through an underserved part of Northeast Philly that would likewise prove useful.
As others have noted, Philadelphia, moreso than any other city in the US, has the infrastructural base for a high-quality S-Bahn system. The problem here is mainly one of poor administration (which is, to be fair, a common problem throughout the US).