A 45-year-old plan to end Harrisburg's commuter problem – how little has changed

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A 45-year-old plan to end Harrisburg's commuter problem – and how little has changed



By Nick Malawskey | nmalawskey@pennlive.com
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on September 08, 2014 at 9:30 AM, updated September 08, 2014 at 11:50 AM

In September 1969, the Mayor of New Cumberland, D. Russell Barr, recognized that the suburban development of the West Shore was creating a major problem – namely the daily commute in and from Harrisburg, which was snarling area roads.

Barr told the Sunday Patriot-News he was "'tired [of] hearing everyone complain about traffic congestion' and seeing public officials 'criticized each and every time some change is made to improve the deplorable problem.'"

So Barr – who was himself an engineer – came up with his own solution, a 90-mile-per-hour monorail system that would link East and West shores, stretching from Mechanicsburg to Hershey, with northern spurs through Maryville and Dauphin, and southern spurs to New Cumberland and Middletown.

He called his idea the "Harrisburg Area Rapid Transit System" and proposed using the existing railroad right-of-ways and electrical systems to build the elevated monorail, which would have been automatically controlled by those then-new-fangled (my words, not his) computers.

Barr mapped out his proposed routes (which included stations, and lines through the then-largely-empty townships of Lower Allen, Hampden, and Swatara) and sent his proposal out to area leaders for review.

Oliver M. Fanning, who at the time was head of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (who found this little gem in their archives) said Barr's proposal had merit, and recommended trying to establish a demonstration model, possibly running from Middletown to Harrisburg.

"I don't think we have that many commuters yet, but the need is coming and we should start on a part of this, even though the time is not yet here for the entire system," he said in written remarks.

If this whole idea sounds somewhat familiar, it should – proposals for some form of mass commuter transit across the Susquehanna have been floating for decades, but have remained effectively a mirage for those stranded in the deserts of the interstates – always close and yet tantalizing out of reach, disappearing at that first finger-touch.

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