People who want to see a passenger train run between Scranton and New York City again began planning its revival more than three decades ago.
As of today, the planning endures, but this time it’s more concrete, solidly funded and focused on actually producing a thriving train route.
Numerous questions remain unanswered.
Here are the clearest answers available to frequently asked questions based on what we know now.
Q: When will I be able to board a passenger train in Scranton or along the route to get to New York City?
A: Unknown, but a startup definitely remains quite a few years off.
In a March 2023 analysis of options, Amtrak, the nation’s largest passenger railroad, suggested the train could start running no sooner than 2028.
That won’t happen because the state Department of Transportation’s service development plan isn’t scheduled to be ready until the middle of 2029. That plan will detail what’s necessary to get a train up and running.
If the Federal Railroad Administration approves the plan, the project will move into preliminary engineering, final design and then construction.
Construction is expected to take at least a couple of years.
“We are definitely moving aggressively through this process in order to get this over the finish line,” said Angela Watson, PennDOT’s director of rail, freight, ports and waterways, during a recent webinar.
Q: How much will a trip cost?
A: Undetermined. During the webinar, PennDOT consultant Jeff Stiles said the train will use Amtrak’s fare schedules.
Amtrak wants to run profitable routes but must compete with buses and car travel.
For example, a roundtrip Martz bus from Scranton to New York City leaving today and returning Monday, costs $65, according to an online fare schedule.
Round trip by car depends partly on fuel efficiency, current gasoline prices and traffic. Transporting a group of people in a privately owned car generally costs a lot less than transporting the same group by bus or train.
But for one person driving a car, train or bus travel may make more sense when you factor in tolls and parking costs.
Bridge or tunnel tolls into New York City cost between about $15 and $17 if you have E-Z Pass and $23 if you toll by license plate, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
New York City parking can easily run $40 a day or more, less on weekends.
Q: How long will a trip between Scranton and New York City take?
A: Once again, competition matters.
“Our goal is to be comparable to somebody that would be driving, and that is roughly under the three-hour mark,” Watson said.
Martz buses require at least 2 hours, 25 minutes and as long as 3 hours and 5 minutes, according to its schedules. That depends on traffic and number of stops.
Q: Where will the train stop?
A: Unsettled and part of the current service development plan study, but Amtrak has dropped plenty of hints. Besides Scranton and New York City, Amtrak’s 2023 analysis showed potential stops in Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania and Blairstown, Andover, Dover, Montclair, Morristown and Newark in New Jersey.
A PowerPoint presentation during the recent webinar showed similar stops.
In response to a question, Stiles did not rule out a potential stop at Tobyhanna, home to the Tobyhanna Army Depot.
Because Amtrak runs inter-city train routes and not a commuter routes, the proposed train may have fewer stops, Stiles said. Trip time may matter.
“Some stations may not be selected, because we need to keep in mind that given (three-hours or less) trip time and so forth,” Watson said.
In Scranton, the train will stop at a new station built near the Electric City Trolley Museum and Steamtown National Historic Site. It won’t stop at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, the converted train station where passenger trains used to stop.
In New York City, the train will stop at Penn Station in the city’s midtown.
Q: How often will the trains run?
A: Past studies have always assumed at least three trips each way on weekdays, but planners say that’s still undetermined, too. New Jersey Transit and Amtrak operate passenger trains on the tracks closest to the city. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority operates freight trains on the Pennsylvania side. Planners will have to integrate the new train and existing schedules.
“I think in previous studies for inter-city service were three round trips a day, but that could change as the process continues down through planning,” Stiles said.
Q: What about construction and operating costs?
A: Undetermined. Long ago estimates started at $200 million, jumped to $350 million, then $551 million in a 2006 New Jersey Transit study.
In a 2021 study that a local railroad authority paid Amtrak to do, Amtrak came back with a $1.4 billion estimate.
Importantly, the Federal Railroad Administration typically covers 80% of construction costs, leaving the rest to states and local entities.
New Jersey, Pennsylvania or both will have to pick up operating costs. The 2023 Amtrak study estimates the states would have to cover as much as $5.8 million a year.
Q: How about extending service to other cities such as Binghamton, N.Y., Allentown or Philadelphia?
A: Multiple people from the public asked about other destinations during the webinar, but planning officials repeatedly said the Scranton-to-New York City train must come first.
“Right now, we are focused on getting the service to Scranton,” said Todd Euston, an engineer with KCI, PennDOT’s passenger rail management consulting firm, and the agency’s project manager for this train. “As part of our alternatives analysis, other things may be discussed, but right now, we're dialed in on Scranton.”
Q: We’ve heard talk and speculation about this project for so long. How likely is it to happen?
A: OK, this answer will take a while.
The last passenger train between Scranton and New York City ran on Jan. 5,1970. So, for more than 56 years, people have relied solely on highways to travel between the cities and destinations in between.
Skepticism about changing that is easy to find and certainly warranted, considering how long planning the revival has taken.
This time around, planners see many big differences that matter.
● Chief among them: money.
Decades ago, train planners relied on occasional federal earmarks or local appropriations to pay for studies or upgrade certain existing tracks. Sporadic and inconsistent, these appropriations often relied on veteran legislators like the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and former congressmen like Joseph McDade and Paul Kanjorski.
When it became effective in November 2021, President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act altered the landscape.
The act allocated $66 billion to upgrade the nation’s passenger rail system, including $24 billion for projects on the Northeast Corridor and $12 billion for inter-city passenger and high-speed rail projects.
That’s a lot more money dedicated to upgrading passenger rail than ever before. This project was awarded $5.1 million just to develop the service plan.
● Second, this project is one of five nationwide chosen to develop a service plan.
Essentially, the plan, when it’s finished in 2029, will detail what it will take to restore the service.
● Third, previous planning produced a 2008 assessment that concluded the project will have no significant environmental impact. The federal Environmental Protection Agency agreed.
Though some critics — and there are a few along the route in New Jersey — dismiss the need for the train, this kind of environmental finding matters a great deal. It means planners probably won’t have to overly worry about lessening environmental effects, which should keep costs lower.
Because Amtrak envisions an intercity service rather than a commuter one, there will be fewer stops, which means less of an environmental effect, Stiles said.
“We're just updating anything that may have changed so that is serving as a real solid base of information for moving this project through the corridor ID program,” he said.
All the money spent on other previous studies helps, too.
“These past studies have been reviewed and are used as a current reference for this project,” said Harrison Warran, a PennDOT transportation specialist. “These studies are crucial as they ensure that we do not need to reinvent the wheel.”
● Fourth, government agencies own the right-of-way on the entire 140-mile route. The agencies are the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, New Jersey Transit, the New Jersey Department of Transportation and Amtrak.
Attorney Larry Malski, who runs the regional railroad authority has repeatedly said public ownership of the right-of-way is a huge advantage, an argument Amtrak officials echo. Public ownership means no need to negotiate access to tracks with private railroad operators.
By the way, Malski rode that last passenger train between the cities. A former lawyer for Conrail, he has advocated for restoring the service since before he was named as executive director of Lackawanna County’s former railroad authority in December 1984.
● Fifth, the FRA, which controls the federal cash, appears to remain enthusiastic.
Biden, a Scranton native and enthusiastic Amtrak rider during his days as a U.S. senator for Delaware, once excitedly boasted to former U.S. Sen. Bob Casey about fulfilling a promise to get Casey money for the train.
President Donald Trump hasn’t shown the same enthusiasm — at least not publicly — but his FRA has.
During the recent webinar, FRA official Adam Wroblewski said he’s “serving as the project manager on this important project.”
“The Federal Railroad Administration shares PennDOT’S excitement to advance this Scranton to NYC passenger rail service restoration project,” Wroblewski said.
Euston pointed out the FRA “has actually used some of our early work products as guidance for other (railroad) corridors to follow.”
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-Luzerne, a close Trump ally, has publicly backed the project.
Trump has curbed spending on other environmentally friendlier initiatives, but so far he hasn’t tried to undo money for train service expansion.
“I mean, as far as I'm aware, there hasn't been any indication that the program's going away,” Watson said in response to a webinar question.
● Sixth, anyone who drives Interstate 80 toward New York City may have a horror story about traffic. It is getting increasingly congested.
“Right now, we are in a crucial era where more commuters and recreational leisure travelers in this area are looking for alternatives to driving,” Warren said. “Some current drivers for this corridor restoration include further congestion of surrounding roads and highways, such as Interstate 80. There are some geographical limitations on road expansion for some of these areas, which cannot guarantee reductions in road traffic.”
Beyond that, the corridor’s population keeps expanding. One in 16 Americans live in the region along the route and the population is expected to grow by 9% by 2050, according to planners.
● Seventh, Amtrak’s 2023 study, using past estimates, projected 451,800 to 473,500 riders by 2030.
Amtrak officials have said that’s a sizable new ridership. They have publicly and wholeheartedly backed the train, though the agency’s leadership has substantially turned over.
● Eighth, New Jersey Transit is in the midst of extending its existing service 7.3 miles onto the famed 28-mile Lackawanna Cutoff. The cutoff is a ramrod straight stretch where trains can travel at the highest speeds without worrying about vehicle traffic crossings. Tracks there were removed in the 1980s. The extension reduces the cost of a full restoration.
● Ninth, at least for now, Mike Carroll serves as Pennsylvania’s transportation secretary under Gov. Josh Shapiro. Carroll, a Luzerne County native, and Shapiro staunchly support the project.
“The governor knows, and I know that we have the historic opportunity to build infrastructure that will connect our communities, spur economic development and create opportunities for generations to come,” Carroll said during the webinar.
