Amtrak announced with much fanfare this week in Johnstown that its second daily Pennsylvanian passenger train between Pittsburgh and New York (via Harrisburg) will return to service on Nov. 18. Some even are going as far as predicting that it will be a grand economic development choo-choo.
Woot-woot and all that but this has all the makings of another taxpayer-sponsored boondoggle.
It was a lack of ridership two decades ago that killed Amtrak’s second train. A dedicated lobbying effort by the usual suspects turned taxpayer pockets out to the tune of about $200 million for supposedly “necessary” upgrades to make adding back Train No. 2 feasible.
Per the Post-Gazette, state taxpayers reimbursed Norfolk Southern (which owns the trackage) for, among other things, “adding side tracks and signal improvements to allow freight trains to move out of the way for passenger trains.”
That, supposedly, to eliminate passenger train delays and, in the process, improve travel times between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg and on to New York City.
But guess what? According to Amtrak’s just-released all-aboard and arrival schedule, the trips back and forth between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg will take slightly longer — anywhere from a minute to 10 minutes, but still about 5 ½ hours each way.
We would be remiss not to remind yet again that you can drive from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg in just over 3 hours.
Clearly, Norfolk Southern got the better end of this spate of taxpayer-funded corporate wealthfare — to better support its freight business.
Ah, progress.
Additionally, there’s this, per the same P-G dispatch:
“Cambria County Commissioner Keith Rager said increasing service to two trains daily will give area residents an opportunity to work in Pittsburgh or Harrisburg and live in the Johnstown area. That fits with ongoing growth of housing and recreation opportunities in the Conemaugh Valley.
“[More train service] is a key to growing our economy,” he said. “It’s about giving people the freedom to choose where they live and giving Cambria County a larger role in that.”
Added Amy Bradley, president of the Cambria Regional Chamber, “This is about momentum. This is Johnstown being connected by access. This is Johnstown changing and being open for business.”
Let’s see, it takes Amtrak about 1:51 to travel from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. The return trip takes about 1:30, a rare instance of Amtrak being more efficient than driving. Driving takes about 1:50 each way.
Big game-changer there, eh?
And driving from Johnstown to Harrisburg takes about 2 1/2 hours. The Amtrak experience? Nearly 4 hours. The return trip takes about 3 1/2 hours.
Amtrak’s average slowcomotive speed along this route? Between 45 and 48 mph.
As the old saying goes, “I’m not late, I’m just running on train time.”
How is that any kind of enticement for Johnstown-area residents to work in either Pittsburgh or Harrisburg or for residents of either of those cities to work in Johnstown?
Indeed, passenger rail travel continues to have an aura of romance to it. But as even passenger-train loving Randal O’Toole, author of 2019’s “Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We love Are Not the Transportation We Need,” put it:
“I still love passenger trains, but I don’t think other people should have to subsidize my hobby.”
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
