Scranton-Hoboken Railway (York, Hazleton, Stroudsburg: buy, living in, cost)

[61scout80]

Originally Posted by MovingOutOfNJ

Food For thought... train from Scranton to Hoboken would stop in Newark.... Easy access to Liberty Int'l Airport.. Can you say.. cheaper flights anyone? gone are the days where you need to pay $200 for a connector flight to a major airport.

We have been getting smoking deals into AVP from PHX. For a few of our trips it was actually cheaper to go into avoca then any of the bigger airports in the region. We just bought plane tickets for this august and it was the same price to fly from phx to Newark to avp as it was to fly from phx-phl, phx-Newark or phx-jfk. the only thing that sucks is a 3 hour layover in Newark. but in the end it would probably take the same amount of time to drive from Newark to bear creek.

Avoca is a great airport. security is never backed up, you get your luggage fast and you can generally have the rental car in no time as well. with the 2 of us it takes 15 minutes from touchdown to I-81. one gets the car, the other the luggage. when we fly home to phoenix it usually takes more then an hour from touchdown to getting in the car. I LOVE AVP!

my only wish with AVP is a restaurant behind security. I like to have a beer and relax before my flight, but the restaurant is outside security. I would spend the whole time staring at my watch to make sure i didn't miss my flight if i was to sit outside security.

[ki0eh]

As soon as the extra tunnel's done under the Hudson (already sort of under way construction wise I understand), Scranton-Hoboken would presumably become Scranton-Manhattan.

[61scout80]

Originally Posted by MovingOutOfNJ

From What i've seen.. The people I've spoken to in wilkes barre seem to think riding the bus has some kind of disease attached to it.. people scoff as if to say.. PSH. I'd never take the bus!

the same stigma about busses exists here. ironically enough the recently opened light rail has exceeded all expectations with ridership. the light rail looks like a bus to me, so i'm not sure why its so excepted.

When i first moved here they were ripping up the streets to put in what is essentially a trolley. I always found it odd that wilkes-barre used to have a trolley system, but they ripped it up to make streets....

[blip]

Originally Posted by 61scout80

the same stigma about busses exists here. ironically enough the recently opened light rail has exceeded all expectations with ridership. the light rail looks like a bus to me, so i'm not sure why its so excepted.

When i first moved here they were ripping up the streets to put in what is essentially a trolley. I always found it odd that wilkes-barre used to have a trolley system, but they ripped it up to make streets....

Neat pic, though that looks like an electric bus or "trolley-bus" with overhead wires...

The stigma against buses is kinda weird, though there are reasons for it: the designs of buses, confusing routes and transfers, lack of right-of-way so you get stuck in single occupant-vehicle traffic, slow boarding and unboarding with fares paid on the bus, padded fabric seats on some that leave you smelling like, uh, bus. etc..

A lot of these are easily addressable though, and usually still cheaper than rail. I love rail for sure, but BRT may be a better baby step towards better transit.

[blip]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

As soon as the extra tunnel's done under the Hudson (already sort of under way construction wise I understand), Scranton-Hoboken would presumably become Scranton-Manhattan.

I may be missing some more recent news, but sounds like that project is still a ways off as well Access to the Region's Core-Mass Transit Tunnel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Though probably much further along than the NEPA train..

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by MovingOutOfNJ

From What i've seen.. The people I've spoken to in wilkes barre seem to think riding the bus has some kind of disease attached to it.. people scoff as if to say.. PSH. I'd never take the bus!

If you've seen the people hanging around Public Square waiting for the buses, you'd know why most people don't want to ride the bus.... It looks like 90% of them are there to pick up welfare checks and check in with their parole officers...

[blip]

Originally Posted by MovingOutOfNJ

Instead of it being COLTS and LCTA. they should implement a NEPA Transporation Authority .. or a NEPATA if you will lol. stream line buses (and hopefully trains) going between the two cities.

The Martz Buses are charing 10 bucks to go between scranton and wilkes bare. thats a rip off.. thats at best a $4 train ride.

Agreed on consolidating-- it's one, not-so-large metro area. Kinda dysfunctional to have 2 transit agencies. Politically, I bet this is near impossible; the counties can't even agree on what to call the metro area.

Yeah, that's too much for a single trip on the Martz. Though they do have monthly commuter passes which make it more like $2.50 per ride.

[olbluesguy]

Originally Posted by go phillies

If you've seen the people hanging around Public Square waiting for the buses, you'd know why most people don't want to ride the bus.... It looks like 90% of them are there to pick up welfare checks and check in with their parole officers...

Tsk, Tsk,....What a way to stereotype the nice people who ride the bus.
Get all of that as you drove by did you?
You wouldnt like it if I were to say that 90% of Philly fans were No class idiots would you?
And I didn't get that from driving by, It's from the sports pages over the years.

[go phillies]

Originally Posted by olbluesguy

Tsk, Tsk,....What a way to stereotype the nice people who ride the bus.
Get all of that as you drove by did you?
You wouldnt like it if I were to say that 90% of Philly fans were No class idiots would you?
And I didn't get that from driving by, It's from the sports pages over the years.

I work downtown....I take walks everyday and see the trash hanging around the bus stops on the square on a daily basis....chain-smoking 18 year old girls pushing strollers with their hip-hop boyfriends with their hats on sideways and pants hanging off their arses....many shouting matches with profanities....there's more second-hand smoke out there than in the smokiest bar in town....you can't walk by there without some yahoo trying to bum money or cigarettes from you (even if you're a non-smoker)....

[ScranBarre]

Originally Posted by go phillies

I work downtown....I take walks everyday and see the trash hanging around the bus stops on the square on a daily basis....chain-smoking 18 year old girls pushing strollers with their hip-hop boyfriends with their hats on sideways and pants hanging off their arses....many shouting matches with profanities....there's more second-hand smoke out there than in the smokiest bar in town....you can't walk by there without some yahoo trying to bum money or cigarettes from you (even if you're a non-smoker)....

I'll back up Go Phillies here. I, too, am downtown during the work week, and other than the Thursday Farmers' Markets (which I believe are starting back up next week?!) most of the "element" that loiters around the square near the old Hallmark store is less than idyllic.