Amtrak Pennsylvanian service may end (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: fit in, home, transfer)

[Mtl-Cns]

Originally Posted by JayTwila

Believe it or not I actually agree with you. But then it we must ask ourselves, at what point does a plug get pulled? Because otherwise we'll end up subsidizing all money-losing operations. So it seems the choices are state subsidies or total privatization. I could live with either Ayn Rand's vision or Bernie Sander's vision for America. But I'd like us to pick one and live with it.

I guess my point is profit is a terrible way to measure this. I think a better term would be return on investment. All transportation is a money losing game. Look at what happens to the price of a personal automobile as it depreciates over time. If you look at a car as turning a profit somehow, it doesn't take too long to see that a car is a terrible investment. So is a highway -- it needs constant repairs and maintenance, it's never big enough to handle the capacity that it needs to. Same with railroads, only they are unique in that the infrastructure was probably a lot better 80 years ago around here than it is now.

I also think modern Pittsburghers have a totally different take on trains than someone in the New York or Philly metro would, for example, just because their rail infrastructure has been maintained and expanded over the past several decades. It's actually a viable way of transportation there. (Check out the system maps for NJ Transit, Metro North, SEPTA, etc...) I just think it's a mistake to say "well to hell with this train, it's too slow and loses money" rather than "what steps should we be taking to make it better so that we can be a part of a better transportation network that is so well-used on the east coast?" Let's face it, better service is not coming for our airport any time soon. I guess I just don't want to see us left with the options of only a $600 flight or a megabus. Just a hypothesis, but I really think Pittsburgh would be a very different place if it were a 3-4 hour train ride from the center of Manhattan. Not that I don't love it here now, it's just , it would be interesting to see what it would be like.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I think it is horrible service as it stands now. As far as I am concerned we never had service anyway. The price was too high and the time to get there is ridiculous.

Sad, but true. We've thought about taking the train from DC to Pittsburgh and it's never been realistic. To be honest, I'm amazed this route stayed available this long.

[Debbie1125]

It's possible that people who used to take The Pennsylvanian are now taking Megabus. For one thing it's much cheaper and Mega has three departures from Philly to Pittsburgh.......morning, mid afternoon and evening as opposed to Amtrak's one departure.

My mode of transportation to Pittsburgh WAS Amtrak until Mega starting offering service from Philly to Pittsburgh. It takes the train 7 hours to get there; the bus takes a bit over 5. Plus I would much rather arrive there at 3:00 p.m. via bus than 8 at night via train.

[UKyank]

Funny enough I took this train for the first time ever this weekend to Philly. Yea it was slow (about 7hrs) but the coach cars were very nice, clean & roomy. Getting right from downtown here to downtown there was convenient & it was nice to read a book & sleep the whole way rather then bother about driving.

I thought it was cheap (definitely cheaper then if I drove) & would do it again scheduling permitted & would hate to see the service disbanded (though I'd very much like to see it improved of course).

My outbound trip was about half full or less until Harrisburg, though the return one yesterday was much busier the whole route.

The Pgh- DC route seemed to be the less convenient of the 2, but I guess it gets more passengers?

[UKyank]

Another quick thought; I wonder if ridership saw any bump since Sourhwest cancelled their Pgh-Philly route & USAir jacked up their fares on it.

[slamont61]

Passenger Rail service on Freight owned mainline is never going to work just as it doesn't here between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. The powers that be never even tired to come up with a solution let alone funding for a study.

Given the choice between Amtrak and Megabus, Megabus wins hands down. Faster more affordable and more convenient.

[UKyank]

Given the travel time, perhaps an overnight train would have a better shot at surviving given you're not losing most of a day en route.

[MountainDewGuy]

It is absolutely, 100% ridiculous that the state does not have fast and efficient rail service between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg/Philly. There is no excuse. The 'population is too spread out' argument is rubbish. Pennsylvania has nearly the same population density as France. Want to see France's rail map?



Yet, we can't even get one line that runs efficiently between the state's two largest cities. Why is this issue not even remotely close to being on people's radar? The state has resources. It can tax. It can choose to shift spending priorities. It can levy more fees on fracking. Without making this a political left/right issue, what is the problem? This would be a complete win-win scenario for everyone.

[ki0eh]

As a point to point service NYC-Pgh or Philly-Pgh or even Harrisburg-Pgh the Pennsylvanian train only makes sense for the enthusiasts. As a way of getting from these points to, say, Huntingdon or Johnstown, points isolated from the main highway network, the need for the train as a transportation alternative becomes more apparent. Bringing back the overnight service would IMHO be better, since many of the intermediate stops would have better choice of trip times (folks from Harrisburg could go out to Huntingdon for the day before) and Philly-Pgh or NYC-Pgh (or Harrisburg-Chicago, Pgh-Chicago...) becomes a more tenable train solution with overnight sleeper.

[dedalus37]

As an individual who is originally from the South Jersey area, I have always wanted to have a light-rail/high speed train across the state. I have no idea how much astronomically expensive it would be, but I have no doubt it would open up commerce more between Philly/NYC and Pittsburgh. I think the high speed MagLev proposal that never happened was supposed to connect the two in about 1.5 hours...Leave downtown Philly at 8, be in downtown Pittsburgh at 9:30! Now that would be incredible. I think MagLev's assets though have been auctioned off though. I don't even know how we get the high speed discussion started again - we barely have enough money to fund roads and bridges, which are in bad shape. I guess I'm just being an idealist in this post, but I wish we could as a Commonwealth decide that this was something important. Something for our state to rally around and be excited about. It would connect us so much more quickly to the East Coast and open up lots of opportunities for business and fun.