In the architecture world, there are few as recognized and respected as Scranton's Peter Bohlin. Adding to an already prestigious career, Bohlin was awarded the
highest honor his profession has to offer--the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal--in December. Among the many internationally recognized buildings Bohlin's
Wilkes-Barre firm has designed is the flagship
New York Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. The store’s massive cube design has served as the face of Apple’s metropolitan brand dominance and made Bohlin a household name in NYC. So why does he take the bus to get there?
Bohlin is not alone. For businesses who need offices and administrative centers within spitting distance to New York and Philadelphia, Lackawanna County is a no-brainer, with one exception. They are connected to New York only by one congested highway and a few commercial bus lines, leaving Scranton and the rest of Northeast PA's business community clamoring for another way.
"Scranton has always been oriented toward New York City," says Austin Burke, president of the Scranton Chamber of Commerce. "We have been fighting for the resumption of rail service since it was discontinued, so this is nothing new for us."
In 1851, the Lackawanna & Western railroad was built to connect to the Erie Railroad and other connecting lines into New York. Over the next 100 years, a series of mergers would change names and service providers but the link between Scranton and the major east coast cities remained. In 1960, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western merged with the Erie Railroad to form the Erie-Lackawanna line. Their flagship train was the Phoebe Snow, a grand passenger car with top-of-the-line amenities, running on clean-burning Scranton coal. But when Amtrak took over intercity rail service in 1971, they discontinued the Phoebe and Scranton has been disconnected ever since.
"Historically, our land was developed by the gilded age of New York, like Gould and Carnegie," says Burke. "More recently, we have attracted the computer centers and back offices of finance and insurance companies based in New York City. MetLife is here, Harper Collins has an office here and those early morning buses are packed."
After almost 40 years of fighting, Scranton finally has a new ally in its rally for a railroad: recession. The National Recovery and Reinvestment Act has already pumped $343 million into Pennsylvania
transit projects and in his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama announced a new jobs initiative focused on railroads.
Pennsylvania has already started seeing this commitment to railroads as funding dollars are delivered. Phase 1 of the Keystone East Corridor upgrade began in 2009, increasing service quality between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. And on January 28, Pennsylvania received $25.6 million for
Phase 2, which would increase the east corridor speed to 125 miles per hour. The funding also includes a feasibility study for the Keystone West Corridor, a proposed line out of Pittsburgh that would link East and West, connecting the two largest cities in the state with 600 miles of high-speed rail. According to the accepted application, the east project and the feasibility study will create 4,464 jobs.
"Along with construction jobs, any of the contractors we work with will use local manufacturers," says PennDOT spokesperson Erin Waters. "Obviously, a project like this helps local suppliers and keeps engineers working."
These numbers have Pennsylvania representatives going for the gold. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey have since thrown their support behind state rail projects rejected from this round of rail funding. Among the projects vying for federal attention are the Scranton-NYC line and a progressive project out of Pittsburgh to introduce a modern and largely untested form of transportation called Maglev, which uses magnetic levitation from a large number of magnetic for lift and propulsion. Now running in a few small-scale corridors in Germany, Maglev uses high-powered magnets, allowing the train to hover close to the track instead of riding on it.
"In Pennsylvania, we have a rocky terrain, a lot of rivers, ridges, tunnels and bridges, and Maglev can negotiate this terrain much better than a traditional steel wheel on rail train, with speeds exceeding 300 miles per hour," says McKeesport-based
Maglev Inc president Fred Gurney. "But any project of this magnitude and this sort of national significance needs federal funding."
T
he proposed
Maglev route would move over several rivers and ridges between Pittsburgh International Airport and Greensburg, allowing Maglev the chance to prove its reliability. And even though the high price tag--estimated at $3.7 billion in 2003--has scared off federal funders for the time being, Gurney is hopeful about future proposals.
"The concept of moving people over the surface of the earth at a much more rapid pace is catching on in the United States," Gurney says. "I am happy to see that because it opens people up to the idea of new transit technologies."
For Scranton, it is back to the drawing board once again. But with all their fighting experience, the community is getting their message to the people who matter. National Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Scranton in November and got the message. So did New York senator Chuck Schumer, who has been working with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority to create a more viable rail plan for PA and upstate New York. And the Institute for Public Policy is working on a policy brief for May, which will outline for the press and legislators the potential economic impacts of rail service to Scranton. As for Austin Burke, he is optimistic that renewed interest in railroad projects will again shine the light on Scranton’s need to reconnect with the Big Apple.
"We have had the support of Senator Specter for decades on this and now he is joined by Senator Casey, and although people are disappointed, there will be other rounds of funding," Burke says. "We have been at this for nearly two decades now and we will continue to fight."
John Steele is a freelance writer and blogger
in Philadelphia. He enjoys music snobbery, trash television and laughing at
hipsters. Send feedback here.To receive Keystone Edge free every week, click
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Photos:
Downtown MAGport® Passenger Station (Maglev)
Harrisburg rail station
Synchronous Welding with Dual Robots (Maglev)