If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But for Northeast Pennsylvanians, the more fundamental problem is simply getting to New York City. Driving to New York rarely is a joy ride due to congestion, coupled with the costs of bridge or tunnel tolls and parking. Buses are a reliable option but …

Read More “HOPE PERSISTS FOR NYC RAIL”

The regional rail authority’s 2014 traffic rate expanded by three times the national growth average, affirming its importance to industrial and commercial stability. The Northeast Regional Rail Authority’s Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad experienced a 13.6 percent increase in carloads. Nationally, the carload volume advanced by 4.5 percent, the largest growth rate since 2007. The local expansion in …

Read More “Solid growth displays value of rail agency”

Northeast Pennsylvania became an engine of the Industrial Revolution on the strength of the energy it produced in the form of coal and the railroads that carried it to markets. There was some neat historical symmetry in an announcement last week that a state grant of $1.3 million will enable the Northeast Regional Railroad Authority …

Read More “Rails connect area to history”

A $500,000 upgrade of the historic rail yard in Fell Twp., which was built in 1825 to help ignite the region’s coal boom, is a good example of the region’s new gas industry’s ability to boost overall economic development and of the growing importance of rail freight to the region. The project will make possible …

Read More “Project a gas”

Editor: At the Northeast Pennsylvania Economic Forum hosted by The Times-Tribune, Jerry Joyce suggested the federal stimulus package presented a unique opportunity for a transformational project. If our entire region adopted as its number-one priority the reinstitution of passenger rail service from Scranton through the Poconos to New York City, the propitious alignment we enjoy …

Read More “Top of wish list”

The biggest concern over use of the massive stimulus package signed last week by President Barack Obama is that some of the money will not go to jump-start the economy for the short-term or to sustain it for the long term. Mr. Obama himself issued a warning to big-city mayors that they must use their …

Read More “Put stimulus on right track”

Gasoline prices climb with the thermometer as summer approaches, while Congress fiddles with short- term, feel-good relief measures that will only encourage more driving and more demand for the long term. Congress should instead address fuel efficiency as a coherent national policy-one major piece of which should be restoration of an effective national passenger rail …

Read More “Take the Train to Conservation”

Prospects for restored passenger rail service from Scranton to the New York City area have dimmed with project delays, rising cost projections and use of passenger estimates that seem unduly low. An idea to locate storage and maintenance operations for the service in Scranton, however; could help to hold down the development costs, establish service …

Read More “Brilliant Stroke for Rail Service”