ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Bucks County commissioners have endorsed re-establishment of commuter rail service between Lansdale and the Quakertown area and asked the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to study it, the Allentown Morning Call reports.
Commissioners adopted a resolution this week calling on SEPTA to undertake a ”transportation investment study” to determine whether resumption of rail service is feasible.
Commuter rail service between Lansdale and Quakertown was shut down about 20 years ago because of thin ridership, but a report prepared by the Bucks County Planning Commission in 2000 said subsequent population growth in Upper Bucks could justify reopening rail service.
The SEPTA study would be a much more in-depth look at the issue than what the county planning agency performed, according to Richard Brahler, a Bucks transportation planner.
The study would project ridership on the rail line and examine the use of private vehicles, buses and other forms of transportation in the region.
Brahler said the study could cost as much as $4 million and take three years. The transportation investment study is required by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which would ultimately provide much of the funding for the project.
Reopening rail service to the Quakertown area was projected by county planners to cost between $180 million and $214 million.
Brahler said the federal government funds few rail projects but might if the projects have merit. He pointed out that the proposed 62-mile Schuylkill Valley Metro, which would run from Philadelphia to Reading, could cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
As for the Quakertown project, the Planning Commission recommended resumption of rail service from Lansdale through Quakertown, ending in Shelly, just north of the borough, a distance of about 16 miles.
Brahler said the tracks and ties along the old route have deteriorated and are no longer capable of handling commuter trains. The SEPTA study would examine what it would take to repair or replace the tracks, as well as the replacement of signals, stations and maintenance depots. Also, he said, several commuter train cars probably would have to be added to SEPTA’s fleet.
”It wouldn’t take much to spend $200 million there,” he said.