(The following story by William Kibler appeared on the Altoona Mirror website on March 14, 2009.)
ALTOONA, Pa. — A stimulus haul of $1.3 billion for Amtrak announced Friday could help this area get better intercity rail service, a state expert said.
The money includes $82 million to rehabilitate 68 out-of-commission rail cars, a project that could help overcome an obstacle that has prevented Amtrak from honoring pleas to restore trains on the Harrisburg-to-Pittsburgh line, said Eric Bugaile, executive director of the House Transportation Committee.
Amtrak is ”kind of maxed out” on its service schedule because of equipment limitations, he said, adding that the current one train a day each way past Altoona is ”dismal.”
”We would like four or five round trips,” he said. ”At least one more.”
He believes the chances are better than even to achieve it now.
But there is competition to add service at other locations.
”A lot depends on our support in Congress, which is pretty good,” he said.
A lot also depends on who gets appointed to the Amtrak board, he said.
There’s a good chance for one or two Pennsylvanians, he said.
If rail advocates such as state Rep. Rick Geist, R-Blair, succeed in getting more and reliable service between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, they can build on that and get something like what Amtrak already has established between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Bugaile said.
“It’s good on-time service that’s frequent enough that people want to take it,” Bugaile said.
Trains there go 110 mph, and the trip takes just 90 minutes.
Amtrak’s schedule shows 14 trains each way during the week between those two cities.
About a month ago, the government allocated $8 million for high-speed rail. A bill last year called for a 25 percent increase in speed, which is easily attainable for the Keystone Corridor west of Harrisburg, where the average is just 40 mph, because of the mountains, Bugaile said.
Track capacity inhibits adding service, Bugaile said.
Amtrak’s stimulus funding won’t go for building track through Altoona because Norfolk Southern owns the lines, he said.
Geist and others will meet next week with an Amtrak official to discuss the stimulus funding, Geist said.