(The Patriot-News published the following story by Mary Klaus on its website on August 18.)
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Melissa Gross doesn’t want to be stuck in traffic.
Steve Leedy doesn’t like paying for city parking.
John Hulsford wants to relax and commute without polluting.
So they do what a number of Middletown residents do. They take the train into Harrisburg every day.
Municipalities throughout the midstate are being asked to support a planned commuter rail system that would run from Lancaster to Mechanicsburg. Rail system promoters hope to have the first leg in place by late 2005.
A group of Middletown residents offers evidence that such service has appeal.
“I’ve been taking the train for 15 years,” said Hulsberg, who works in the air-quality division of the Department of Environmental Protection.
“It’s good for the environment,” he said. “But it’s good for me, too. I don’t have a white-knuckled ride to work in the morning or hassles with parking. The train runs even in the worst weather.”
Commuters board Amtrak’s short, three-car train near the Interfaith Apartments in Middletown at 7:18 or 7:54 a.m. each weekday. The ride to Harrisburg takes 10 minutes.
Last week, men and women wearing everything from business suits to casual clothes read the newspaper, dozed or enjoyed the scenery as they glided through Middletown, Highspire and Steelton.
“I save parking and gas money,” said Gross, a DEP solid-waste program specialist and daily train commuter.
“A train ticket costs $76 a month, but our department gives us a monthly $21 transit voucher to encourage us to use mass transit,” Gross said. “So it costs me $55 a month to get to work. Parking often costs $100 a month, so I really save. We have a good group on our train.”
Matt Uhl of Middletown sometimes takes the train to New York City. He works on his laptop computer as he rides.
“When you take the train to New York, you’re not as tense when you get there,” he said. “Amtrak gets a lot of grief, but it’s incredibly on time and efficient. In my eight years of taking the train, there’s only been one delay.”
On Thursday, Joe Wincovitch of Middletown settled into one of the 86 cushioned seats in one of the train cars with a sigh of satisfaction. The state Department of Revenue accountant has commuted by train for four years.
“After a long day at work, I like to look at the scenery,” he said. “Sometimes, the clickety-clack of the train puts me to sleep and makes me wish the ride was longer.”
As the trip began, he looked at the Interstate 83 ramps choked with traffic.
Moments later, the train moved over the Susquehanna River, past the rusty buildings of the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. and past Harrisburg International Airport in Lower Swatara Twp.
Jackie Leer of Conewago Twp., a state Civil Service Commission executive secretary and a seven-year train commuter, said that she’s made friends on the train.
“It’s a peaceful way to start the day,” she said.
Some Middletown residents are following the developments of the planned regional rail system.
The Modern Transit Partnership, a public/private alliance promoting the rail venture, has proposed the 41-mile system to run from Lancaster to Mechanicsburg with stops including HIA.
Hulsberg and other commuters said they’re not against the proposed rail system, as long as Amtrak leaves the Middletown stop alone.
“It wouldn’t work for many of us to have to drive out to the airport for a train, then pay to park there,” he said. He worries about probable increased costs.
John Ward, Modern Transit Partnership president, said commuters shouldn’t worry.
“Our intent is to keep the Middletown station,” he said. “If Amtrak doesn’t stop in Middletown, we will. We aren’t there to compete with Amtrak but to complement it. We are working with Amtrak so they accept and use our fares, which are lower than theirs. If they do, the commuters will be able to ride for less money.”
The regional rail system would cost an estimated $76 million, the equivalent of rebuilding about four miles of I-83. The system would be financed with federal, state and private money.
Plans call for the trains to reach Mechanicsburg in 2007 and Carlisle in 2010.
York, Hershey and Lebanon would be linked later.
To date, Lancaster and Cumberland counties and Carlisle, Lebanon, Harrisburg and York have supported the plan, Ward said.
The partnership has asked commissioners in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties to form the authority to secure financing for the project.
Preliminary engineering and design work is under way.
“We’ve come full circle,” Ward said. “In the 1940s and 1950s, people rode buses, trolleys and trains to work. Now we’re getting back to that, and people are excited.”