(The following column by Bob Previdi appeared on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on July 11. Mr. Previdi is a communications consultant in Philadelphia.)
PHILADELPHIA — As gas prices head toward $5 a gallon and more travelers look to use public transportation, the time is right for Amtrak to extend service to Suburban Station.
This isn’t an unrealistic idea. Amtrak used to operate into Suburban Station before 1987. Bringing Amtrak trains back to Center City could help bolster the use of public transportation.
Other regions are scrambling to create more public transportation. Philadelphia should market its great public transportation network – especially Suburban Station’s ideal location.
Gov. Rendell said in a speech in New York last month that we need to find better ways to fund our nation’s infrastructure. He made it clear he was speaking about highways and rails.
Rendell pointed out that of all the developed nations in the world, we are last in the percentage of gross domestic product reinvested in our infrastructure.
“If I had it my way, I would ban all flights under 500 miles, and we would have high-speed rail in its place,” Rendell said.
Extending Amtrak’s Keystone service to Suburban Station could begin the process of challenging all of us to reconsider the role rail plays in moving around the country.
The Keystone trains are a small subset of Amtrak service that has its operating budget partially funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
These trains operate between Harrisburg, through Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station then to and from New York’s Pennsylvania Station.
We could have this service do more for our economy by having it extend to Suburban Station, putting train service closer to where people live and work.
Recently, Pennsylvania funded half of a $170 million capital-rebuilding project to restore all-electric train service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. (Between 1987 and 2006, trains switched engines at 30th Street to a diesel locomotive that added 20 minutes to the trip between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.)
With all electric service now restored to the line, these trains can once again operate to Suburban Station as they did before 1987, providing a much more attractive service to business and vacation travelers.
Suburban Station is fresh off a $65 million capital reconstruction of its own that has left the station looking as grand as ever with new electronic train arrival signs, elevators and escalators, and the new Comcast Tower provides a direct link into a brand new food court.
SEPTA’s new general manager, Joe Casey, at a recent meeting held by PenTrans, a transportation advocacy organization, suggested that much of the density in the Delaware Valley already sat near existing rail lines. If commuters “take greater advantage of the infrastructure that is already in place” it will be a win-win for everyone.
Amtrak’s Keystone service and SEPTA’s Center City Tunnel are two existing services that if they worked together could easily attract more ridership from Harrisburg, Lancaster, Newark Liberty Airport, and New York.