(The following story by Matt Miller appeared on the Patriot News website on April 13.)
WEST HILL, Pa. — Skepticism was evident yesterday as the Western Cumberland Council of Governments endorsed a plan to test a proposed midstate commuter rail system on an existing Amtrak line.
Two council members opposed a resolution for the test, and one called the Corridor One rail plan a “waste of money.”
A main backer of the $75 million rail proposal continued to insist, however, that a test on Amtrak’s Lancaster-to-Harrisburg line won’t truly show whether midstaters will use commuter rail.
But support for the test concept, raised by Cumberland County commissioners, appears to be growing.
Commissioner Rick Rovegno said his board will now seek backing from the West Shore Council of Governments and the West Shore and Greater Carlisle Area chambers of commerce.
The Western Cumberland group, which represents all but one of the boroughs and townships between Carlisle and Shippensburg, voted 10-2 for the test.
Only Newburg Mayor Susan Stump and Upper Frankford Twp. Supervisor George Wickard voted against it.
Stump, a partner in her family’s trucking firm, said Cumberland residents won’t use a rail system and that transit money should be invested in improving highways instead.
“I just think it’s a waste of money,” she said.
The commissioners’ plan calls for a test of at least a year on Amtrak’s line. Passenger trains would run more frequently on the line to gauge if midstaters would use a regular commuter service. No test could begin before 2006 because of a pending upgrade of the line.
Cumberland commissioners raised the test idea during a meeting with commissioners from Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties last month.
Cumberland commissioners met resistance when they pressed partnership officials on the test idea earlier this month. The group, which wants to build a line from Lancaster to Mechanicsburg, claims the Amtrak test wouldn’t show prospects for vital West Shore ridership.
John Ward, MTP president of Modern Transit Partnership, a group affiliated with Capital Area Transit, which is promoting CorridorOne., repeated that claim when told of the Western Cumberland council’s vote.
“It just wouldn’t be a true test,” he said. “We need to do this in an area that has no rail.”