(The following story by Bernard Harris appeared on the Lancaster New Era website on June 18.)
LANCASTER, Pa. — Cleaner air, less trucks on area roads and prospering businesses — those are among the benefits Franklin & Marshall College officials claim will come from a relocated Dillerville rail yard.
The college, joined by consultant engineers, will present the results of an environmental study Thursday evening in what college vice president Keith Orris this morning called “the culmination of year and a half of public outreach.”
Yet, the college’s pitch may fall on deaf ears.
Residents of the Old School Lane Hills and Barrcrest neighborhoods plan to attend the meeting to oppose the plan because the new 13-track rail yard would be built within 1,200 feet of their homes.
That public meeting will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., at the college Alumni Sports & Fitness Center, 929 Harrisburg Ave.
The Rail Road Action and Advisory Committee, or TRRAAC, is instead calling for the college, Lancaster General Hospital and freight rail carrier Norfolk Southern to amend their proposal. The residents would have the rail yard expand to the eastern portion of the existing yard. That would put it in the middle of the college’s proposed athletic fields.
Orris said the college considered that proposal — along with other possible configurations — before rejecting it in the preliminary study and settling on a 12-acre tract behind the main post office on Harrisburg Pike. That site is a former municipal dump which remains uncapped.
On Monday, Orris said he met with TRRAAC representatives and shared a recent review of their alternative. The review was done by project engineer Gannett Fleming Transit & Rail Systems.
The study said the TRRAAC proposal would hamper Norfolk Southern operations, create unsafe conditions and ultimately create more noise from switching operations than from using the college-proposed site, a letter from Gannett Fleming states.
“Plain and simple, F&M wants to move the rail yard out of their backyard and into ours,” said Farmingdale Road resident Kathy Ashworth, who helped form TRRAAC.
The proposal being advanced by the college, hospital and Norfolk Southern would benefit the three partners, Orris said this morning.
It would help the college and the hospital in the redevelopment of the former Armstrong World Industries floor plant site. The college plans to create athletic fields on the land. The hospital has not announced its plans.
And Norfolk Southern would gain additional capacity that would allow the company to expand its operations.
Yet, Orris maintained: “This project is not just about the college and Lancaster General securing additional land. This project has significant benefits to the Lancaster area,” he said.
The proposal would remove the municipal dump and properly dispose of trash that has been there since before the 1970s. It would also divert 55,000 trucks a year from area roads as freight is carried by rail, thereby reducing air pollution and helping to save highway repair dollars. It would also make materials more readily available for Lancaster businesses and reknits the street grid system in northwest Lancaster City, he said.
“This is something that has been conceived of by previous city leaders for years,” he said of the rail yard relocation.
Orris maintained it would also benefit some of the same residents who oppose it.
It would eliminate the switching of trains now done behind Barrcrest and the noise that accompanies that switching, he said. It would also eliminate the traffic delays on Farmingdale Road and Good Drive caused by the switching, he said.
The project is expected to cost between $40 million and $42 million, Orris said. The partners have committed $14 million of that and another $2 million has already been approved in grants for project studies.
Although the railroads are exempt from municipal land development and zoning approvals, the project will require significant federal environmental reviews, he said.