A recent article on this blog from DRL begins discussion as a brief primer on some of the issues regarding passenger rail service in the Lehigh Valley. It's an interesting article you can read here. I look forward to hearing more.
Recently, while traveling to New Mexico and Colorado I had the opportunity to see New Mexico's beautiful, new commuter rail system. New Mexico started a commuter rail service in July '06. This service connects Belen (south of Albuquerque) to Santa Fe. The track efficiently makes use of the I25 median with walkways from train stops to parking lots. I understand there are plans to extend the route. The appearance: Clean, sleek, impressive. My thoughts: We could really use one (or two) of these in the Lehigh Valley.
So, what does New Mexico have that we (PA) don't have: Lots of wide open spaces.
What does Pennsylvania have that New Mexico doesn't have: More people!
NM population est.: 1,984,356
PA population est.: 12,448,279
With passenger rail service we can reduce the number of cars on our overcrowded roads, cut down on pollution and gas consumption. I look forward to learning more about why we don't have passenger rail service in the Lehigh Valley and what we can do to bring passenger rail service here.
Something else caught my eye out west. The ski lifts at a southern Colorado ski area are powered by wind several states away. A hopeful glimpse into our future.
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5 comments:
thanks for the post, the data and additional info, joanne! we have to stay on this issue...we can't afford to let our officials be sluggish and miss out on the funding that's coming down the pipeline for passenger rail. in the president's town hall meeting in tampa a couple of weeks ago, joe biden said that the reason that chicago, california, tampa, and even philly-harrisburg got funding is because they had a PLAN in place. where is the lehigh valley's plan?
Joanne,
Nice post. On the wind issue...if we connect commuter rail with wind energy we have the real synergy that can make a major impact on air pollution and carbon footprints. Most new rail is being built with either electrified track or with the option to retrofit it in the future. The key here is that as wind power and other clean energy sources become available, the rail system can be powered by that clean energy. This takes the advantage of reduced car use (by train users) and multiplies it many fold by eliminating the exhaust pollutants of electric diesel locomotives.
As Winston Churchill famously said, Americans will always do the right thing...after having exhausted all other possibilities.
DRL
You can buy wind power today if you want.
Contact Met Ed and request to purchase power through Consolidated Edison's Wind program. Wind power is more expensive than conventional power and costs approximately 10% more. Capital costs are high. They hope that over time wind energy costs will be less than conventional energy.
Thanks for the tip, Anon.
Nice Churchill quote, Dennis--so true!
When I worked in London, some co-workers lived in villages almost 100 miles from the office yet got to work in 45 minutes on high-speed trains. Any trip to/from NYC from Easton will demonstrate how differently things are done here in the Unites States of Cars/Trucks/FossilFuels!
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