A draft of the 2025 Pennsylvania State Rail Plan is available for public review and comment until Oct. 24, and it discusses an issue important to Altoona — the potential for a second daily round trip of the Amtrak Pennsylvanian.

A discussion of that issue beginning on page 153 is headed “Keystone West,” the portion of the Norfolk Southern mainline between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh that passes through Altoona.

Getting a second round-trip Pennsylvanian depends on Norfolk Southern completing a slate of infrastructure projects designed to mitigate delays that would otherwise occur due to that second Pennsylvanian and increased rail traffic, as identified in a 2011 analysis, according to the plan.

Four of the projects are already underway, with the expectation that the second round-trip train could begin running next year.

Those comprise new connector tracks to Enola Yard in Lemoyne and Camp Hill; improvements to the main line and interlocking configurations between Enola and Duncannon; and an upgrade of an interlocking and construction of a new interlocking in Johnstown, according to online sources.

One of the remaining five projects not scheduled to be completed until about the end of the decade is a new main line and interlocking configuration improvements in Altoona, according to online sources.

The total cost of all 11 projects is $220 million, according to the plan.

PennDOT, Amtrak and NS are coordinating the work, with PennDOT having received a $143 million Federal-State Partnership (National) Grant awarded in December 2023, according to the plan.

While Amtrak only makes one round trip daily between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, it makes 14 round trips daily between New York City and Harrisburg, according to the plan.

The current Pennsylvanian has had a mediocre on-time performance — about 70% — based on statistics from 2021-23, according to the plan.

Freight train interference has been the main culprit.

The Pennsylvanian is not a big moneymaker: cost recovery was 68% on $16 million in revenue for fiscal 2024, the plan shows.

A second round-trip Pennsylvanian, nevertheless, could “support business travel with a morning run to Altoona from Pittsburgh and an evening run back,” according to a comment made during a roundtable and survey conducted among regional transportation planners in December, the plan states.

An earlier observation from the Blair Planning Commission suggested that a morning peak run to Pittsburgh from Altoona and a corresponding evening return (the opposite of the prior comment) would make sense.

Currently, business travelers by train from Altoona to Pittsburgh need to stay in Pittsburgh two nights.

The state rail plan is a joint project of PennDOT, the Federal Railroad Administration, various stakeholders and the public.

It’s updated every four years, according to a PennDOT news release.

The plan enables state residents to “share their visions for passenger and freight rail across the commonwealth,” stated PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll in the release.

To view and comment on the plan, go to the Advancing PA Rail website.

Comments can also be emailed to RA-PDPASRP@pa.gov

A virtual meeting to discuss the plan will take place from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16.

Registration information for the meeting is available at Advancing PA Rail. Registrants will receive event information, including the meeting link, by email.

The draft is also available on the Mirror’s website at https://tinyurl.com/rw6wdppj