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The old phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" can aptly be applied at this time to the issue of additional passenger train service in the Harrisburg-to-Pittsburgh railroad corridor, which includes Altoona and Johnstown.
After so long "playing second fiddle" to passenger service eastward from Harrisburg and the long East Coast corridor, Blair and Cambria counties and counties to the west and east of these two can now feel hopeful and more optimistic than ever that more meaningful and more user-friendly passenger-train-travel opportunities might in fact be in the not-too-distant future.
That is because of the framework of a full-fledged operational agreement that PennDOT has worked out with Norfolk Southern Corp., the incentive for such an agreement being the availability of money under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
As described in a June 28 front-page Mirror article, PennDOT and Norfolk Southern began working on the agreement after the federal government provided rolling stock money for Amtrak in the infrastructure law.
That has paved the way for PennDOT to redirect money it had saved for that rolling stock to proposed right-of-way improvements needed to ensure that additional passenger train service won't interfere with NS freight operations.
"Thus, more than $200 million from PennDOT's Multimodal Transportation Fund will pay for upgrading rail lines, passenger platforms and communications and signal infrastructure," the June 28 article reported, based on the contents of a news release issued June 27 by the state transportation agency and the governor's office.
The improvements would follow recommendations contained in a feasibility study completed last September. Among the study recommendations was additional capacity to allow faster trains to go around slower ones.
That would be achieved by adding tracks and crossover switches to allow trains to access all available tracks.
It is necessary to acknowledge that the plan in question is no panacea because, as assembled to date, the expanded Amtrak passenger service, like the Amtrak passenger service that exists today, would not accommodate many of the needs of business people wanting to travel to Pittsburgh from places like Johnstown and Altoona.
Nevertheless, what is being pieced together could be a stepping stone eventually to service much better, if the commitment to pursue better service remains strong and focused and the initial expansion achieves good passenger numbers.
Expanded Amtrak service, even as initially being proposed, can become a cost-effective and popular option, even if an overnight stay in Pittsburgh might be necessary. Most area business people, as well as recreational travelers, are well aware of the headaches associated with trying to access that city by way of virtually every major vehicular-access route.
Also important to be factored in are such things as fuel costs, vehicle wear-and-tear, the value of the potential work time being expended unnecessarily when driving, availability of meeting-preparation time, and general relaxation time while enroute.
The news release stated that NS and PennDOT anticipate a "final definitive agreement" by the end of December, after which construction can begin. That release also indicated that, according to current estimates, the additional train should be able to start running within three years.
Yes, there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, after all.