Has the time come for passenger rail service?

Congested highways, parking problems, air pollution, road rage, traffic fatalities - Has the time come for bringing back passenger rail service to our region?

Just to our south, the mayors in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton think it is and they are leading the discussion to bring passenger rail service back to their respective cities and on through to New Jersey.

The mayors and representatives of the Lehigh Northampton Transportation Authority along with the new secretary of PennDOT and deputy secretary for rail have recently held meetings directed at restoring passenger rail service to the Lehigh Valley. They want a place at the table with Federal and New York and New Jersey Transportation Authorities to work on the cooperation and funding needed to make a project of this magnitude a reality.

Carbon Chamber and Economic Development is a member of the Northeast PA Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The task of the NEPA MPO is to prioritize transportation issues in our region and work with legislators and PennDOT to implement those issues whether they are bridge and road repairs or passenger rail service.

What if commuter rail service extended from the Lehigh Valley north to Carbon County and beyond to Wilkes-Barre? If you could easily travel from anywhere in Carbon County to Allentown, Philadelphia or even New York, Wilkes-Barre or Stroudsburg by train would you use it? Think about it - no more sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill, no turnpike tolls, no worries about delays or accidents or the weather. Just get on board sit back and relax, read a book, do some work on your laptop or just snooze.

That's exactly what some people did this past weekend utilizing a steam engine leaving Allentown and making stops in Carbon County on their way to Pittston. A commuter train passed through our area last weekend - and what a beautiful sight it was to see.

Think how much better it would be if visitors to Carbon County could come in by rail or how convenient it would be to leave from different stops throughout Carbon County to go shopping in the Lehigh Valley or Philly or to see a show in New York or even to Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre.

Yes, it's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but the federal and state governments are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bridges and highways in the region that would see relief with rail service.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto said in a recent Lehigh Valley Business Journal article, "You can't make the roads wide enough in the Lehigh Valley anymore. We've spent a lot of money on the reconstruction of Route 22, and it's not going to be enough."

Current plans are to widen the Route 22 corridor. Instead of creating more congestion, why not look at ways to alleviate it by investing in more and better methods of mass transit such as passenger rail.

What is needed is public and political support.

There is a petition on Change.org that is calling on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and others to come and meet with Lehigh Valley leaders and begin working together to restore passenger rail service.

The time for passenger rail in the Lehigh Valley and Carbon County has come…if not now, when?

Kathy Henderson is director of economic development for the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development.