# Amtrak Pocono Service



## DarkerOne (Jul 31, 2003)

Does anyone have pictures of the Amtrak Pocono service?


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## P40Power (Jul 31, 2003)

Umm the closest thing to "Amtrak Pocono Service" would probably be the Keystones and Three Rivers and Pennsylvanian. Search for what your looking for on railpictures.net, they have a ton of pictures of all of the different Amtrak services with a variety of years to choose from, you should be able to find what you are looking for on that site.


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## amtrakadirondack (Aug 1, 2003)

Amtrak Pocono Service? I have never heard of this Service, I also looked at railpictures.net, I entered "Amtrak Pocono Service", "Pocono Service", "Amtrak Pocono" and "Pocono", but all that came up was freight trains.


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## AlanB (Aug 1, 2003)

I'm not aware of any Amtrak service ever going through the Poconos. In fact Conrail abandoned the Lackawana Cutoff just about the time that Amtrak was formed. So I would have to say that it's highly unlikely that there was ever any Amtrak sevice in the Poconos.

There is also the logistical problem, where by trains in the Poconos would not have been able to reach Penn Station. This would have left passengers in Hoboken with no connections to other Amtrak trains.


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## jdwolfskill (Aug 2, 2003)

.. ..


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## jdwolfskill (Aug 3, 2003)

DarkerOne,

The AMTRAK Pocono Service of which you speak was a proposed service from Scranton, PA to Hoboken, NJ over the old Erie-Lackawanna cut-off. An article in the Pocono Record newspaper a long while back (1999-2000) stated that PennDOT was then fishing for a cost estimate from AMTRAK to provide the service from Scranton in 2004, and extend it to Binghamton, NY in 2008. I'm not sure what eventually happened to the whole idea. I don't think any AMTRAK trains run to Scranton today.

John Wolfskill

http://www.trainweb.org/metrovalleyline/index.html


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## AlanB (Aug 3, 2003)

jdwolfskill said:


> DarkerOne,The AMTRAK Pocono Service of which you speak was a proposed service from Scranton, PA to Hoboken, NJ over the old Erie-Lackawanna cut-off. An article in the Pocono Record newspaper a long while back (1999-2000) stated that PennDOT was then fishing for a cost estimate from AMTRAK to provide the service from Scranton in 2004, and extend it to Binghamton, NY in 2008. I'm not sure what eventually happened to the whole idea. I don't think any AMTRAK trains run to Scranton today.
> 
> John Wolfskill
> 
> http://www.trainweb.org/metrovalleyline/index.html


At present there are at least two things that would have put that proposal on hold. The first simply, is the fact that Amtrak signed that agreement last summer stating that they wouldn't expand service. They also can't afford to expand the service right now either.

The second and by far larger reason that the proposal has not been implemented is the simple fact that the Lackawanna cut-off is unusable. While the right-of-way still exists, there is no track on the entire cut-off. In fact until last year, part of the cut-off was under private ownership.

At present NJ Transit now owns the entire cut-off and does plan one day to restore train service to it. However this project does not have top priority and they are dragging their feet in negotiating a contract with Pennsylvania to operate the trains. An original target date to restore commuter service was 2006, but that is highly unlikely at this point.

Amtrak of course cannot even dream of running a train over this route, at least until the route is actually usable. Even then it's hard to say what might actually happen.


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## Viewliner (Aug 3, 2003)

I certainly hope NJ Transit will stop dragging its feet soon, I can't wait for this service, as it would involve my line (Morris and Essex). It would be nice if the service is very succesful to see possible electrification for MidTOWN Direct (or engine change). Realistically they should consider providing food service as far as a cafe on this route, as well as maybe testing out club service (they do own a Comet II Club car)


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