‘The numbers say New York’: Passenger rail group advocates for sharpening focus | Northampton County

EASTON, Pa. – Will Lehigh Valley residents who work in New York City someday be able to once again hop on a train to make the journey?

That remains to be seen. But All Aboard Lehigh Valley, a nonprofit officially launched in 2024 to advocate for the return of passenger rail, is trying to speed things along.

On Thursday, Easton resident and architect Brett Webber, the group’s president, asked Northampton County Council for a $30,000 grant to fund an economic impact study specifically for the Allentown-NYC corridor.

Prior to council’s regular meeting, Webber made a presentation to its economic development committee.

“Our vision is intercity, active, existing service on the rail corridor, linking Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton to New Jersey and New York City. So it’s a very specific focus that we are advocating,” he said.

In 2023, proposed passenger lines running from New York City to Scranton, with stops in the Poconos, and from Reading to Philadelphia, were accepted into the federal Corridor Identification and Development (CID) program, which helps guide the development of intercity passenger rail.

And then in 2024, a Lehigh Valley Passenger Rail Analysis released by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation-commissioned consultant laid out a 14-step, 10-to-12-year process for getting trains moving again in the Allentown region, with a price tag ranging from $552 million to $841 million.

It also presented five major corridors: Allentown to New York via Hackettstown, New Jersey; Allentown to New York via High Bridge, New Jersey; Allentown to Philadelphia via Lansdale; Allentown to Philadelphia via Norristown; and Allentown to Reading.

At the moment, the Allentown to New York City lines have yet to be accepted into the CID program.

“We need to get to the point where we all agree that the imperative is to pursue the largest economic opportunity,” Webber said.

And he believes that means focusing on the Big Apple.

“In my work on a national level and in direct contact with Amtrak, who’s the predominant operator, the numbers say New York,” Webber continued. “The data has just not been presented to the public and to legislators, to municipal leaders, economic development folks, to be able to make a compelling argument and to expedite the process and put our public tax dollars to best use sooner rather than later. There are billions of dollars of federal funding that are at stake.”

Ultimately, Northampton County Council approved the grant. The money will come from the county’s department of community and economic development community planning fund. 

The vote Thursday night was 8-0; Commissioner Lori Vargo Heffner was absent from the meeting.

Webber said he would be asking Lehigh County for a similar contribution.

He also noted, the study focusing specifically on the Allentown-NYC route is not mutually exclusive from the ongoing Phase II of the Passenger Rail Analysis, which the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission said would take 12 to 16 months and cost $400,000.

Phase II is looking at four components tied to the feasibility of the five possible routes, including identifying the operator of the rail network.

“I think that this is both a strategic and targeted investment, but it’s also an insurance policy that the data gets to light,” said Webber.

Passenger train service from New York to the Lehigh Valley ended in 1967; the last passenger train to Philadelphia ran in 1979.

Other business

Northampton County Council also approved funding for the Bethlehem Economic Development Corporation’s Southside Ambassadors, as well as the Greater Easton Development Partnership’s Easton Ambassadors.  

Both groups requested, and were granted, $30,000 for five years.

The money is coming from the county’s hotel room rental tax, which was instated in 2005 as a way to support community development initiatives.

The Ambassadors in both Easton and Southside Bethlehem perform a number of community-minded services, including greeting visitors, cleaning up trash and graffiti, keeping the landscaping tidy, and offering support at festival and events.