READING, Pa. – There’s a promising update for the proposed passenger rail line project that aims to reconnect Reading to Philadelphia — and it comes by way of the Big Apple.

If you’ve been wondering what’s the latest with the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail project, there’s some hopeful news.

“From the beginning, Amtrak looked at this project as a Reading-to-New York — specifically Manhattan, Moynihan Station — but in order to do that, there currently isn’t enough capacity to go under the Hudson River,” said Berks County Board of Commissioners Chair Christian Leinbach.

Now, though, officials can start spreading the news because the New York Hudson Tunnel project is back on track.

“It had been in construction and had been suspended by the administration and was restarted about a week ago, so they are back at work,” said Tom Frawley, executive director of the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority.

A component of the ongoing plans for the Schuylkill River Rail once again connecting Reading to Philadelphia also included New York City.

The Hudson Tunnel project that involves adding two brand new tracks.

“The preliminary thinking is that it would provide superior economics for the service, so it would require less and hopefully very little operating subsidy,” Frawley said.

With the Hudson Tunnel project once again a “go,” there are a few other things that need to happen so that the passenger train can happen, too.

“We’re getting into ridership, working more closely with Amtrak, more importantly working with Norfolk Southern,” Leinbach said.

Union Pacific wants to buy Norfolk Southern, and Berks County now has legal representation for those talks.

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you aren’t in a position to protect what’s important to us, and what’s important to us is access to the Norfolk Southern tracks because literally 90% of the track that we need to get from here to Philadelphia is Norfolk Southern track,” Leinbach said.

Outside of the Union Pacific potential purchase and Hudson Tunnel project, it all adds up to Reading getting closer to passenger rail connection.