That won\u2019t happen because the state Department of Transportation\u2019s service development plan isn\u2019t scheduled to be ready until the middle of 2029. That plan will detail what\u2019s necessary to get a train up and running.<\/p>\n
If the Federal Railroad Administration approves the plan, the project will move into preliminary engineering, final design and then construction.<\/p>\n
Construction is expected to take at least a couple of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are definitely moving aggressively through this process in order to get this over the finish line,\u201d said Angela Watson, PennDOT\u2019s director of rail, freight, ports and waterways, during a recent webinar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Q: How much will a trip cost?<\/p>\n A: Undetermined. During the webinar, PennDOT consultant Jeff Stiles said the train will use Amtrak\u2019s fare schedules.<\/p>\n Amtrak wants to run profitable routes but must compete with buses and car travel.<\/p>\n For example, a roundtrip Martz bus from Scranton to New York City leaving today and returning Monday, costs $65, according to an online fare schedule.<\/a><\/p>\n Round trip by car depends partly on fuel efficiency, current gasoline prices and traffic. Transporting a group of people in a privately owned car generally costs a lot less than transporting the same group by bus or train.<\/p>\n But for one person driving a car, train or bus travel may make more sense when you factor in tolls and parking costs.<\/p>\n Bridge or tunnel tolls into New York City cost between about $15 and $17 if you have E-Z Pass and $23 if you toll by license plate, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey<\/a>.<\/p>\n New York City parking<\/a> can easily run $40 a day or more, less on weekends.<\/p>\n Q: How long will a trip between Scranton and New York City take?<\/p>\n A: Once again, competition matters.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to be comparable to somebody that would be driving, and that is roughly under the three-hour mark,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n Martz buses require at least 2 hours, 25 minutes and as long as 3 hours and 5 minutes, according to its schedules<\/a>. That depends on traffic and number of stops.<\/p>\n This map shows the two potential routes of a proposed Scranton-to-New York City Amtrak passenger train. State and federal officials hosted a webinar Feb. 19, 2026, to recap progress on a plan to develop the service and allow the public to weigh in. <\/p>\n Q: Where will the train stop?<\/p>\n A: Unsettled and part of the current service development plan study, but Amtrak has dropped plenty of hints. Besides Scranton and New York City, Amtrak\u2019s 2023 analysis showed potential stops in Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania and Blairstown, Andover, Dover, Montclair, Morristown and Newark in New Jersey.<\/p>\n A PowerPoint presentation during the recent webinar showed similar stops.<\/a><\/p>\n In response to a question, Stiles did not rule out a potential stop at Tobyhanna, home to the Tobyhanna Army Depot.<\/p>\n Because Amtrak runs inter-city train routes and not a commuter routes, the proposed train may have fewer stops, Stiles said. Trip time may matter.<\/p>\n \u201cSome stations may not be selected, because we need to keep in mind that given (three-hours or less) trip time and so forth,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n In Scranton, the train will stop at a new station built near the Electric City Trolley Museum and Steamtown National Historic Site. It won\u2019t stop at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, the converted train station where passenger trains used to stop.<\/p>\n In New York City, the train will stop at Penn Station in the city\u2019s midtown.<\/p>\n Q: How often will the trains run?<\/p>\n A: Past studies have always assumed at least three trips each way on weekdays, but planners say that\u2019s still undetermined, too. New Jersey Transit and Amtrak operate passenger trains on the tracks closest to the city. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority operates freight trains on the Pennsylvania side. Planners will have to integrate the new train and existing schedules.<\/p>\n \u201cI think in previous studies for inter-city service were three round trips a day, but that could change as the process continues down through planning,\u201d Stiles said.<\/p>\n Q: What about construction and operating costs?<\/p>\n A: Undetermined. Long ago estimates started at $200 million, jumped to $350 million, then $551 million in a 2006 New Jersey Transit study.<\/p>\n In a 2021 study that a local railroad authority paid Amtrak to do, Amtrak came back with a $1.4 billion estimate.<\/p>\n Importantly, the Federal Railroad Administration typically covers 80% of construction costs, leaving the rest to states and local entities.<\/p>\n New Jersey, Pennsylvania or both will have to pick up operating costs. The 2023 Amtrak study estimates the states would have to cover as much as $5.8 million a year.<\/p>\n Q: How about extending service to other cities such as Binghamton, N.Y., Allentown or Philadelphia?<\/p>\n A: Multiple people from the public asked about other destinations during the webinar, but planning officials repeatedly said the Scranton-to-New York City train must come first.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, we are focused on getting the service to Scranton,\u201d said Todd Euston, an engineer with KCI, PennDOT\u2019s passenger rail management consulting firm, and the agency\u2019s project manager for this train. \u201cAs part of our alternatives analysis, other things may be discussed, but right now, we’re dialed in on Scranton.\u201d<\/p>\n Q: We\u2019ve heard talk and speculation about this project for so long. How likely is it to happen?<\/p>\n A: OK, this answer will take a while.<\/p>\n The last passenger train between Scranton and New York City ran on Jan. 5,1970. So, for more than 56 years, people have relied solely on highways to travel between the cities and destinations in between.<\/p>\n Skepticism about changing that is easy to find and certainly warranted, considering how long planning the revival has taken.<\/p>\n This time around, planners see many big differences that matter.<\/p>\n \u25cf Chief among them: money.<\/p>\n Decades ago, train planners relied on occasional federal earmarks or local appropriations to pay for studies or upgrade certain existing tracks. Sporadic and inconsistent, these appropriations often relied on veteran legislators like the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and former congressmen like Joseph McDade and Paul Kanjorski.<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772461868_887_.png\"\/)
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