{"id":313777,"date":"2026-10-25T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313777\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:00:10","slug":"colin-mcnickle-questions-abound-over-2nd-daily-pennsylvanian-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313777\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin McNickle: Questions abound over 2nd daily Pennsylvanian train"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s lots of happy talk surrounding next month\u2019s return of a second daily Amtrak Pennsylvanian passenger train <\/a>that will run between Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and New York City.<\/p>\n

Keystone State residents will get the train service they deserve, goes one line of chit-chat. It will promote tourism in Pennsylvania, if not general economic development, goes another. Still others cite the simple convenience of having that second daily Pennsylvanian in service.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the rationale that the addition somehow cements Pennsylvania\u2019s reputation as the train capital of the United States.<\/p>\n

But a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says obvious questions are not being broached or answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs the addition of a (second) daily service from Pittsburgh warranted by demand and how long will it take to reap the economic benefits to justify the $220 million spent to make the needed improvements on the railroad as required by (track owner) Norfolk Southern as a condition for the second running of the Pennsylvanian?\u201d asks Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Pittsburgh think tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, most importantly,\u201d asks the Ph.D. economist, \u201chow many future passengers that would have used the existing service will choose to travel on the new line, thereby splitting up passengers between the two?\u201d<\/p>\n

Never mind that while the multimillion-dollar improvements will benefit Norfolk Southern greatly, they will do nothing to improve passenger train travel times. In fact, the latest Amtrak schedule shows travel times will be slightly slower than before.<\/p>\n

And Haulk has other questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed, where is the forecast of ridership on the second Pennsylvanian train from Pittsburgh across the commonwealth?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how much economic benefit is there per person riding the train as opposed to riding in automobiles?\u201d One can save about two hours of travel time from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg and from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia by driving versus taking the Pennsylvanian.<\/p>\n

Of course, Amtrak \u201ccertainly is not a substitute for people who fly in light of the time it takes to get to Philadelphia or New York from Pittsburgh by train,\u201d he reminds.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, what are the societal or potential environmental benefits?\u201d Haulk asks. \u201cAre there available studies that address those issues?\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply put, the think tank scholar says taxpayers who will be paying for the \u201cneeded\u201d improvements and the subsidy to Amtrak necessary to operate the second train \u2014 especially if the passenger demand is far below levels to cover operating costs of a second train \u2014 deserve to know the details.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile a second train sounds good, there ought to be substantial publicly announced research to show prospective ridership over and above the numbers on the existing service and the expenditures necessary to prepare for and operate a second Pennsylvanian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haulk, citing U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics numbers, notes that in 2025, Pittsburgh\u2019s Downtown Amtrak station saw an increase in boarding and disembarking passengers to a recent high of 141,146. But that\u2019s still below the 10-year-ago 2015 count of 149,587.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuild it and they will come is not the basis of sound public policy,\u201d Halk concludes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s lots of happy talk surrounding next month\u2019s return of a second daily Amtrak Pennsylvanian passenger train that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-313777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}