SEPTA - Lansdale - Quakertown - Shelly Service Restoration (ex-RDG)

[schlimm]

So $146 mil over the entire 20 miles extra to electrify?  $7+ mil per mile?  Pretty high compared to electrification elsewhere.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

7:10 PM - fixed formatting (I hope). 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Deleted duplicate post.   

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Since the above doesn't seem to have been discussed here in depth before, I'll a new thread. I don't have any great knowledge of it - just an interest it seeing it happen - which unfortunately doesn't look like anytime soon. (On another forum and thread here, a poster asked if it would be the SilverLiner V or VI that would be running when this serice was restored . . . )  [Something's wrong with the formatting here now - just a "SimpleText" seems to be available . . . but I'll try anyway]

 Link to an article about an April 26, 2011 public information meeting from the Allentown Morning Call newspaper this past Weds., April 27, 2011:

 http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-passenger-train-service-quakertown20110426,0,1293419.story

 Link to current website for the project:

 http://www.bucksmontcorridor.com/  

There are 3 links there under the "Public Meeting Recap" heading for more information - the best are the "Fact Sheet" and the "Presentation", which has some really neat historic photos in its first few pages/ slides. Personally, $182 million to restore service over just 8 miles seems prima facie outrageously high to me - but then, I'm not in that business . . .

At the "Information" webpage are links to the 2007 "Alternatives Analysis" documents, which are several hundred pages with lots of interesting details, such as cost estimates and typical unit costs, etc. Let's see if I can post the direct links to them:

Executive Summary (21 pages, approx. 4.5 MB in size) - 

http://www.rushbus.org/bucksmont/qtownrailexecutivesummary.pdf

 Alternatives Analysis (198 pages, approx. 19.0 MB in size) -

http://www.rushbus.org/bucksmont/qtownrailalternativesanalysis.pdf

 Appendices (95 pages, approx. 10.1 MB in size) -

 http://www.rushbus.org/bucksmont/qtownrailappendices.pdf 

 Project Process and Maps (4 poster-size sheets, approx. 1.50 MB in size) -

 http://www.rushbus.org/bucksmont/qtownprojectprocess.pdf 

 Display Boards (8 pages, approx. 6.2 MB in size) - 

 http://www.rushbus.org/bucksmont/qtownraildisplays.pdf 

 Link to outdated 01-08-2010 "Quakertown Branch Passenger Rail" webpage of the Montgomery County Planning Commission -

 http://planning.montcopa.org/planning/cwp/view,a,1677,q,74005.asp 

 - Paul North.