Biden highlights possibility of Scranton-to-NYC train in Amtrak speech

Apr. 30—President Joe Biden highlighted the possibility of Amtrak passenger train service between Scranton and New York during a speech Friday in Philadelphia.

Standing amid trains at Amtrak's 30th Street Station to celebrate the national railroad's 50th anniversary, Biden, a Scranton native, talked about his American Jobs Plan that includes $80 billion for Amtrak's modernization and expansion of service between new cities.

"Think about what it will mean for opportunity if we connect Milwaukee to Green Bay to Madison, Scranton and Allentown to New York, Indianapolis to Louisville, and much, much more," Biden said. "It's going to provide jobs and will also accommodate jobs. And what this means is that towns and cities that have been in danger of being left out and left behind will be back in the game."

Local advocates of a train between Scranton and New York reacted with glee, somewhat tempered with the realism that years of work remain.

Tyler Kusma, a founder of the Scranton Rail Restoration Coalition, said he heard Biden refer to building a high-speed train between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and turned and looked at his brother.

"I was like, 'Oh, come on, mention Scranton, it'd be wonderful if he did,' but not really expecting him to mention Scranton," Kusma said. "And then he goes and he says, we could bring service to Allentown, Scranton and New York City. And my jaw is kind of dropping like, 'He did it. He actually did it.'"

Over the years, friends regularly reminded Kusma the train has remained 15 to 20 years from fruition for 35 years.

"To have someone of his stature say this and to mention it on the national stage, it's exciting, keeps you going," he said.

Even U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-8, Moosic, who has made the train his mission as a congressman, often with skepticism because of the bureaucratic hurdles that remain, didn't contain his enthusiasm.

"Well, I think it's huge. Because if you're working steadily toward a cause, and the president of the United States comes out and gives it his full-throated endorsement, there's no downside to that," Cartwright said. "I'm a skeptic born of experience. There's just a gargantuan number of hurdles between us and a path to victory. But look, these hurdles come in the form of people. And if you have the president of the United States advocating on your side, you can win a lot of those people over I think."

Larry Malski, executive director of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority who has worked on restoring the service for more than three decades, didn't know Biden would mention Scranton, but thinks it's a great sign. Amtrak lists 39 potential new routes, but only the Scranton route isn't shared with existing major freight railroads, and it's also the only one already under construction, Malski said, referring to a 7.3-mile stretch more than half built in northern New Jersey.

Among other things, the train requires restoring more than 20 more miles of track on the famed Lackawanna Cutoff in northern New Jersey. Getting the money for that and a lot of other work means the project remains far off in the future, but Malski called the slow march toward development "just amazing."

"You know, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago, if somebody said, we'd have a president from Scranton, we'd just get laughed at," Malski said.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.