Chairman: County still pursuing mini rail system
By Margaret Gibbons
For The Reporter
Montgomery County continues to pursue a commute rail service that would link the Pottstown area with the Norristown-King of Prussia area and then on to Philadelphia while also providing service in some of the older river boroughs in between those two areas.
Admittedly, said county Commissioners Chairman Thomas J. Ellis, the proposed Schuylkill Valley metro, with an estimated price tag of $2.2 billion, “is dead and has been for some time.”
“But there has to be a way this can be done, on a much smaller scale, at least to the end of Montgomery County, so we are still alive,” said Ellis.
Ellis, one of the county’s two representatives on the SEPTA board, said he is working with U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach, R-6th District, in an effort to have some of the $2 million in federal grant money earmarked for the Schuylkill Valley Metro released to study smaller alternative projects.
Some of these alternatives include sharing tracks with Norfolk Southern, using diesel service and limiting the frequency of service, said Ellis.
“We need more money to study these alternatives,” he said.
Some alternatives may cost “as little” as $300 million in capital costs, which is not an overwhelming amount of money for the creation of a new commuter rail service, said Ellis.
“We have to do something especially in Montgomery County, to relieve congestion on Route 422,” said Commissioner Ruth S. Damsker.
As initially envisioned, the proposed Schuylkill Valley Metro called for the construction of a 62-mile commuter-rail service that would link Reading in Berks County with Philadelphia, primarily traveling along the Schuylkill River and the 422 corridor.
The project called for the use of a “metrorail” service, which is a hybrid using features of both traditional commuter rail service and light rail service.
However, the project cost, coupled with cutbacks in federal funding for new transit projects, caused the project to die despite the strong vocal support it had received from officials in Montgomery, Chester, and Berks counties.
