Phase 1 Overview (NJ Transit)
In May 2008, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) approved funding for Phase 1—also known as the Lackawanna Cut-Off MOS Trackbed Restoration Project, or Minimal Operating Segment (MOS)—of the New Jersey Transit project to rebuild the first 7.3 miles (11.7 km) of the Cut-Off between Port Morris Junction and Andover.
Phase 1 would reopen one track on the once-abandoned line with a speed limit of 70 mph (110 km/h) for trains made up of existing NJ Transit diesel locomotives and coaches. Eight eastbound and eight westbound trains to and from Hoboken Terminal and/or New York Penn Station were proposed run on weekdays; weekend service was not originally planned. Additional non-revenue trains (deadhead moves) would run in each direction to move equipment to and from Port Morris Yard.
The project would build a station on Roseville Road in Andover with 55 parking spaces and a 200-foot (61 m) high-level platform. Located about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) from U.S. Route 206 and about 0.9 miles (1.4 km) from Sussex County Route 517, the station site is the area’s only land parcel of sufficient size that is at grade with the Cut-Off and near a major highway. No station has previously existed on the Cut-Off in Andover. (Historically, the town of Andover did have a passenger station, but on the Sussex Branch, which was a line that passed under the Cut-Off, parallel to today’s US Route 206. Commuter service on the Sussex Branch was abandoned in the late-1960s.)
The Andover Extension project would include work on the Roseville Tunnel, which has seen ice buildup within during the winter and drainage problems and rockslides just west of the tunnel bore for most of its history. Due to the Cut-Off’s designation as an historic rail corridor, Roseville Tunnel could not be “daylighted” (turned into an open cut), but could be rehabilitated so that it could be safely used.
The 2008 approval made the project eligible for Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding for engineering and design work.
By 2009, the environmental assessment for the remainder of the project to Scranton was completed, with a “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Phase 1 Project Status (2011-Present)
Brush removal and general preparation to restore trackage between Port Morris and Andover began in early 2011 after being delayed by a disagreement between the NJ-DEP and NJ Transit over the proposed location for Andover Station. Separately, a small area of wetlands was found near County Route 605 in Stanhope where a stream passes along the north side of the right-of-way. Federal regulations governing projects that receive federal funding forbid tree and brush removal from April 1st to October 31st due to the mating season of the endangered species, the Indiana bat. (West of Andover, the bat’s mating season is deemed to end on October 1st.)
Twenty-seven years after the track had been removed by Conrail, and exactly a century after it had first been laid by the Lackawanna, the once unthinkable was happening: track was returning to the Lackawanna Cut-Off. It started with the re-laying of track at Port Morris in September 2011. By December 2011, about 1 mile (1.6 km) of track had been installed west of Port Morris Junction, at which time a Norfolk Southern train delivered the remaining continuously welded rail to the Cut-Off at Port Morris, which will be used to ultimately reach Andover.
As of 2022, about 4.25 miles (6.84 km) of rail, in three unconnected sections, has been laid between Port Morris and Lake Lackawanna. Most of the right-of-way between Port Morris Junction and the lake has been cleared of trees and debris. NJ Transit has been temporarily storing retired locomotives on a short section of the Cut-Off near Port Morris Junction since 2013.
Environmental permits for work on and near Roseville Tunnel have been approved, and work for that part of the project could proceed at any time. It is anticipated that NJ Transit will award a contract for rebuilding the Roseville Tunnel in early- to mid-2022.
Environmental permits were issued for the non-Roseville parts of the project back in April 2015, and NJ Transit acquired 3.53 acres of wetlands mitigation credits to compensate for the loss of wetlands in building Andover Station. (Virtually all of the delays to NJ Transit’s project were caused by environmental “regulation creep”: the imposition of new environmental requirements after existing environmental requirements had already been met.)
Even though no further permits were required at that point, NJDEP officials, in an unprecedented move, reportedly at the behest of the chairman of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, citing computer models of specious accuracy—the model was validated in use for flow rates on the Lower Delaware River, a river with a flow rate more than a million times that of Junction Brook!—determined that the threat of a theoretical 100-year flood “required” the replacement of a 219-foot (67 m) section of underground pipe that fed water from a wetlands area into Junction Brook about 500 feet (150 m) upstream from Andover Station. The pipe crossed land owned by the private Hudson Farm (which is owned by IAT Reinsurance Ltd.), which would initially refuse to allow the work to take place. This stalled Phase 1. On April 9, 2018, the Andover Township Committee announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with Hudson Farm to replace the original culvert. On June 25, 2018, the Andover Township Committee signed a resolution with Hudson Farm, stating its intent to compensate it $115,000 for the property on which the culvert, and a barn, were located.
Full funding for the $61.6-million Phase 1 was approved by the New Jersey Transit Board of Directors on July 21, 2021, including a federal earmark grant of $18.1 million plus funds from FTA and the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund (NJTTF).
Subsequently, NJ Transit has indicated that work on the Hudson Farm culvert will be completed in tandem with Roseville Tunnel. The qualifying of bidders for work on the tunnel has continued into early-2022. Work on the tunnel is projected to begin in mid-2022. NJ Transit service to Andover is projected to begin in 2026.
Phase 2 (Amtrak)
Beyond Phase 1 (Port Morris Jct. to Andover), there are as yet no defined phases or schedules for completion. It is expected, however, that when the line is extended west of Andover that this would constitute Phase 2 and that, depending on available funding, service would be either directly, or incrementally (in further phases), extended to Scranton, 88 miles (142 km) west of Port Morris, and at some point possibly beyond towards Binghamton, NY, about 195 miles (315 km) from New York City, or possibly north to Syracuse, NY, or locations west on the Southern Tier of New York (Elmira, Corning, etc.). All these cities were once served by the Lackawanna and Erie Lackawanna.
In 2007, the estimated cost for the full build-out to Scranton was projected to be $516 million. This would include track, stations, signals and bridgework on the Cut-Off; additional stations and signals in Pennsylvania; and additional locomotives and passenger cars that would be dedicated to this service. The annual operating cost for the full build-out was projected to be $26 million. Cost estimates for building and operating any intermediate phases, if applicable, have not yet been determined.
In October 2015, a study to update the 2007 data was requested by the FTA as a prerequisite for project funding west of Andover. The new study, released in the beginning of 2020, found that the capital costs for reactivating the railroad from Andover to Delaware Water Gap would be about $288.93 million. The figure, which included the cost of reinstalling about 21 miles of tracks, upgrading two major bridges, and other related work, is roughly half the 2006 estimate of $551 million, largely because it excluded building stations west of the Delaware Water Gap, as well as two maintenance facilities, and other upgrades included in the earlier study. The 2020 study cost about $1 million, funded by local, state, and federal grants assembled by the office of U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority was the study’s lead sponsor. (For more information on this proposal, see ALTERNATE PHASE 2 (NJ TRANSIT) below.)
In May 2021, Amtrak proposed three round-trip trains per day between New York City and Scranton as part of its 15-year vision, estimating a 136-mile trip time of 3 hours 25 minutes. In July 2021, Amtrak entered into an agreement to formally assess the infrastructure, ridership, and revenue of the route in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority, with an approximate one-year timeline and $400,000 cost.
Also in July 2021, Representative Matt Cartwright (PA – 8th District) announced the formation of a congressional Lackawanna Cut-Off Rail Restoration Caucus focused on completing the project. The founding members are Cartwright, Susan Wild (PA 7th District), Mikie Sherrill (NJ 11th District), and Josh Gottheimer (NJ 5th District). (Congressional redistricting taking effect in 2022 in New Jersey will also potentially add the Member of Congress from the 7th District in New Jersey.)
In the scenario of a full build-out to Scranton, the following elements are anticipated to be included (subject to any changes initiated or proposed by Amtrak, as noted):
In New Jersey:
- Rebuild the remainder of the Cut-Off (21 miles, 33 km) from Andover as a single-track railroad with a passing siding about 4 miles (6.5 km) east of Blairstown.
- Repair the Delaware River Viaduct.
- Repair the Paulinskill Viaduct.
- Reopen Blairstown Station
- Build a maintenance facility at the former Greendell station site (Amtrak has not yet announced its intention to use this site).
In Pennsylvania:
- Replace the highway bridge at Slateford Junction (Slateford Road) that was removed in 1990.
- Build a station near the Delaware Water Gap Visitors’ Center in Smithfield Township with a parking garage (Amtrak’s proposed service does not include a station at Delaware Water Gap).
- Build a station in East Stroudsburg slightly east of the historic location
- Build a station in Analomink (Amtrak’s proposed service does not include a station at Analomink).
- Build a Pocono Mountain station near the former Mount Pocono station (Amtrak’s proposal calls this station “Mount Pocono”).
- Reopen the historic station building at Tobyhanna near the Army Depot.
- Open the already-existing multi-modal station in Scranton west of the former DL&W station, and build an overnight storage and maintenance yard for trainsets, as well as a facility for train crews.
- Upgrade the tracks in Pennsylvania.
- Install a signal system compatible with NJ Transit / Amtrak standards.
- All stations would have high-level platforms and would comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Service could be scheduled either to Hoboken (NJ Transit) or New York City NJ Transit or Amtrak). Amtrak is expected to perform ridership estimates which would be based on both commuter and non-commuter (recreational and tourist) passenger volumes.
ALTERNATE PHASE 2 (NJ TRANSIT)
An alternate scenario would define Phase 2 based on the final report of the Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration – Commuter Rail Study that was released in early-2020 (previously cited above). It was prepared by Greenman-Pederson, Inc. of Scranton, PA (supported by sub-consultant Gannett-Fleming, Inc.) for the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority and the Lackawanna County Department of Planning and Economic Development. The scope of work included: assessments of the condition of the Paulinskill and Delaware River Viaducts; conceptual evaluation of a rail station and parking garage layout at Delaware Water Gap; a desk-top assessment of track geometry and rail operating speeds along the corridor; desk-top assessment of signaling and Positive Train Control (PTC) needs in the corridor; assessments of the existing track, drainage and railroad bed condition in the corridor; conceptual layout of a bridge to carry Slateford Road over the restored passenger line; underwater inspection of the three river piers of the Delaware River Viaduct; and conceptual and updated cost estimates for the anticipated improvements.
The total conceptual construction costs for the project were estimated to be $288,930,000. The individual cost elements were broken down as follows: Delaware Water Gap Rail Station ($32,630,000); right-of-way acquisition at the Delaware Water Gap Station ($1,500,000); Slateford Road Overhead Bridge construction and nearby culvert repairs ($3,320,000); signals and Positive Train Control ($8,190,000); track restoration in Pennsylvania (Delaware River Viaduct to Slateford Junction) ($16,610,000); track Restoration in New Jersey (Andover to Delaware River Viaduct) ($112,600,000); Delaware River Viaduct Rehabilitation ($54,000,000); Paulinskill Viaduct Rehabilitation ($16,000,000); and design, environmental and engineering costs ($44,080,000).
The source of the funding for this scenario has not yet been identified. In the event of Amtrak funding (via the Federal Railroad Administration), the funding for the section between Delaware Water Gap and Scranton would be defined as Phase 2a and would be presumed to be performed in conjunction with the work in Phase 2 (Andover to Delaware Water Gap).
As previously noted, Amtrak’s Vision document (May 27, 2021) does not include a station stop at Delaware Water Gap and, most notably, extends service to Scranton, which was not within the scope of the Greenman-Pederson study as that study was completed before the Amtrak Vision document and map were released.