E-town Train Station Stimulus Project Under Fire

Posted on | June 17, 2009 | 1 Comment

WHTM reports:

Earlier this year, Congress passed a $787 billion stimulus bill that was supposed to jump start the economy and put Americans back to work.

As the stimulus projects are being revealed, some suggest there’s too much wasteful spending. A federal lawmaker put out a report Tuesday that discloses what he believes to be one-hundred of the worst examples of waste in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. One midstate stimulus project made the list and it’s in Lancaster County.

Senator Coburn puts the train station renovation #8 on his list.  This project, however, has been needed for decades as the station itself has been shuttered that long.  Moreover, while many people who may not ride the train are misinformed:

“Nine million I would think would be a lot,” said Leslye Huebsch of Hershey. “It’s a small town so I wouldn’t think you’d need anything major. It’s not a big stop I wouldn’t think.”

The truth is the Elizabethtown Amtrak stations is the sixth most popular train station in Pennsylvania with 90,644 boardings and alightings in 2008 more than doubling since 2004.  Between the ADA compliant train station renovation and corridor one, the Elizabethtown train station stands to continue its passenger growth becoming an ever more important component to Amtrak’s system.

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