Keep moving toward return of rail service
The area along Route 422 contains a mixture of urban, suburban and rural. The highway connects these disparate communities and leads them to Philadelphia’s doorstep.
It’s a great idea in theory, but in reality Route 422 is simply not equipped to handle the amount of traffic it gets. The highway often is jammed even on days when construction, accidents, etc., don’t complicate matters.
Route 422 was built in stages from the 1960s to the 1980s through an area that was largely rural. Planners didn’t realize that the highway’s arrival would lead to tremendous housing and business development along its path, and it wasn’t long before traffic greatly exceeded the road’s capacity. Worse yet, the opening of Route 422 coincided with the demise of rail service along the very same route along the Schuylkill River.
If you want to get to the Philadelphia area from Reading, or Pottstown, or Collegeville, the only direct route requires navigating traffic on Route 422 followed by a trip on the excruciating Schuylkill Expressway. There’s no reasonable alternative.
State Rep. Joe Ciresi, a Montgomery County Democrat, offers an excellent illustration of just how bad the problem is. Last year he and Rep. Joe Webster, a Democrat who represents part of Montgomery County, conducted an experiment and took public transit from Pottstown to Philadelphia. It took them 2 hours and 40 minutes. Imagine how long the trip would take for someone in Berks County.
We’re pleased to see more signs of progress in efforts to change that situation even as our region deals with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One recent example was a September virtual town hall on the need to develop transportation alternatives along the corridor. It was hosted by Ciresi and focused on a study funded by the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.
The study called for alleviating congestion on 422 through a combination of commuter rail and a system of trackless trams to act as a feeder system to the rail stations.
Many believe all that’s needed is widening the highway, but the study found that would be an expensive and ineffective approach. And history tells us that when a highway’s capacity expands, traffic grows right along with it. Some improvements to the road
certainly are necessary, but much more needs to be done. As one of the researchers behind the study noted, a train can carry passengers equal to eight lanes of traffic.
The notion of trackless trams is an interesting addition to the ideas already proposed for a return to rail service. With no need to build tracks, they should be cost-effective, and their presence would reduce the likelihood of the sort of park
ing problems typically seen near train stations. The trams are clean, quiet and better for the environment than typical passenger vehicles. It’s an idea worth exploring.
Beyond that, it’s just good to see more momentum behind the idea of restoring rail service. In addition to this study, similar efforts have been undertaken in Reading and Phoenixville. What needs to happen now is a regional effort to agree
on an idea and push to make it happen.
There’s no doubt that the pandemic takes what was already a difficult proposition and makes it even more challenging. But waiting until things start getting back to normal is not an option here. Ideally solutions can be developed now so that they can be ready to put in place at a time when conditions have improved. The researchers behind the Pottstown study said that periods after an economic collapse often turn out to be fertile for innovation that leads to a brighter future.
It’s difficult to make plans when the immediate future is so uncertain. But whenever it is that people start getting out of the house and traveling more — hopefully sooner rather than later — our communities will need the infrastructure to make it happen more smoothly.