In the ideal future officials imagined Monday, locally built high-speed trains would whisk commuters from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh in fewer than four hours, with the option to stop in State College or continue to Cleveland.
With optimism stoked by the promise of $8 billion in federal stimulus money and $51 billion in upcoming legislation, business leaders, train advocates and public officials touted expanded rail service to three members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in a hearing Downtown.
"Moving more passengers to our railways could have an immediate impact on highway congestion," said Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, a member of the committee and chairman of the hearing.
Pittsburgh is the western end of the Federal Railroad Administration's proposed "Keystone Corridor," which would connect the city to Harrisburg and Philadelphia with high-speed trains. The Harrisburg-to-Philadelphia leg has Amtrak trains making the 90-minute journey at up to 110 mph. The Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg leg has a single train that takes 5 1/2 hours in each direction.
Altmire proposed expanding the corridor to Cleveland, where it would connect to a network proposed for Chicago and the Midwest. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Blair County, wanted the trains to go through underserved communities such as Altoona, Johnstown and State College.
Many who testified saw what high-speed rail could do for them.
The CEO of General Electric's transportation division said he could put nearly 2,000 people to work in Erie building diesel-electric locomotives. An associate vice president from Penn State said the system could create a "technology corridor" between State College and Pittsburgh. The president of McKeesport-based Maglev Inc. sees potential for his company to eventually design and build a magnetically suspended train moving up to 300 mph.
But doubts remain about whether cash-strapped states could afford the operating costs, and whether high-speed rail could ever turn a profit.
Henry Posner III, chairman of the Green Tree-based Railroad Development Corp., said systems in Germany and Japan are profitable only because they serve wealthy passengers, on existing rail infrastructure, in densely populated areas.
"If we do it the right way, we can at least break even," Shuster said. "If we focus just on certain corridors, and don't try today to build a national system, I believe we can get to a point where it's self-sustaining."
Patrick McMahon, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, which represents Port Authority operators and staff, argued that public transportation was impossible without government subsidies, and became a public service.
This summer, Pennsylvania will compete with other projects around the nation for a piece of the $8 billion in stimulus money to improve the tracks to Harrisburg, which Amtrak shares with lumbering Norfolk Southern freight trains. But after decades of dwindling passenger rail service through Pittsburgh, the area might struggle to compete with projects such as California's Capitol Corridor service.
"Pennsylvania has a long way to go to catch up with other regions in being ready, not just for high-speed rail, but for more frequent inter-city passenger rail service," Posner said.
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