Amtrak’s agreement with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) will see the former providing professional services, like infrastructure assessment and, forecasting ridership and revenue, and estimates as to what equipment will be needed to construct a passenger rail line from Scranton to the Big Apple, Progressive Railroading reports.

The idea for such a line has been floated for more than a decade, according to a previous press release from PNRRA. Amtrak has been lobbying Congress for some time for additional funding to expand their service to more cities in the US, and its system map remains largely unchanged since the early 1970’s.

"This proposed new Amtrak corridor will provide the residents of northeastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey and New York City a brand new transportation option and direct connection between the region and the entire Amtrak system which serves over 500 stations in the United States and Canada, PNRRA Chairman Bob Hay recently said.

Analysis of the project will take one year to complete and cost $400,000, according to Progressive Railroading. 

Amtrak has nearly 40 new routes they would like to construct and are pinning their hopes on Congress to pass infrastructure bills to give them the funding they need to construct and open up new rail lines.

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