NEWS VOICES
Welcome to News Voices, a weekly feature where members of the WVIA News team will talk with each other — and sometimes sources — about key things we've learned in recent stories we have been working on.
Today, Roger DuPuis sits down with Borys Krawczeniuk to talk about key developments in the long saga of bringing passenger rail back to Scranton, including U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan's recent statement of support for the project.
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ROGER: I'm Roger DuPuis, and you are listening to News Voices. I'm here with WVIA News reporter Borys Krawczeniuk and we are going to talk about the status of the Scranton to New York passenger rail project. Hello, Borys.
BORYS: Hello, how are you?
ROGER: Great, sir, good to have you here. So tell me, if you would please, what the status of the planning for this project is right now?
BORYS: So right before President Biden left office, the project became one of the few in the country that got federal money to develop a service development plan, and that's basically figuring out how the whole thing will work before they get into the engineering. And that's a big step, because it's one of the few in the country that got that approval. And then, you know, the new administration takes over, and you know, we have a new congressman too, Rob Bresnahan. And everybody starts wondering, 'okay, so can we expect this to stay on track?'
ROGER: And how important is Congressman Bresnahan's support for this project, and why do you think he came out in favor of it last week?
BORYS: You know, he's very much aligned with President Trump, so if he were to come out against it, that would be a real blow to the project. He said right after he was elected that he thought he would be on board, and I know that Congressman Cartwright and others have spent the last couple of months talking to him about its importance, and him coming out when he did, you know, matters a great deal. You want, you know, everybody pulling in the same direction on something that's proven so difficult to get done over the decades.
ROGER: Right, and just to remind our listeners, so of course, Congressman Matt Cartwright was Mr. Bresnahan's predecessor. He was a Democrat. He was very much in favor of the project.
BORYS: Biggest champion so far, yep.
ROGER: Absolutely, and Congressman Bresnahan is, of course, a Republican, and he may support this project, but that comes as the Trump administration is looking to cut federal spending overall. And as you probably know, Elon Musk has been critical of Amtrak, saying the system should be privatized. So I guess I'm wondering, is Bresnahan swimming against the tide of his own party here?
BORYS: Maybe. He campaigned on, you know, I'm going to do what's good for Northeastern Pennsylvania. And so far, he's stayed with that. That's the next phase of funding they're going to have to fight for to prove that it's, you know, worthy of being built. And we'll find out exactly how much he supports it then. But so far, he's, you know, proving that he's supportive. And I think he knows that most people in the Poconos and most people in Lackawanna County think it's important, those are the two of the big counties in his district.
ROGER: If I could, looking at the bigger picture, speaking of Amtrak, so the railroad CEO, Stephen Gardner, he stepped down last week, and multiple sources have been reporting that the White House basically asked him to leave. So, you know, from your perspective, someone who's been covering this project for many, many years, do you think you know these developments could put it in jeopardy?
BORYS: We'll see. I don't know. He was a huge supporter of this particular project, according to Scranton's mayor Paige Cognetti, and it was pretty clear that Amtrak has supported this project. I think the estimate was about 470,000 riders a year. So it was going to benefit Amtrak tremendously. It was also going to be relatively easy to get done, because all of the track between here and New York City is in control of public governments, public entities. And, pretty clear, that Amtrak sent multiple, multiple officials into the district to look at the various aspects over the last year or two, and it was pretty clear that Amtrak's really on board, and Gardner was leading that. So, you know, his loss is a critical loss. We'll see who replaces him and what they think.
ROGER: All right, you know, one further question, if everything does go according to the plan and the project proceeds as people are hoping it will, what are the next steps we should watch for here in the region?
BORYS: If they get by this part, and which is the service development plan, developing the plans for how it all work. Then the next plan is the preliminary engineering and design and coming up with the plans that will tell the contractors how this is going to be built. Right now, the estimates are between $800 million and $1.2 billion, you know, it's a very tight fiscal picture, as House Republicans and Senate Republicans have portrayed it. You know, there is this push, and has been for years, to privatize Amtrak. So there's a critical question of whether or not it's going to be the publicly financed version of Amtrak doing this, or whether it's going to be in private hands doing this.
ROGER: Okay, Borys, thank you so much for your time.
BORYS: Thanks.
READ MORE ON BRESNAHAN'S SUPPORT FOR THE TRAIN: Bresnahan offers 'strong support' for Scranton to New York City passenger train
