SEPTA looks westward: SEPTA aims to ease highway congestion between Philadelphia and Reading with the $1.83 billion Schuylkill Valley MetroRail project. But is everyone on board? - Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

When the Federal Transit Administration in January approved the start of preliminary engineering for the Schuylkill Valley MetroRail (SVM), it was seen as an important milestone for the largest expansion project the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority had embarked upon in years. Months later, SEPTA officials say they're pleased with continuing efforts to bring the SVM to life. Others feel that milestone may have been just another bump in the road.

Developed jointly by SEPTA and the Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority, the SVM project envisions a 74-mile electrified rail line serving the traffic-congested corridor between Philadelphia and Reading/Wyomissing, including a new, 40-mile extension that would run on a Norfolk Southern right-of-way. SEPTA proposes a shared access operating plan, with separate tracks built for MetroRail and combined single-and double tracking. The two parties have not yet come to an agreement.

"It is basically a modern commuter rail system with a lot of transit-type characteristics," says SEPTA's Director of Long-Range Planning David Fogel. "It would be fully electric, as is our current regional rail system, but it would have high-level platforms at stations for full accessibility and reduced dwell times.

The western suburbs of Philadelphia are areas that transit officials see as prime candidates for a rail line such as the SVM.

"A lot of the population and employment centers have gone further west," says Fogel. "So what this project should do is basically re-direct system capacity to where the demand is. Things have happened in the last 20-30 years in eastern Montgomery County and King of Prussia that really call for rail transit as soon as possible."

According to Fogel, the SVM would provide high-frequency transit service to an estimated 50,000 daily riders, as well as help contain the suburban sprawl occurring on the western outskirts of Philadelphia. "We want to work with the counties and the municipalities to have supportive land use decisions and transportation plans implemented that would encourage focusing of the growth in the older industrial and suburban centers," he says. "Not only would it be a more transit-friendly environment, but it will help contain and manage the growth that is eating up existing farm land and vacant space."

The MetroRail concept was deemed by local residents as the preferred alternative, according to the completed Draft Environmental Impact Statement. SEPTA calls MetroRail "an innovative approach that combines speed, capacity, and safety of commuter rail service with the operating efficiency, rider convenience, and economy of light rail."

The vehicles themselves would have wide, subway-car-type doors for easier boarding. SEPTA is working on a proof-of-payment system and one-person train operations to "reduce the operating cost so that we can put more money into frequent service," says Fogel. The project will require 15 new stations west of Norristown, and two new stations east of Norristown on the existing alignment. SEPTA is also proposing a station be built at 52nd Street in West Philadelphia.

The SVM would extend SEPTA's R6 regional rail line out of Norristown approximately 40 miles to Wyomissing, just west of Reading in Berks County. SEPTA says intermediate stops in Montgomery and Chester Counties, and on into Berks County, would gain new ridership and help decongest local highways. "We hope people will either use this as their sole form of transportation or do away with a second car, so that they'll have convenient transportation to Philadelphia and the major centers along the way, including Reading and King of Prussia," says Fogel. A large number of grade crossings will be equipped with "state-of-the-art" protection, and the entire SVM corridor will be powered by overhead catenary.

At this juncture, preliminary engineering has been approved by the FTA and $75 million in Federal New Start funding has been authorized in TEA-21, with $25.7 million of that appropriated by Congress. A DEIS has been completed, followed by a 45-day public review and comment period. Urban Engineers, teamed with STV Inc., are part of the preliminary engineering team. According to Fogel, SEPTA is anticipating an eight-year time frame for completion of the project, depending on how preliminary engineering goes.

But no project is without its challenges, especially one that requires the cooperation of a freight railroad.

"East of Norristown, the challengers are primarily operational, such as increasing the number of trains along the existing route into Philadelphia," says Fogel. "And high-level platforms will have some engineering challenges at stations. But the main engineering issues and opportunities will be west of Reading, including crossovers over the river and working within the existing roadbed as much as we can. Another key question is alignment and shared access with a freight railroad."

West of Norristown, SEPTA must work with trackage owned by Norfolk Southern, which is not as optimistic as SEPTA about the future of the SVM in its current configuration. "One of the advantages of having shared access is that the existing right-of-way is there, and the challenge is to work with Norfolk Southern so that we wouldn't have to widen the right-of-way," says Fogel.

"We have some serious concerns about the affect of the SVM as presently conceived on our principal corridor into the Philadelphia area," says Norfolk Southern Director-Corporate Affairs Bill Schafer. "At present, our concerns about how it would affect us have not been reflected in the DEIS, and we think that we need some levels of mitigation that have not yet been made publicly apparent, before we feel comfortable with the SVM."

According to Fogel, SEPTA hopes to work with NS on "a memorandum of understanding as far as shared access." The two parties did complete a technical review of the SVM corridor to figure out what it would entail for them to have shared right-of-way. It is the results of this review that NS officials feel have not been appropriately addressed by SEPTA, and which may lead to future difficulties.

"We have, in thc last two years (since the Conrail split), been making a special point to cooperate with SEPTA as much as we possibly can," says Schafer, "Our relationship with SEPTA is basically a good one and we look forward to working closely with them on new projects that will have benefits for both of us."

Fogel's outlook toward working with NS was a bit brighter as he pointed out some of the benefits the SVM would provide both parties. "Preferably, we would want to use our own tracks," he says, "though we are looking at Norfolk Southern to possibly reassign their through traffic off the corridor into another corridor in Pennsylvania. That would save a considerable amount of money as far as reducing any impacts and providing two tracks for the SVM throughout the corridor. But these issues will be analyzed and reviewed as part of preliminary engineering."

Though some officials at Norfolk Southern feel that the SVM project may be too grand in scale for its own good, SEPTA intends to continue with its efforts, and is currently preparing a grant application to the FTA for the remaining allocated New Start funds. The next step will be initiation of preliminary engineering According to Fogel, SEPTA is also working on its plan for vehicle procurement, though whether they will take a DBOM (design, build, operate, maintain) approach or use traditional methods is unclear at this point.

The one question mark that remains in the clouded future of the SVM, though, may be on whose tracks those procured cars will be travelling. Stay tuned.

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