How does a train trip from Honesdale to Hoboken strike you? Plenty of people would like to see the bygone transportation restored. 

Al Siebold, director of safety and security for Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc., says passenger train service is a “very viable” future endeavor, something Wayne County could see in the coming three years. A glance to the past shows November 13, 1942 as the last passenger service out of Honesdale via Erie Railroad.

 A meeting was held last month with Dave Williams, state director of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau; Woodloch Pines; Settler’s Inn and others in the tourist industry, along with Siebold, managing director of the Stourbridge Railroad — all interested in bringing tourist trade in from the New York area via rail. Williams says they’re looking at bringing tourists into the County and the opportunity for local residents to travel into New York also.

Siebold says, “The train would be run as a tourist service from Hoboken to the local resorts, probably on a Friday night. On Saturday, the train ‘could’ take local residents to NYC for sightseeing, dinner & theater and return them on Sunday morning. This would position the train for the weekend tourists to return to Hoboken on Sunday evening.” As to commuter service, Siebold says that would “probably be the domain of a State authority due to the huge investment in equipment and signaling that would be needed.”

  The tourist trade would bring extra income and jobs, Williams says. “Here we are, in a world economy where a lot of people are losing their jobs, what that would create would be a tremendous amount of extra income coming to the resorts, to the restaurants and people like that.” The farmer would benefit because a lot of local restaurants and resorts buy food directly from them, Williams said. Plus, farmers could arrange “farm tours” with resorts and their guests to tour their horse farm, creamery, etc.

“It’s an untapped area for families to come,” Siebold said. “The way things are today, people are looking for short trips, weekend getaways.

“The reason that a passenger train was considered is due to the success we achieved with similar train service in Maine (with the Maine Lobster Festival). It became a very successful, regional passenger excursion service,” he said. People likened the train’s arrival to having “a 747, big aircraft, landing on Main Street every day,” Siebold said.

The train and the track are already in place, to get from Hoboken to Honesdale, Williams said. “We can go all the way to New York City, provided we have the proper insurance,” he said. Since the insurance would be expensive, Williams said he’s trying to get “part of the stimulus package to overcome this insurance problem. For government, that’d be no more than bonding, probably.”

Siebold agrees that the big problem for passenger service is insurance. He says it would require $150,000,0000 in coverage. “If you can’t get the insurance costs under control, the ticket would be far too expensive,” he said.

The Morristown & Erie Railway Inc., operator of the Stourbridge Railroad, already has “a dozen or so” passenger cars,” Siebold said. They’d just have to rebuild them to spec — to be able to travel as fast as Amtrak travels, 79 miles mph, Siebold said. “The train would be made up of locomotives and railcars that were recently retired by Amtrak.  These cars would be refurbished with luxury appointments as we did with our Maine excursion train. It would include parlor service and dining,” he said. 

They’re also looking into securing state grants to help “bring the track up to speed.” From Hoboken to Honesdale is 130 miles of track. “Most of it is already up to speed,” Siebold said. Hoboken to Port Jervis is already 79 mph track. He says they’re working with Susquehanna Railroad to upgrade their portion of the track, 23 miles; while Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc., would need to upgrade 25 miles of track. 

Rebuilding freight rail service
Siebold, managing director of the Stourbridge Railroad, says they’re currently concentrating on rebuilding the freight service.

With the railroad trestle restored in Hawley, they’re now reconnected to the National Railway System via Lackawaxen. Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc. based out of Morristown, NJ, is the operator of the line on behalf of Paul Brancato, who has owned the Stourbridge Railroad since May of 2008.

Mr. Brancato has proposed building an Ideal Steel Supply warehouse near the tracks in White Mills. “We’re in the site plan stage,” Siebold said. They’d use the train to bring in stock steel to fabricate into saleable products, he said. Headquarters for Ideal Steel Supply Corp. is on Long Island.

Freight service     
Siebold says they’ve had inquiries from local quarries wanting to ship out stone. Stone could be shipped all over the northeast, Siebold said, with some used for railroad ballast, the stone under the tracks. Siebold says they’ve also talked about bringing in road salt via train, propane heating gas, lumber and various other products.  

 Williams, state director of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, says they’ve been in talks with a large fertilizer company about opening up a fertilizer distribution point along the rail lines. “Rail is about five times cheaper than trucking, in large commodities like that,” Williams said. Siebold says one railcar is equal to about four tractor trailers.

“And of course, this part of the country has had problems during the peak seasons even getting fertilizer, which is one of the hindrances of farming. And would cut the cost down tremendously. Input costs is what kills farmers,” Williams said. Fertilizer costs went from $150 per ton to as much as $1,300 per ton last year, he said. It takes about one ton of fertilizer to cover 10 acres of field, he said. “Many of the farmers haven’t been able to afford it. So the nutrient value, naturally goes down in the crops ...And they’ve been waiting until the price goes down.

“Machinery could be brought in by rail. Commodities could be shipped out, such as hay. There is an overseas market for hay right now ...We’re looking at products coming into the feed mills, we’re looking at machinery, also many of the products that the businesses use here,” Williams said. “So many things can come out of that rail for agriculture.

“It’s really a definite part of the agriculture world, the train is ... it could open up a lot of new doors for us here in Wayne County.”