Honestly this will do more to alleviate traffic on 76 than the KOP line ever would have. Other than hooking up the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway and connecting West Chester to Regional Rail, this is easily the most exciting prospective project.

I wish they would include Birdsboro as a stop, and have an extension to Oaks since the rail leads right to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. And once they get this hooked up to Norristown, I'd also like their train to stop at the Wissahickon station on the way to CC too :)

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honestly I'd rather Manyunk but that's because the Wissahickon station is in a bad spot compare to the transit center itself

I desperately want to see this happen, if only for the Reading-Pottstown-Phoenixville connection. The bars and restaurants within walking distance of each of those trains stations are phenomenal.

I feel like a crazy person on this sub for wanting exactly this.

Even better, there's a train that runs from Reading to Jim Thorpe at least daily. If they both left from the same station in Reading, imagine being able to head up to the Poconos from the city without having to drive there.

What train is this?

I dream of this. Bring my snowboard up to the Poconos and not needing a car

That would give room for a backwards train to KOP one day. Maybe lol

It's continuing on because it's not reliant on SEPTA having money to actually do it, it's going to be Amtrak who actually provides the service and pays for its implementation.

https://www.rbmnrr-passenger.com/schedule

Heard about this when I was up in Jim Thorpe last year.

The Jim Thorpe train actually leaves from the outer station, or at least it did a few years ago. Not sure if a link from there to Franklin St is in this plan or not

Yeah either Manayunk, Wissahickon, and/or North Broad would be a good connection point w/ North/NW Philly.

Hopefully SEPTA can get better funding from the PA government some day. Dems getting control of the state House helps.

I'll admit, I wasn't as familiar with the area to know there were two different stations, but it would be awesome if they could connect those, too.

actually, wait, I can give a list of stops I'd like to see on a Philadelphia to Reading service:

30th St, North Philadelphia (if it gets rebuilt, maybe? otherwise, no), Manayunk, Norristown, King of Prussia, Valley Forge, Phoenixville, Royersford, Pottstown, Birdsboro, Reading. It'd also be nice if it continued past that to Pottsville via Temple, Leesport, Shoemakersville, Hamburg, Port Clinton, Auburn, Schuylkill Haven, and Pottsville. Though I think that would be a bit of an ask of it, to be honest

I think it’s more likely the Fed’s told SEPTA they would support one but not both of these projects because it doesn’t make sense to do both. Who’s gonna take the KOP rail and transfer at 69th St when you could just take a one-seat ride into center city from Phoenixville or Valley Forge? Ideally they’d find a way to have this serve KOP properly, that’s the most sensible thing IMO.

I'd honestly prefer it if they gave certain places more than one stop. Pottstown could probably get two, and Reading alone could have 2-3 while the surrounding suburbs could get probably 2-3 more.

Past the Reading area not sure how worth it would be honestly.

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As a resident of Phoenixville, I'd love to be able to hop on the train to some other towns without a drive.

There's also a train from Jim Thorpe to Pittston (near Scranton), at least for the spring and summer.

Edit: I actually looked into this a bit more. The train ride is more "something you do" more than something you take. It's $50 round trip and only runs once per day, and is designed to be taken from Pittston. You have to buy tickets two weeks in advance. Definitely more of a private touristy thing. And it takes over 2 hours. You can do it by car in 1.

The UK has several Rail Ale Trails - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_ale_trail We're so far behind

They had every opportunity to call it Thomas the Drank Engine and yet they chose not to

Opportunity for the USA!

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IMHO, linking up Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton (the 3rd biggest urban area in Pennsylvania) with Philadelphia should be a priority. Many in the Lehigh Valley commute daily to Philadelphia.

That is just insane to me. Edit: people commuting daily to Philly from LV.

Agreed; I have neighbors that do this commute. Route 476 is fast and stressful; route 76 is distressingly slow and more stressful. Even more insane, I have neighbors that commute into Manhattan, yuck.