I read that article twice, and am still not sure what (or where) the problem is. Maybe that is the problem.

donkey lips?

She was the worst character on ST:TNG; it was only because she was Roddenberry's girlfriend. Everyone loves her as the voice of the computer, though. Her character on the ST:TOS pilot was actually pretty good.

/almost as hot as Pam

Any farkers from Freeland/Hazelton? You guys have the best lilt to your speech.

Why bother with investing in infrastructure? We've ignored it long enough it shouldn't matter anymore.

mr_a: I read that article twice, and am still not sure what (or where) the problem is. Maybe that is the problem.

The problem is that we're dealing with NEPA. It's like Eastern Europe up there but with more corruption.

mr_a: I read that article twice, and am still not sure what (or where) the problem is. Maybe that is the problem.

The Northeastern PA Mob is pissed at the NJ Mob.

Oh and the locals don't want "New Yorkers" moving into their towns, which they already did after 9/11

You would think everyone out in the poconos would be screaming to make this happen. It would double their property value overnight.

Is that near the Slawson Cut-off???

SushiJoe: donkey lips?

Dr. Khan?

People from the NYC area were already moving into the Poconos nearly twenty years ago. However, I think this rail link is going to make it much easier to make that long-distance commute, which will improve some parts of NE PA while making some others suck. Already there has been social friction from people leaving NYC and Philly and going to places like Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Still, it's probably necessary to keep the area from drying up entirely, which has been happening for over forty years.

Peter von Nostrand: /almost as hot as Pam

Ah Not any more

I could listen to her say "Damaged Penis" all day

hachijuhachi: Any farkers from Freeland/Hazelton? You guys have the best lilt to your speech.

The NEPA accent is one of the worst, eyna?

The Icelander: hachijuhachi: Any farkers from Freeland/Hazelton? You guys have the best lilt to your speech.

The NEPA accent is one of the worst, eyna?

Not worse then Central Pa. You should hear it a while.

Being a Scranton native living in NJ I approve of this thread.

Camp Anawanna, we hold you in our hearts..oh wait, sorry wrong camp.

"There obviously has to be additional funding in place to operate the service," Ms. Hackett added.

Yeah. It's called ticket revenue. Quit creating entities that cannot support themselves with their operations. Take the public tit out of your mouth and push away from the treasury belly.

SushiJoe: donkey lips?

I for one think this is a bad idea. What do we need a passenger railroad when we have all these roads that connect NY/NJ/PA already? I think they should be using the money to properly FIX the damn roads and bridges here in NEPA. They are a farking mess!

Oh, and get ready for the snow tonight and tomorrow!

WTF Indeed: Not worse then Central Pa. You should hear it a while.

There's a Central PA accent now?

The Icelander: hachijuhachi: Any farkers from Freeland/Hazelton? You guys have the best lilt to your speech.

The NEPA accent is one of the worst, eyna?

Heyna, er noo?

/I gat a dawg fer hantin'
//da dawg is really santin'
///I tink dat he's part doverman

Robert1966: People from the NYC area were already moving into the Poconos nearly twenty years ago. However, I think this rail link is going to make it much easier to make that long-distance commute, which will improve some parts of NE PA while making some others suck. Already there has been social friction from people leaving NYC and Philly and going to places like Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. Still, it's probably necessary to keep the area from drying up entirely, which has been happening for over forty years.

I don't know how people commute from there. Used to live in NW NJ and that was 1.5 with decent traffic to midtown. Dunno why you'd like an extra hour on your commute plus you live in farkin Pennsyltucky.

/did have the best accent
//it was a mix of Brooklyn and hick...How alls you'alls doin!

my whole family is from scranton and i went to college there. this has been a decades-long dream - NEPA to NYC. high time they got it together...

Pardon me, boy.

The Icelander: There's a Central PA accent now?

I was surprised to find that out when I went to college out of state. It's relatively mild, but it's there. The international students told me they couldn't understand what I was saying until I slowed down a bit.

That is a long commute. Live in Scranton, work in Manhattan?

Also, where do you come from that is so bad that you'd WANT to live in Scranton???

The Icelander: WTF Indeed: Not worse then Central Pa. You should hear it a while.

There's a Central PA accent now?

none I remember unless you are talking to the Amish.

/cept for maybe the extreme hicks

Hey NJ, your mom's an onus.

The Icelander: WTF Indeed: Not worse then Central Pa. You should hear it a while.

There's a Central PA accent now?

York, Adams, Lancaster. Everything north of that is just the white trash accent.

I'm from the NJ side of this area. When they started to dismantle the rail infrastructure back when I was a little kid in the 70s, I thought it was an idiotic idea.

If little kids think something is an idiotic idea ... based on the idea you have at that age that you should save something for later if you might need it ... well.

Who knows how this will end up. With luck we can start investing in sensible transportation alternatives. This would be one of them.

By the way, the right-of-way for this line was a marvel of engineering for its time and still today is no slouch of consideration. For example, with only a small number of exceptions this line runs without at-grade conflicts. Several web sites cover the information. Check it out if you're so inclined.

I know this isn't a snarky and cynical comment, so it doesn't belong on Fark. I apologize.

Courtney Cox-Zucker: Heyna, er noo?

/I gat a dawg fer hantin'
//da dawg is really santin'
///I tink dat he's part doverman

Once while I was living up there I got invited to a party. The person said they lived in "Troop." The night of the party I hopped on 81 and drove by an exit for "Throop." I drove until I passed Dickson City and didn't see a sign for "Troop." When I stopped to ask for directions they looked at me like I was insane until I mentioned I passed the "Throop" exit.

Then one of them said "You're not from around here, eyna? Dats dah exitcha want. Troop."

I swear it's worse than dealing with the Pennsylvania Dutch.

I'm cut off at home due to Lackawanna, so I'm not getting a kick out of these replies

GoTarHeels: I'm from the NJ side of this area. When they started to dismantle the rail infrastructure back when I was a little kid in the 70s, I thought it was an idiotic idea.

If little kids think something is an idiotic idea ... based on the idea you have at that age that you should save something for later if you might need it ... well.

Who knows how this will end up. With luck we can start investing in sensible transportation alternatives. This would be one of them.

By the way, the right-of-way for this line was a marvel of engineering for its time and still today is no slouch of consideration. For example, with only a small number of exceptions this line runs without at-grade conflicts. Several web sites cover the information. Check it out if you're so inclined.

I know this isn't a snarky and cynical comment, so it doesn't belong on Fark. I apologize.

It's way too far of an extension for a limited appeal line. That's why Amtrak killed most of their local stopovers in small rural areas in the West. The Empire Builder line used to be local "bus line" for Montana but it now just has a few stops and only runs twice a day maybe. This is probably seen the same way, not enough people going from Scranton to NYC on a daily basis to make a train line viable.

Right now I think the furthest west point is Hackettstown which is still about 20-30 miles from the PA border. Gotta be some reason why they see that as the end point and dismantled it that far from the border.

The Icelander: Once while I was living up there I got invited to a party. The person said they lived in "Troop." The night of the party I hopped on 81 and drove by an exit for "Throop." I drove until I passed Dickson City and didn't see a sign for "Troop." When I stopped to ask for directions they looked at me like I was insane until I mentioned I passed the "Throop" exit.

Don't think that's a regional accent thing. For some odd reason, that's just the way it's pronounced. Never made sense to me either, and I grew up in Scranton.

Rode the Phoebe Snow from Scranton to Newark back in the day. This is a textbook "stimulus" type project if there ever was one. I guess the appropriate palms aren't being greased.

Okay here's the deal.

It's a pipedream. Opponents argue non-highspeed rail is pointless and jersey is too preoccupied with priority funding going to connections into NYC rather than providing an alternative where people can live cheap in PA and commute to NY without dealing with Jersey prices. They have zero incentive to help with this line and its obvious. On the PA side, the state doesn't care about any transportation outside of Philly or Pittsburgh. The project finally got the go ahead from the DEP by attaining the FONSI (finding of no significant impact) so it looks like progress is made, but now the harsh reality of cash is in play. Don't hold your breath.

Yeah, a little bitter.

vernonFL: Also, where do you come from that is so bad that you'd WANT to live in Scranton???

Maybe their doctor recommended walking hills?

It's always strange to see Scranton on Fark.

This place is so corrupt that all progress grinds to a halt--and if there is progress, it usually backfires horribly.

Courtney Cox-Zucker: The Icelander: Once while I was living up there I got invited to a party. The person said they lived in "Troop." The night of the party I hopped on 81 and drove by an exit for "Throop." I drove until I passed Dickson City and didn't see a sign for "Troop." When I stopped to ask for directions they looked at me like I was insane until I mentioned I passed the "Throop" exit.

Don't think that's a regional accent thing. For some odd reason, that's just the way it's pronounced. Never made sense to me either, and I grew up in Scranton.

The "th" to a hard 't' sound comes from the Irish element.

LineNoise: You would think everyone out in the poconos would be screaming to make this happen. It would double their property value overnight.

The term 'gangs' around here is just code for African-Americans and Hispanics, regardless of any real or imagined gang association.

Add to that the fact that many of the locals here in the heart of the Poconos - can't speak too much about Scranton or Wilkes-Barre - insist that the resort/tourism industry will bounce back and bring in all sorts of tax money. Unfortunately, you can't have year round tourism here because the winters are just miserable (this is the first place I've lived where a 4x4 is a necessity, not just a pricey toy). Even during the rest of the year, there's nothing to do that warrants coming here. Prices on consumer goods aren't that much less expensive than NYC or NJ, so you may save on shopping you wind up spending on gas to get here. You don't start hitting the amusement parks until you reach Allentown, which is about 90 minutes south of here. The major sports teams are all in Philly and Pittsburgh. There is no real cultural base to speak of (and by cultural base, I mean stuff like museums, theatres, and the like). Not to mention the fact that the few big resorts that haven't already been converted to casinos (I'm talking about you, Mt. Airy) don't look like they've remodeled since the 1970s. Even Caesars Palace dropped their sponsorship of the three largest resorts here about a month or so ago. When one of the cheesiest Vegas casinos doesn't want to have anything to do with you anymore, you know you're in for a world of hurt.

I don't even want to go into the fact that the highest paying jobs around here for the average person are being offered by Uncle Sam, and even those are only going to be around for a couple of months at best. NEPA is hosed.

/originally from CT
//as bad as CT is, would go back in a heartbeat if I could

isobig: I for one think this is a bad idea. What do we need a passenger railroad when we have all these roads that connect NY/NJ/PA already? I think they should be using the money to properly FIX the damn roads and bridges here in NEPA. They are a farking mess!

Oh, and get ready for the snow tonight and tomorrow!

Getting people off the roads is a better idea. Can't trust PennDOT or the townships to patch a hole with anything more lasting than silly putty.

TRAIN PR0N THREAD!

cap129: LineNoise: You would think everyone out in the poconos would be screaming to make this happen. It would double their property value overnight.

The term 'gangs' around here is just code for African-Americans and Hispanics, regardless of any real or imagined gang association.



A couple of years ago I would have agreed with you, but in the past two years gangs have started to become a growing problem in Scranton. A train would be nice, but our bumbling city police make me worry about the inevitable influx.

Lwaxana?

Courtney Cox-Zucker: Don't think that's a regional accent thing. For some odd reason, that's just the way it's pronounced. Never made sense to me either, and I grew up in Scranton.

Every native I've ever met pronounces "th" like "t" and "t" like "d".

Maybe I was just hanging around the retards. I'm sure the dust blowing off the culm piles around town is full of mercury and arsenic which might affect their speech.

cap129: The term 'gangs' around here is just code for African-Americans and Hispanics, regardless of any real or imagined gang association.

My wife's paternal grandmother once asked me "So, what are you?"

"Uh, a Democrat?" I said.

"No, I mean are you Irish, Italian or what?"

Just goes to show you that in the absence of obvious differences like skin color people will pick up on smaller things like ancestry.

\I'm German

Douchebag Warehouse: Getting people off the roads is a better idea. Can't trust PennDOT or the townships to patch a hole with anything more lasting than silly putty.

I once drove through a pot hole so deep that I dented one of my steel wheels and flattened my tire.

But the parties on Saint Patrick's Day almost makes up for it.

\And the Banshee

MBooda: Pardon me, boy.


What the hell you doing in the bathroom day and night? Why don't you get out and give someone else a chance!

/you nostalgia, you lose