The president promised new railroads in his inaugural address.
For decades, a passenger train in the Lehigh Valley has been a rare sight.
But a promise made during President Donald Trump's inauguration has one Warren County mayor optimistic that local passengers could regularly ride the rails again.
On Tuesday, Pohatcong Township Mayor James Kern III wrote a letter to his fellow Republican in the White House with a pitch to pique the president's interest.
Pohatcong Township Mayor James Kern III (lehighvalleylive.com file photo) The letter cites part of Trump's inaugural address in which the new president said that "we will build new ... railways all across our wonderful nation" and get "people off welfare and back to work." The official White House website also states that revenues from energy production will be used to "rebuild roads, schools and public infrastructure."
Kern said the promise, along with Trump's New Jersey connections, gives him hope.
"This has been a topic for many years, but has fallen on deaf ears," Kern said of his request, which was copied to both states' governors, congressmen and other local mayors. "I hope that this letter will start a dialogue with the many stakeholders and make this finally come to fruition."
Vintage photos of rail travel in the Valley
Similar discussions have taken place in recent years. Amtrack's Autumn Express last October was the last passenger line to rumble through the Valley, using freight rails en route to Harrisburg that Amtrack said has not been used for regular passenger service since the 1960s.
Kern's full letter to Trump is below.
Dear President Trump,
First and foremost, I wish to congratulate you on taking the office of President. I was fortunate enough to attend your inauguration and I found it to be a great spectacle of the American spirit.
The reason I write to you is to support your message of improving the infrastructure of our nation and more importantly to consider our region of the country to be a part of this new growth. As you stated in your inaugural address:
"We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor."
READ: Trump's inauguration address
I agree with this portion of your speech. Our nation severely falls (behind) many Western nations for rail development and I believe your vision could help us grow in this capacity. The municipality of Pohatcong that I represent as mayor is located in Northwest New Jersey, situated on the border of Pennsylvania. This region which includes the cities of Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and southern Warren County, New Jersey, has seen tremendous growth over the past two decades with many people commuting to east New Jersey and New York City. This has led to major traffic impact on the highway corridors connecting our region east.
It is my belief that a rail extension from New York City to the greater Lehigh Valley Area would be a major boom for workers commuting from these areas as well as thousands of jobs that would be created in developing this project.
This letter merely serves as an introduction to the conception and to start the process on discussing this project's potential. I hope to facilitate conversations moving forward on this topic and would be more than happy to meet with your staff to discuss this further.
I thank you for your time on this matter. I truly believe this will help your agenda to bring good American jobs back, create infrastructure and improve America's quality of life.
Sincerely,
James R. Kern III
Mayor
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.