Welcome to All Aboard Erie!

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These are exciting times for passenger rail travel in the United States. Billions of federal dollars are now available to expand passenger rail operations all across the country. Ohio and New York are making plans to expand passenger train service or expand existing service – plans that would dramatically increase the number of trains serving Erie. Our community stands at the center of one of the great transportation corridors in America connecting the largest city in the Great Lakes Megaregion – Chicago, with the largest city in the North East Megaregion – New York. We have joined with six other rail advocacy organizations to create the Lakeshore Rail Alliance. We will work together to create a 21st Century passenger rail network, connecting Erie to dozens of communities between Chicago and New York and beyond.

 

All Aboard Erie is dedicated to connecting the Erie region to the world by advocating for a modern transportation system focused on intercity passenger trains.

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Why Rail Transportation Is Vital - especially to Erie

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At one time Erie was served by more than 60 passenger trains a day operated by four railroads at three train stations. Today there are only two Amtrak trains daily. Passenger trains and the railroads operating them were nearly killed off by a combination of heavily subsidized interstate highways, trucking companies and airlines. The deck was stacked against them, and in a few decades America was dramatically transformed. Yet, despite these setbacks in the United States, high-speed passenger trains are multiplying around the globe. In country after country, new passenger lines are being built and short-distance airline routes are being eliminated.

 

Advantages Of Modern Rail

 

• Trains provide vital access to mobility. Erie, like the entire country, has been suffering from a creeping mobility crisis. With the vast reduction in flights from Erie International Airport and a reduction in intercity bus service, the only real form of transportation available to most people coming and going through Erie is by car. Yet many people don’t want to drive long distances – especially in winter. America’s aging population is less willing or able to drive, and younger Americans are showing less enthusiasm for driving. An expanded passenger rail system would connect Erie residents with dozens of communities between New York and Chicago, and give them access to airports in other cities.

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• One of the biggest and almost invisible advantages of passenger rail is economic development. A 21st Century rail system would revitalize downtown Erie and bring tourists and residents back to the city, reversing decades of decline. People want to live in cities that have robust transportation options and Erie could be a leader in that movement.

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• In the time of climate change, trains are one of the most efficient and greenest forms of transportation. They are the best hope for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, which is the largest producer of those gasses. There is one more reason why trains are important to our region. Erie is home to Wabtec, one of the largest manufacturers of locomotives in the nation. A recent essay in the Erie Times-News stated that “if the Wabtec facility were to produce 1,000 green locomotives per year, up to 5,000 well-paying jobs would be created at the facility itself. A similar number would be created elsewhere in Erie County....”

 

All Aboard Erie is dedicated to bringing about a modern rail passenger system with a dozen or more passenger trains a day, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using locomotives made at Erie’s Wabtec plant, employing thousands of area workers and revitalizing an entire region. We think those goals are well worth pursuing.

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