Here are the given:
1) Lancaster is one of the major sources of passengers for Amtrak, generating more passengers than any other station other than Philadelphia between New York and Harrisburg.
2) After the morning rush hour (and sometimes during), there is currently nary a place to park at the station. Who can afford to take the risk? Certainly more parking would attract more passengers. Furthermore, it would attract more business and commerce as well as residents to the city and county.
3) With the demolition of the original Host Hotel, later Days Inn, on the other side of the railroad track from the train station, there are eleven vacant acres zoned commercial, an ideal location for a parking garage that could link directly over the railroad tracks to the Amtrak station. Easy as apple pie!
Now, will Mayor Rick Gray, Randy Patterson his Planner, or the County Commissioners take notice of this opportunity and work with Amtrak, Manheim Township, and potential developers to include parking into development plans?
We wouldn’t bet on it.
It all depends on what PSP thinks!!!!!!
NOTHING can get off the ground around this town without LNP/High’s concurrence.
EDITOR: Neither party likely has any skin in the game. We see no reason why the LNP would be anything but supportive.
It is the job of the city (although the site in is Manheim Township, the county commissioners and Amtrak officials to help bring a about.
Don’t count on any intelligent planning with regard to the railroad.
The city has left two very valuable industrial sites with rail access slip through its fingers. First was the fantastic Armstrong floor plant with multiple rail heads and the second was the Kerr glass plant on New Holland avenue. Both sites offered the only real possibility of good-paying, medium to low skilled employment within walking distance of a growing, labor supply.
Try to claw your way into middle class working as a waitress or cash register operator.