Each day more than 750,000 Americans ride the stretch of track between D.C. and Boston, referred to as the Northeast Corridor. Those commuters can almost always count on one thing: delay.  The New York Times profiled the aging corridor this weekend:

“These troubles have become all too common on the Northeast Corridor, the nation’s busiest rail sector, which stretches from Washington to Boston and carries about 750,000 riders each day on Amtrak and several commuter rail lines. The corridor’s ridership has doubled in the last 30 years even as its old and overloaded infrastructure of tracks, power lines, bridges and tunnels has begun to wear out. And with Amtrak and local transit agencies struggling for funding, many fear the disruptions will continue to worsen in the years ahead.”

The story also includes this commuter nightmare:

“Ms. Harris Susel, a principal and compliance officer at the Carlyle Group in Washington, recalled one evening commute last summer when an accident inside one of the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel stopped her Amtrak train just short of its destination.

“We literally sat on that side,” she said, “five minutes away from the station, for five hours.”

Thousands of Chester County residents depend on SEPTA and Amtrak service to get to work during the week, and while delays are less common into Philadelphia, they’re a problem to be solved if Chester County hopes to alleviate some of its congested highways.

In March, Rep. Costello told the Daily Local News he thinks “passenger rail represents one of the best hopes for relief of the country’s congested highways and air space, and certainly here in Chester County,” adding that, “It offers more promise for economic development opportunities around the train stations, as well as more folks taking passenger rail through the heart of Chester County.”

The article continues:

Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6th, of West Chester was one of 132 Republican House members who voted to approve the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act. The legislation, among other initiatives, provides for Amtrak to take the profits it gets from the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor routes between Boston and Washington, D.C. and reinvest the funds in services here, and not elsewhere. That reinvestment, hopefully, will improve service speed and allow for more passengers to take advantage of train service, especially commuters.