Strasburg, PA/highway bypass to state RR Museum/next year

Sloan · **Posted:** Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:09 pm

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/227204

I think this will relieve congestion in the town and funnel visitors to rail attractions, but it will raise taxes by removing valuable real estate from property tax rolls.

Sloan

softwerkslex · **Posted:** Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:10 pm

It is a no-win deal. If I recall the neighborhood, the new road passes through farmland. Of course, a new road will support development (restaurants, hotels, more housing, etc.). Building a new road to make nostalgic farm land more accessible to tourists may just accelerate the conversion of that farmland.

It is an odd local desire, and I wonder how much is really tourist oriented and how much is bedroom community, commuter oriented. SRR folks have documented a decline in their patronage, so road traffic should be lower now than 20 years ago.

Schuylkill Valley · **Posted:** Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:38 pm

Strasburg Railroad and the Railroad Museum of PA. has had a decline in their patronage ship since 9/11/ 2001 and too the price of gas doesn't help either.

Len.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

It does go across farmland, but it's really just "connecting the dots" of some existing roadways.

Looking at this map, maybe 1,000 feet of the road are cutting across a field that doesn't currently have a road on or near it.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&F ... &encType=1

The rest is either part of "Historic Drive" or closely paralleling Fairview Rd.

I visited the area last fall for the first time in about 20 years. I can tell you it's already lost the old time Amish feel it once had. The whole area looks and feels pretty much like any other eastern suburb. Yes, there are some farms and fields, as is common in a lot of areas in Pennsylvania, but there's also lots of new housing and malls and stores and Starbucks.

Downtown Strasburg is a traffic headache, and I think this road will help. Both the locals and tourist alike should enjoy the idea of less delays.

Brian Norden · **Posted:** Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:47 pm

Bobharbison wrote:

I visited the area last fall for the first time in about 20 years. I can tell you it's already lost the old time Amish feel it once had. The whole area looks and feels pretty much like any other eastern suburb. Yes, there are some farms and fields, as is common in a lot of areas in Pennsylvania, but there's also lots of new housing and malls and stores and Starbucks.

Downtown Strasburg is a traffic headache, and I think this road will help. Both the locals and tourist alike should enjoy the idea of less delays.

I visited Strasburg in 1991 and 2005. Between the two visits I saw immense changes in the surrounding area. Not only has Lancaster spread east into the farm county, but also a number of tourist centered attractions have appeared in the farmland. These entertainment centers seem to be directed at serving the tour buses traveling the area.

Back in 1991 the then President of Stasburg Rail Road expressed concern to me that there were changes to the area. This was the replacement of Amish farms with subdivisions. Without the Amish farms the tourism based upon seeing the Amish and buying their wares would disappear. These changes had already started.

zugmann · **Posted:** Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:09 am

I wish they could somehow close the section of 741 between the museum and railroad. It would bring the two that much closer together (and make room for more displays, picnic tables, etc...

Plus many do not faithfully observe the 25mph speed limit or crosswalk right-of-way..

Anthony C. DeBellis · **Posted:** Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:10 pm

How does the RR feel about loseing some of there track? I think this is makeing it to modern, but it was going to happen someday

Anthony