As mentioned earlier this week, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) held a public hearing on the 2009 Transportation Initiative Project for PA (TIP), and although I got there a bit late, I got to speak to the group about this new effort to bring rail service back to West Chester. The introduction I gave in Philly on Wednesday, coupled with this little article by WC Jim, officially means that the cat is out of the bag with this site. Welcome, WCJim.com and DVRPC visitors!

A few brief notes about the meeting:

• I wasn’t sure what to expect upon walking into this hearing, but it was a little bit of a letdown to see that there were only a handful of visitors there from PA and NJ to comment on how these federal funds are being distributed. I’m sure the DVRPC does an excellent job of prioritizing and allocating money according to need, but the decision about whether or not a project gets done has implications for thousands of communities in the area. I guess I expected a tiny bit more interest than what I found there.
• This year, the items in the TIP documents were mashed up with Google Maps to create a pretty interesting visual aid for what projects are being initiated, and where. Click here and scroll down until you see the buttons for PA and NJ TIP Online Mapping. Exciting to see the Commission using open-source tools like Google Maps to help inform the public. Thumbs up.
• Also as previously noted, there exists the initiative to get the R3 to come back to Wawa. For us, this seems to be nothing but a good thing.
• Afterwards, I met Natasha Goguts, the Transportation Services Director for the Chester County Planning Commission. She pointed me in the direction of some valuable information, including this 2004 memo on potential Chesco passenger rail options. Fascinating stuff, even if it is a bit outdated and a bummer to read. (R3 Expansion to W.C. ranked a LOW priority in the 2K4 - booo.) I will analyze this and a few other official-looking documents soon.