mono-done.jpg

About 45-years-ago a local mayor proposed building a monorail across the Susquehanna River. This photo (obviously fake) illustrates the idea.

(Nick Malawskey, nmalawskey@pennlive.com)

In September 1969, the Mayor of New Cumberland, D. Russell Barr, recognized that the suburban development of the West Shore was creating a major problem – namely the daily commute in and from Harrisburg, which was snarling area roads.

Barr told the Sunday Patriot-News he was "'tired [of] hearing everyone complain about traffic congestion' and seeing public officials 'criticized each and every time some change is made to improve the deplorable problem.'"

So Barr – who was himself an engineer – came up with his own solution, a 90-mile-per-hour monorail system that would link East and West shores, stretching from Mechanicsburg to Hershey, with northern spurs through Marysville and Dauphin, and southern spurs to New Cumberland and Middletown.

He called his idea the "Harrisburg Area Rapid Transit System" and proposed using the existing railroad right-of-ways and electrical systems to build the elevated monorail, which would have been automatically controlled by those then-new-fangled (my words, not his) computers.

The proposed routes for a high-speed monorail system which would have linked east and west shores circa 1969.

Barr mapped out his proposed routes (which included stations and lines through the then-largely-empty townships of Lower Allen, Hampden and Swatara) and sent his proposal out to area leaders for review.

Oliver M. Fanning, who at the time was head of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (who found this little gem in their archives), said Barr's proposal had merit, and recommended trying to establish a demonstration model, possibly running from Middletown to Harrisburg.

"I don't think we have that many commuters yet, but the need is coming and we should start on a part of this, even though the time is not yet here for the entire system," he said in written remarks.

If this whole idea sounds somewhat familiar, it should – proposals for some form of mass commuter transit across the Susquehanna have been floating for decades, but have remained effectively a mirage for those stranded in the deserts of the interstates – always close and yet tantalizingly out of reach, disappearing at that first finger-touch.

For 30 years the Cumberland Valley Railroad Bridge has sat empty. Now transportation planners are eying it as a possible bike and pedestrian bridge across the Susquehanna River. This is a view of the bridge looking west from a Harrisburg Hospital parking garage. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

Fast forward 45 years and one of the bridges his monorail would have used to cross the Susquehanna – the old Cumberland Valley Railroad Bridge – is still sitting empty, despite a plan to convert it to a commuter walkway.

But 45 years ago, the battle for light rail and a commuter bridge were still in the future, and Barr had a plan to alleviate the headaches caused by the automobile in his time period – and create a new renaissance in the state's capital.

Barr envisioned that his monorail would service 200,000 people, and would enable Harrisburg to completely redevelop its downtown core.

"The downtown streets," he told the newspaper, "could be made into essentially pedestrian malls allowing only delivery trucks, emergency vehicles and buses to travel select streets. All other vehicular traffic could be eliminated."

He went further, fleshing out his vision for the city:

"The areas now used for non-tax producing parking could be utilized for high-rise office and apartment buildings. Much of the downtown air pollution would be abated and trees, shrubs and flowers could line the streets again."

Barr didn't have a precise estimate for how much his monorail would cost – he figured roughly $100 million – and noted it faced several hurdles, among them whether or not "the bureaucratic and political powers [can] be persuaded that the system is practical and necessary."

Time, it appears, ultimately answered that question for Barr.

The Patriot-News article noted that "his proposal is strictly that. It asks many questions and answers few."

"But we have to start someplace," Barr told the reporter. "If we don't ask questions, who will?"