First of a Series: July 17, 2023 was a beautiful sunny summer day in Rockhill Furnace, Pa., a town that is not located anywhere near a passenger train. Huntingdon, on Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian route is the closest, but it is still a long way from the town. It takes about 75 minutes to get from Rockhill Furnace to the State Capital at Harrisburg, where the Keystone Corridor from Philadelphia ends. Philadelphia is the nearest city with any rail transit. On that day, a delegation representing West Chester, in the suburbs west of the City of Brotherly Love, gathered to ride a demonstration train that could revolutionize the process for getting new passenger rail starts going, at least under certain circumstances.
The small country town has three different rail operations: one showcasing history, another with a quasi-historic character that recreates a riding experience from an earlier era, and yet another, which is the site for demonstrating a concept that could give a boost to the New Starts process. The one featuring historic vehicles is the Rockhill Trolley Museum, which is not affiliated with the others. The quasi-historic one runs on a segment of the East Broad Top Railroad, a three-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge line that operated from 1872 until 1956, again from 1960 until 2011, and currently since 2020. It was originally the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co., and it’s a tourist railroad today, running with vintage steam locomotives and newly made coaches that sport an appearance from 1900, although they are not fully historically accurate.
The visitors on that July day were treated to a ride on the steam railroad, as well as a look at the shop, which housed some cars from the 1800s, including one that ran on the Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn, part of which is now the MBTA’s Blue Line to Revere, although the idea of restoring service to Lynn is discussed every now and then. While the ride on the steam train and the shop tour were fun, the big attraction of the day was a ride on a train that was originally built for local transit service in London, and is now being used in a new way.
The concept is called “Pop-Up Metro.” It is geared toward getting trains on the rails to establish new starts inexpensively with a demonstration period if it should prove successful, and at significantly reduced risk if the demo does not prove that a new line could meet the needs of the prospective riders or of the agency that would operate the proposed service.
The company sponsoring and demonstrating the concept is Pop-Up Metro LLC, whose offices are in Pittsburgh. The company is affiliated with Railroad Development Corp. (RDC, not to be confused with the classic Rail Diesel Cars built by the Budd Company). Henry Posner III is the Chairman of the company’s Board, and Nate Asplund is President. Both have been promoting and demonstrating the concept, and this writer heard a presentation from each of them, to different audiences and under different circumstances. Asplund made an in-person presentation at the Light Rail Conference sponsored by Railway Age and RT&S in Boston in the fall of 2022. Posner gave a remote presentation about a year later to the Lackawanna Coalition, a rider-advocacy organization in New Jersey (of which this writer was Chair at one time and is still a member). Both audiences found the presentations interesting, and the Coalition particularly wanted to learn more, because New Jersey Transit has not opened any new rail or light rail lines in recent years, and the local advocates thought that the Pop-Up Metro model could help get some new starts going in the area.
How it Works
Posner described Pop-Up Metro as a kit for building a railroad for operation on existing track. The company describes the concept this way: “Pop-Up Metro is a fresh Transit Infrastructure alternative utilizing existing low-density freight rail lines and North America’s only battery-propelled passenger cars. Pop-Up Metro offers a reliable, low-cost, and sustainable option allowing communities considering rail options to both prove the concept and prove the market in an expedited, economic, low-risk manner … Pop-Up Metro is offered as a Turnkey ‘Kit’ incorporating trains, ADA complaint modular platforms, charging equipment, maintenance infrastructure, training, and operating plan as an annual lease, eliminating the high up-front capital commitment typically associated with light Metro start-ups or service extensions.” Pop-Up Metro is currently using 1.8 miles of the East Broad Top Railroad (standard gauge) for its test track. A two-page overview of Pop-Up Metro can be downloaded below:
For demo purposes, the company ran a married pair of cars that once ran on the London Underground. The electrical components had been removed and replaced with batteries. A promotional brochure describes the cars: “Pop-Up Metro now offers its Class 230 battery-propelled light metro trains in the United States. They are innovative new-build trains from the U.K., where they have found diverse main line applications.” According to the specifications, the pair of cars can hold 194 passengers with seats for 88 and room for 106 standees, a top speed of 60 mph, range of up to 150 miles on a charge, charging time as fast as 20 minutes, space for bikes, and four doors per side on each set.
The brochure mentions other features, including modular design that can accommodate power sources other than batteries (it also lists “updated” batteries, electric, hybrid, and fuel cell as power alternatives) with modular “future proof” design. The company also claims minimal maintenance, which can be done on site. Environmental features include reduced emissions and regenerative braking, and potential use of a variety of power sources, including “solar, wind, and other renewable sources.”
Taking the Ride
The demo facility included the two-car train, a modular platform like the ones used on regional railroads to give passengers access to an inner track when the outer track is out of service, a small layup and maintenance facility for the train, and a stretch of track. The train itself seemed out of place among the historic trolley cars, steam locomotive and replica passenger cars with their 1900 style.
With that sharp line of demarcation, it was clear that the former transit cars from London would demonstrate a new idea for local rail service in this country. Most of the seating was longitudinal, although there were a few tables, too. As is customary with metropolitan-style transit cars, they featured high-level boarding, so the platform included a ramp between ground level and platform level.
While the battery-propelled cars did not have the acceleration normally associated with metropolitan transit operations that use overhead wire or a third rail, the batteries provided decent acceleration and a ride that was much smoother than any I have experienced on metropolitan-style subway and elevated lines, light rail or streetcar. Several of us took turns in the cab and at the controls. It felt like the batteries and the cars generally responded to our control moves quickly and smoothly. The cars rode well, and the ride felt the same from different places inside the two cars. Meg Richards, Project Manager for Pop-Up Metro, was on the trip as well, helping when needed, and explaining the system.
In addition to RDC, Posner is involved with railroad operations in Peru and Germany, and has participated in efforts to deliver food to Ukraine by rail and help with mobility for refugees from that country. Elsewhere in the U.S., Class II Iowa Interstate Railroad is an RDC subsidiary.
Posner himself started his railroad career with Conrail in 1977, after graduating from Princeton with a degree in civil engineering. He later earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. According to the RDC website, “We look for the hidden value in markets across the world. We take on deals that others wouldn’t dream of. Many have said, ‘We’re the only folks crazy enough to do that.’ But we have courage to fail, and the humility in that we don’t know what we don’t know. But that’s how we keep learning.”
RDC is safety-conscious and concerned about the environment. Under “Environmental Priorities”: “We are continually exploring opportunities to accelerate our impact, prioritizing investments in new sustainable technologies and practices across our markets,” and “In the U.S., Pop-Up Metro is deploying battery trains to provide transit solutions and decarbonize the transportation sector.”
RDC says potential Pop-Up Metro applications include “first- and last-mile connections to existing transit corridors, increasing access to transit in suburban, ex-urban, and rural areas, ‘park-and-ride’ shuttle service connecting remote parking areas to dense urban centers, easing traffic congestion and reducing the amount of real estate dedicated to parking in cities, new, independent rail transit services in unserved areas, and private employee shuttle services.”
At the present time, RDC is proposing Pop-Up Metro operations along the Princeton “Dinky” (a short branch owned and operated by New Jersey Transit that connects Princeton Junction on the Northeast Corridor with the town of Princeton and its iconic university), along Philadelphia’s waterfront, and as a shuttle between the new SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) station at Wawa and the former terminus of the line at West Chester. The purpose of the July 2023 trip was to promote the line for the latter use, and we will focus on that in the next article in this series.
