Among the possible passenger rail modes that SEPTA is evaluating, selection of commuter rail as the primary mode for the Schuylkill Valley Metro project is in the best interests of all of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Commuter rail:

1. Directly serves all three major downtown Philadelphia locations: Market East Station; Suburban Station -- Penn Center area; and Amtrak 30th Street Station -- University City area;

2. Enables convenient service from Delaware County and West Philadelphia to King of Prussia and the Schuylkill Valley trunk with the integrated Route 100 Extension;

3. Facilitates synergy with rail freight service. Combining the existing railroad infrastructure with a small additional infrastructure investment facilitates better service and throughput for both freight and passenger trains unlike the light rail alternatives which require complete, costly and inefficient separation from the freight service;

4. Permits dramatically lower capital costs largely because of its ability to share infrastructure investments with freight service. Where the light rail alternatives approach $1.5 billion, commuter rail alternatives should be under $500 million;

5. Can be built much more quickly and in one stage. The Schuylkill Valley corridor needs traffic relief as soon as possible. A light rail segment from King of Prussia to Wyomissing would be delayed for years, and much of it would likely never be built. No electric light rail line in operation in the United States extends more than 22 miles beyond the downtown of its region's major city. The October 31, 1999 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

   [SEPTA General Manager John] Leary conceded that proposing a 62-mile, light-rail line, which is three times longer than any in use in the country, "is way out of the box";

   and

6. Does not drain the region's financial resources thereby permitting other much needed transit investments to move forward. Projects in need of funding include:
   1. Extension of rapid transit into Northeast Philadelphia;
   2. Restoration of commuter rail service to Quakertown, West Chester, and Newtown;
   3. Capacity relief for the overcrowded city buses and the Subway-Surface trolleys;
   4. Fulfillment of the 1991-promised restoration of the three North Philadelphia trolley routes; and
   5. Improvement of the travel time on the slowest commuter rail system in North America.

   All of these projects will be in certain jeopardy if commuter rail is not the primary mode for the Schuylkill Valley Metro Project.