The latest twist to the ongoing Harrisburg Airport Rail Station debacle
 

The endless quest to build a rail station on Amtrak's Keystone Corridor to serve Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) takes a new twist. Now, the nearest Amtrak station to the airport may have to close as soon as next year. Why?

Because it's on a curve, that's why.

So now local officials are bickering over what to do with the current Middletown train station. Meanwhile, the costs of building an intermodal station at MDT continue to rise, with no particular reason to think it will happen any time in the next 10 years.

:mad:

6 million to made it ADA accesable. What a waist, then again closing it compleatly just because it isn't ADA is also stupid.

I didn't think the Amfleets used on the Keystone were ADA compliant either.

Seems they had a solution, which was not ideal, but workable.

The Elizabethtown, PA station (ELT) doesn't appear to be ADA-compliant either. Would all ADA-noncompliant stations be shut down?

What's with this HIA stuff? It's MDT. At least HIA is not a real airport.

POSs are now considered disabled in the US? :D

I think it has something to do with a requirement to meet the ADA if you do major renovations/reconstruction (I'm not sure at all about this though).

In Central PA, many people refer to the Harrisburg International Airport as "HIA", maybe because it sounds trendy, like "BWI" or "JFK" or "IAD" (ok, kidding about the last one). Of course, the airport's code is "MDT", as you say. I think "MDT" refers to Middletown. In conversation, I say "the Harrisburg airport".

I'm guessing it's one of those airport codes that have logical, but not widely known origins. (MCI, HPN -> Harrison, Purchase, North Castle, though some argue it's wHite PlaiNs).

It makes me think of TPA, where the local papers have a fetish for Tirania, Albania's airport (TIA).

Update
 

MDT Airport Code
 

MDT, our airport code, is in fact related to the fact that Harrisburg International Airport is located in Middletown, PA.

"HIA" (as we're locally referred to as) is strictly for marketing purposes, not FAA assigned.

Welcome to FlyerTalk! Do you work for the airport? If so, shouldn't your handle be HIA? ;)

When I try to find flights to HIA, I cannot find any (it doesn't exist). It seems like a TV station on channel 5 advertising itself on a billboard calling itself "Channel 2".

Of course most normal people (e.g. those not on FT) probably type "City, State", not the airport code.

It happens more than you might think: for example, this station broadcasts over-the-air on Channel 40. (Or, at least, they do until June 12.) Channel 7 is their assignment on most of the cable systems on which they're carried.

[QUOTE=ralfp;11672852]Welcome to FlyerTalk! Do you work for the airport? If so, shouldn't your handle be HIA? ;)



When I try to find flights to HIA, I cannot find any (it doesn't exist)...QUOTE]

Yes, I do work for the airport. You won't find "HIA" if you enter it into a flight search tool. Either search by city, state or "MDT".

FYI: Latest press on the search for a new train station location in Middletown, http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...ion_on_mi.html.

Middletown train station site narrowed to 2 options
 

More here:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...n_station.html

At this point, one of the options is still an inter-modal station at/near MDT airport. I used to favor that...but I can also see the value of a station closer to downtown. Ironically, the "downtown" station is still practically right next to the airport and would still be closer to the terminal than the intermodal station at BWI, for instance. You'd think they could run a shuttle van between MDT (airport) and MDT (Amtrak). It'd just be a 5-minute drive o/w. There's plenty of Keystone departures to justify this...whether there are enough pax using MDT (airport) to justify this is another question.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8320/4.5.0.81 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

That's like my hometown airport, GSO, going by PTI for marketing purposes. Annoys the heck out of me.

New station site chosen. It's not at the airport, but:

We'll see if that actually happens. Of course, it's gonna be 3 years until it opens. Still, if the shuttle service is implemented, it adds another air-rail connection in Amtrak's system. While this site isn't as close to the airport as it could have been, it's probably going to be a comparable or shorter shuttle bus ride than BWI or MKE, for example. (And with far more train options, albeit fewer flights, than MKE,)