Train to Nowhere – Berks County Edition

March 6, 2026

By Rep. David Maloney
In my past two newsletters, which you can sign up for here, I have begun to show constituents how gaming money is being diverted to purposes never intentioned, thus leaving less money to reduce property taxes for all residents.

I began by explaining how fire and EMS grants, while they are good things that should be funded, were created by looting the property relief fund. Secondly, I showed how the Pennsylvania Game Commission is using your property tax relief funds to pay its own taxes while the commission has over $500 million in the bank.

This week, we will delve into Local Share Account grants (LSA), another program which is funded by the gaming money originally intended for property tax relief.

What really opened my eyes to LSA abuses was when I noticed Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority (SRPRA) recently received a $400,000 statewide LSA grant.

How this happened.

For those who may not know, the SRPRA was created in 2022 by our county commissioners and commissioners in Montgomery and Chester counties. It proposes to run a passenger railroad line from Reading to Philadelphia.

From SRPRA’s own website, the authority received a federal $500,000 grant, another $1 million of your taxes already committed to the passenger rail project by Berks, Montgomery and Chester counties commissioners; $250,000 state grant awarded to Montgomery; and another federal grant of $750,000 to Berks County.

The cost of the routine operation funded by the taxpayers in the three constituent counties of the SRPRA during 2024 alone was $180,282. This amount includes director services, legal services, audit services, marketing, and insurance. There was $347,867 in planning costs that were fully reimbursed under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program.

Folks, none of this is free money. When the county commissioners say a project won’t cost the public a dime because of grants or bonds, that is your money, your state and federal taxes!

Will this regional rail project succeed? Most do not. They often suffer from massive budget overruns, significant delays, or failure to meet ridership goals. The Keystone Service, one of Amtrak’s most popular routes in the Commonwealth, runs at a deficit. Moreover, that deficit is created by SEPTA’s economic woes.

House of Cards.

Recently, the Keystone Service was threatened with being suspended because SEPTA could not afford to lose the $70 million in funding SEPTA owed them for using Amtrak-owned track.

There are similar efforts in other counties, such as the Lehigh Valley Passenger Rail Study. You will notice nowhere on that website nor SRPRA’s is there any mention a study of whether people want this our not – or even asked for it,

As far as I can see from the information I have received, this rail plan by the Berks County Commissioners is a boondoggle sucking up money with meetings, grants, studies and conferences while it dies a slow taxpayer-funded death.

And to bring it back full circle – that $400,000 LSA grant to study a train? Sorry EMS, sorry volunteer firefighters, no new ambulance or fire truck for you – courtesy of our county “leadership.”

Representative David Maloney
130th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6161
clardner@pahousegop.com
RepMaloney.com