After a couple of hours for the participants to find lunch and explore the Borough on their own, everyone congregated at the West Chester Railroad station on market Street. Johnstone, Smith, WCJIM and Elm Street manager Dan Price handled the tour guide duties for a trip to Glen Mills and back, explaining the history of the railroad and of the land and communities along the tracks. After that, Smith led an architectural tour that featured buildings designed by Thomas U. Walter (designed of the Capital Dome in Washington DC) while Price showed off the work that has been accomplished by the Elm Street program in the revitalization of the East End. At 4:30pm, everyone converged on Iron Hill Brewery for a look at their operation, and then boarded the bus back to Philadelphia at 5pm.

The visitors, who came from communities in Oregon, Wyoming, South Carolina, Alabama, Nebraska, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Missouri, as well as towns located throughout Pennsylvania, sounded very enthusiastic as they disembarked from the train. They praised the Borough's success at maintaining its historic look while attracting investors, and there were plenty of comments about the good choices for lunch. Parking also drew some comments -- particularly the choice between parking garages and surface lots -- and there was even a compliment for the Borough's electronic parking meters which resemble old-fashioned mechanical meters.

It's not easy to show off all of the worthwhile things in West Chester in a single day, but Johnstone's itinerary contained many of the high points. The visitors' comments also reminded us how much our Borough's leaders and citizens have accomplished in the past thirty years. The efforts made in West Chester show that the decline of small towns after World War II is not irreversible, and offer ideas (and inspiration) for municipal officials across the country.

You can download the operating and capital budget proposals for 2009 at their SEPTA reports web page.

After Gormley finished his presentation, the audience got a chance to ask questions. WCJIM offered congratulations on finding the additional funding, inform them that the West Chester Railroad -- the tourist line that operates from the Borough to Glen Mills on weekends -- will celebrate its 150th anniversary next fall on November 15, 2008. Finally, he mentioned progress in discussions towards the signing of a new 10-year lease for the line and added that many people in the Borough are interested in improving public transportation.

Don Kletzien of West Goshen also spoke. He asked SEPTA to consider the extension of R-3 service from Elwyn to West Chester, and asked if SEPTA officials would consider offering space along their right-of-way for local municipalities to build hiking and bicycle trails. That triggered a pretty good conversation about the cost of rebuilding railroads and safety issues. Representatives from State Senator Andrew Dinniman's office and the Chester County Planning Commission observed the proceedings.

The discussion turned towards a proposal to extend the R-3 as far as Wawa, adjacent to US Route 1 and nine miles from West Chester. If completed, a terminus at Wawa would provide a park-and-ride alternative for traffic headed towards Philadelphia on Route 1, as well as a jumping-off point for the restoration of rail service to West Chester, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square and points west. SEPTA officials explained that the Wawa project has been included in capital budget proposals for several years, but the funding has never materialized. Separate public hearings on the capital budget will be held next Monday at 11am and 5pm in the Authority's headquarters at 1234 Market Street, but anyone can add their thoughts to the hearing record by using the email link on SEPTA's home page.

What does all this mean for the borough? Train service will not return this year, but it is becoming part of the discussion. In the meantime, recent tweaking of the bus #104 route (which travels from West Chester to 69th Street in Philadelphia) has added currently carries roughly one hundred a people each day from the Borough to the West Goshen Shopping Center, and four additional buses have been proposed that will reduce crowding during peak hours. Best of all, for the first time in years, SEPTA officials have a bit of breathing room in which to formulate long-range improvements.

NOTE: On Saturday, May 10th, SEPTA will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 69th Street Terminal with an open house and festivities from 11am to 3pm.

Although it took place indoors, WCU was also the site of a conference on the "Point of the Lance: the origin and impact of the Peace Corps." The most important participant was Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps when it was founded during the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s. The conference spanned two days and featured historians, photographers, past volunteers and recent returnees, and students from the university and local high schools.

West Chester received another award for being a "Tree City USA" and the reason is easy to spot this time of year. That's because the Borough's Urban Forester and the Shade Tree Commission work to promote the planting of compatible "street trees" throughout the Borough. Many are in bloom at the moment, and the results are spectacular.

Spring is also the season for construction projects and, when necessary, demolition projects to make room for new construction. Yesterday (April 17), demolition of the Yearsley hardware store got underway. Based on the results at the end of the work day, it will take at least two more days, so if you like to watch big machines tear up buildings, there is still time to stroll over to E. Market Street for a look.

Finally, last weekend's warmup motivated lots of people to clean up their yards and start spreading mulch. WCJIM wound up lending a hand in Lancaster County, and took a load of yard waste to a recycling center in Mannheim Township. It showed the kind of operation that is possible is space is not an issue, but the signs and fees showed that their supervisors faced the same issues that the Borough addressed when it created our yard waste recycling program.

Speaking of cleaning up, this Saturday (April 19) is the day when volunteers will converge on the Borough's Public Works facility at 205 Lacey Street by 9am to join the third annual Goose Creek Clean-up. The weather prediction is excellent, and if last year's clean-up is any indication, there will be a crowd of people for a fun community event. WCJIM will be there, as will many others, so come on out and join in the fun.

Peace Corps conference at WCU

The Borough's street tree program pays off!

The beginning of the end of Yearsley's

Recycling yard waste

Seating is limited, so advanced registration is strongly encouraged. The cost to the general public is $15, while members of the Historical Society get in for $10. For more information, call 610-692-4800 or email Josh Barker.

Given the current housing market, and the cost of land in Chester County, these projects make sense for someone without the resources of a major developer like Toll Brothers, or the willingness to risk millions of dollars on a project like the Jerrehian Estate in West Goshen Township. As a way to preserve open space in the rest of the County, intensifying the use of urban space is a good idea, and the Borough's success make it the most attractive place for developers to sell new housing. The net effect of doubling or tripling the number of houses on the Borough's largest properties is complicated -- it generates tax revenue, but also more traffic and the need for parking in areas that so far have had few to no problems. All of these issues will be discussed by the Planning Commission and at Borough Council.

Finally, don't forget to visit the West Chester Grower's Market, which opens its 2008 season on Saturday May 3 at the corner of Church and Chestnut Streets. Dozens of vendors offer locally-grown and produced vegetables, bread, cheese and other comestibles. It's not only good food, but shopping locally is good for the environment.

The subject is certainly timely, since May 10 is National Train Day. As the author of a history of West Chester's railroads, WCJIM is used to getting calls from people with questions, but lately they've turned into requests for lectures, radio interviews and even a TV appearance. As gasoline prices and road congestion increase without apparent limit, people want to know 1) is there an alternative and 2) would a European-style rail system work for us?

The answers to those questions are "yes" and "maybe." Yes there are alternatives, although not many people are really ready for them. When people say "alternatives" they are looking for cheaper ways to move around, rather than ways to reduce the amount that they move around. A recent research project provided the opportunity to read a diary written by an Amish farmer in 1923. While neither he nor his friends and family stayed at home all the time -- there are references to trips to upstate Pennsylvania and Ohio, plus visitors from New York and Virginia - - they did not do a lot of joy-riding and all of their trips had more than one purpose. They also worked and shopped near their homes, which is one of the best ways to reduce the need to travel, but that kind of alternative requires sacrifices that most of us are not yet ready to make (but that may change when gasoline reaches $5 per gallon).

A European-style rail network is feasible in places that are densely populated. That is because a train, in order to make money, must carry more than one passenger in each seat from one end of a trip to the other. That works when the route goes through places where people get on and off, but it fails on routes where everyone gets on at the beginning and stays in their seats until the end of the line. Fortunately, the right kind of density is available in and around the major cities of the American Northeast, including our own piece of megalopolis, the greater Philadelphia region.

SEPTA is already making plans. The 2009-2012 includes just over $73 million dollars for the extension of the R3 line from Elwyn to Wawa. The distance is only three miles, but the project requires the construction of a completely new ADA-accessible station, a 500-space parking lot for Park-n-Riders arriving by US Route 1, reconstruction of three road crossings, installation of new train signals, replacement of the overhead catenary (electric power) wires, plus repair or replacement of assorted bridges, culverts and embankments. They've already put over $6 million into studies and plans for the project, and assuming the state legislature keeps the money flowing, within the next five years the R3 line will be less than ten miles from West Chester.