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Bethlehem ConnectPlanning phase — home

Documents & Sources

Read the full proposal and check every source

Planning phase. An independent plan; nothing is funded or built yet. What this means

Web editions of the proposal documents, prepared for discussion with local agencies. No agency has reviewed, adopted or endorsed them. Contact details are replaced by this website's contact page. Everything is in the planning phase; nothing is engineered, funded or built.

Documents

Start here, in this order

The short summary first, then the longer summary and the two-page summary, then the one-page map.

  1. 1. Short summary (v1.1)

    Plain text · 3 sentences

    The plan in three sentences: what it is, its two phases, and its honest status.

    Download text (1 KB): Short summary (v1.1)

  2. 2. Longer summary (v1.2)

    Plain text · about 250 words

    The plan in about 250 words, ready to paste into an email or newsletter: what it is, Phase 1 and Phase 2, the conditional dates and the next step.

    Download text (2 KB): Longer summary (v1.2)

  3. 3. Two-page summary (v1.2)

    PDF · 2 pages · letter · about 1,000 words

    The plan on two pages: Phase 1 with its options and extensions, the Phase 2 corridor options past Bethlehem, the conditional dates, long-term ideas, what has not been done and what is being asked.

    Download PDF (0.2 MB): Two-page summary (v1.2)

  4. 4. One-page map (v0.7)

    PDF · 1 page · letter landscape

    The whole proposal on one page: map, stations, phases and status.

    Download PDF (0.9 MB): One-page map (v0.7)PNG image (2.3 MB): One-page map (v0.7)

More documents

Place sheets: one page for each place

The whole line and every station area or evaluated destination on one letter page each: picture, locator map, measured facts, ideas and open questions. Each has a page on this site, a PDF and an image.

Version and status

Two-page summary v1.2, 21 October 2026. It sits between the short summary and the three-page Executive Summary and adds the Phase 2 corridor measurements. Its numbers are read from this website's data, so they match the map and the corridor pages. v1.1 takes the research check's wording (operations at LANTA's 2024 bus cost per hour, staffing as gross positions, model times, the Airport Authority's agreement for a terminal stop, the I-78 Park & Ride site unverified) and gives every distance with two decimals; v1.2 prints its links as full web addresses.One-page map v0.7, 22 October 2026: stations 3, 4 and 5 and the St. Luke's and Wind Creek destinations are shaded areas with their number or code, as on the other maps, not rings or squares; the lists beside the map, Bethlehem Square included, use the same marks, and the key explains the shaded area. The gondola is drawn as a line only, with no towers or station marks. No measured number changed.One-page summary v1.6 and place sheets v1.5, 22 October 2026: on the place sheets' locator maps and on the schematic (the one-page summary and the home page), the station areas and evaluated destinations on Lehigh, hospital, casino or private retail land are shaded areas with their number or code, as on the interactive map, not rings, dots or squares; each sheet's key explains the shaded area. The schematic draws the gondola as a line only and no longer marks another project's place. No measured number changed.Executive Summary v1.6, Long-Term Vision Supplement v1.6, one-page summary v1.5, place sheets v1.4 and two-page summary v1.2, 21 October 2026: a clean-up of the pictures. On the Executive Summary's map and the section maps, the stations on Lehigh land and the evaluated destinations are shaded areas, not exact points, and the gondola is drawn without towers; the Phase 2 corridor option to Coopersburg is named “Saucon Valley south and Coopersburg (PA 309)”. The place sheets have no station illustrations, and every name on their locator maps sits clear of the other markers, as on this website. The one-page summary's schematic prints larger, page 3 of the Executive Summary clears its footer, and the Supplement's partners box is titled “Possible regional partners (none has agreed)”. No measured number changed.Long-Term Vision Supplement v1.5, 21 October 2026: page 2 adds “Reuse it anywhere” (the method, what stays local and how a copy starts), the aim beyond Bethlehem, and the author's aim of natural energy only, with no natural-gas or diesel-hybrid bus as a fallback. Tighter spacing keeps every page clear of its footer. No fact or number changed.Executive Summary v1.5 and one-page summary v1.4, 21 October 2026: the 2028 River Line pilot would use leased battery-electric buses, in line with the author's aim of natural energy only. No measured number changed.Executive Summary v1.4, Long-Term Vision Supplement v1.4 and longer summary v1.2, 21 October 2026: Phase 2 corridors only if LANTA agrees; the Executive Summary gives the operating cost at LANTA's 2024 bus cost per hour and describes the express tier as peak park-and-ride or event trips, only if measured triggers are met; the Supplement marks the BRT Standard's passing-lane rule as a third-party reproduction, to confirm, and its regional map's key names the Airport Link and the Phase 2 overlaps. No measured number changed.Executive Summary v1.3, one-page map v0.6 and Long-Term Vision Supplement v1.3, 20 October 2026: re-phased. Phase 1 (conditional target 2029) is the core lines in and around Bethlehem and Hellertown with their options and extensions, so the gondola, the Valley Express and the Airport Link are Phase 1 options; Phase 2 (conditional target 2030) is the corridor options past Bethlehem, which the Executive Summary's phase table and the Supplement's Bethlehem ↔ Easton row mention (the measurements are on this website). No measured fact or number changed. Earlier: v1.2, v0.5 and v1.2, also 20 October 2026 (planning-phase wording); Executive Summary v1.1 and map v0.4, 18 October 2026; Supplement v1.1, 19 October 2026; v1.0 and v0.3, 17–18 October 2026. Earlier versions are superseded. All figures are screening-level; costs are AACE Class 5 order-of-magnitude bands.Changed in v1.1 and v0.4: rail ideas shown as text only. The long-term valley rail idea and the South Mountain tunnel idea are no longer drawn as lines on the network maps, the alternatives maps or the interactive map, because no route or alignment has been chosen. Existing railroad tracks, the rail-ready stops and every bus and gondola option are unchanged; the Valley Express line is labeled as a bus option, not a rail corridor. In the Supplement's web edition, the purple Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton link on the regional map is now labeled as today's LANTA EBS bus corridor (schematic).Updated 19 October 2026: the Connect stop on the Mountaintop is named Mountaintop / Iacocca Hall throughout this website and the web editions. The Executive Summary's service-tier line now speaks of better access to existing airports and seaports in general, and the regional map on the Long-Term Vision page and in the Supplement no longer has an arrow toward airports outside the region. The Supplement's city-to-city table lists no Connect idea for airports outside the region (existing service only), and the ultra-express idea is described as timed to existing intercity buses at ABE.Changed in Supplement v1.1 (19 October 2026): the Bethlehem ↔ ABE airport row names the Airport Link, a bus option (then Phase 2; a Phase 1 option since 20 October 2026) from Downtown via LVH–Muhlenberg to the ABE terminal, as a step after better information on LANTA's and Trans-Bridge's existing ABE service, and before the ultra-express idea. It also marks the Dodger Stadium Express season as to confirm. The Airport Link was added after Executive Summary v1.1 and one-page map v0.4, so the summary and the map do not show it.Updated on this website since v1.0: measured train access for every station and proposed place, and current descriptions of the author's separate projects (Lehigh Leagues, Project OS, Mountaintop Discovery Gardens and Bethlehem Commons). This website also has a card for Aethon, which the PDFs do not include. Where a PDF and this website differ, this website is more current.

Data credits

  • Data
    Streets, buildings, land use and cover, water, boundaries, places
    Source
    Overture Maps Foundation release 2026-09-23.1
    License / note
    Transportation, land use, water and divisions: ODbL (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Overture Maps Foundation). Buildings: ODbL (OpenStreetMap, Microsoft ML Buildings) and Esri Community Maps (CC BY 4.0); some heights from USGS lidar (public domain). Land cover: © ESA WorldCover project, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data processed by the ESA WorldCover consortium (CC BY 4.0). Places: CDLA-Permissive-2.0 (some Foursquare records Apache-2.0).
  • Data
    Terrain, hillshade, grades, elevations
    Source
    USGS 3D Elevation Program, 1/3 arc-second DEM tile n41w076 (published 2022-11-15; lidar 2017–18; NAVD88)
    License / note
    Public domain
  • Data
    Existing transit (schematic)
    Source
    LANTA public pages: Enhanced Bus Service, schedules (2025-12-04), Walnut & New stop (2025-11-20), fares and service changes (2025–26)
    License / note
    Schematic only — see lantabus.com for official routes
  • Data
    Transit stop activity (2022)
    Source
    LANTA GTFS feed, June–September 2022
    License / note
    Older feed; service has changed since
  • Data
    Operating cost per hour
    Source
    National Transit Database 2024 (LANTA): $143.86–157.81 per revenue hour
    License / note
    Extraction uncertain; screening use only
  • Data
    Energy and emissions
    Source
    NREL bus evaluations; NREL/CTE/Cornell winter studies; EPA eGRID2023 (RFCE 594.74 lb CO₂/MWh)
    License / note
    Screening assumptions
  • Data
    Unit costs
    Source
    Eno Center for Transportation (2020); ITDP BRT cost range (~2019); gondola precedents (Toulouse, Portland, Brest, SFCTA 2026)
    License / note
    Order of magnitude only
  • Data
    Renderings
    Source
    three.js scenes built from the same terrain, footprints and land cover
    License / note
    Computer-generated illustrations; not photographs or designs

Methods and limitations

Distances are shortest drivable paths on the Overture street network between station points (the Airport Link option instead favors main roads by road class; see its method). The street network is used without one-way rules, so parts of some paths run the wrong way on one-way streets; only the Airport Link is also measured in both directions with them. Gondola sections are straight lines between illustrative station sites. Grades are the steepest 100 m windows on the bare-earth terrain model, with bridge decks interpolated. Run times use a kinematic model (maximum speed, acceleration, dwell and traffic factors): buses 35–60 km/h; the gondola 6 m/s plus a 60-second station allowance per section. Walksheds use Tobler's hiking function on terrain slopes. Train access is the shortest walking path on the Overture pedestrian network at 80 m per minute from each place to the nearest proposed stop on the rail-ready valley corridor, or the plan ride time (on any proposed line or option, the gondola excluded) when that walk is long.

Operations: 10-minute headways, 18 hours a day, 328 equivalent days, 15% layover plus 5 minutes per terminal, 20% spare vehicles.

Limitations: search results were often read as summaries and several values conflict between sources; such items are flagged “to confirm.” FEMA flood maps, Census/LEHD commute data, PennDOT traffic counts, county parcels and LANTA's current GTFS were not accessed. No surveys, borings, traffic studies or ridership forecasts were performed. This independent proposal is not affiliated with or endorsed by any agency or institution named.

Key references

  • LANTA: Enhanced Bus Service pages and schedule (2025-12-04); Walnut & New stop (2025-11-20); fare change (2026-03-23); service changes (June 2025, January 2026, June 2026).
  • Lehigh Valley Planning Commission / LVTS: FutureLV long-range plan schedule; 2027–2030 TIP; passenger rail study (2024) and Phase II.
  • Lehigh University: Clayton University Center (2025); Mountaintop history; Forest Park (2026-04-22); shuttle ridership (2022).
  • St. Luke's University Health Network campus pages; Wind Creek license renewal (PGCB, 2024-10-23); ArtsQuest / Musikfest coverage (2025).
  • City of Bethlehem: BethConnects: A Trail Study (2016; a separate official plan); Complete Streets planning; Skateplaza; South Side Community Center coverage (2025). PennDOT District 5: Hill-to-Hill Bridge (SR 378) rehabilitation.
  • UNESCO: Moravian Church Settlements (2024-07-26). SEPTA / Saucon Rail Trail lease (2009).
  • Gondolas: Leitner and Doppelmayr product data; Awana SkyWay; POMA Medellín Line K; Toulouse Téléo; Portland Aerial Tram; SFCTA Laguna Honda study (2026-07-28); ANSI B77.1.
  • Station design: ITDP BRT Planning Guide; NACTO Transit Street Design Guide (2016); 49 CFR 37 App. A; APTA universal design guidelines (2020).
  • Delivery precedents: GAO-14-472 (2014); FTA IndyGo Red Line profile; GRTC Pulse; Pittsburgh Regional Transit (2025); Metro Transit A Line.
  • Geology: USGS OFR 96-547 and GQ-1804; PA DCNR / Geological Survey; Lehigh EES Saucon Rail Trail pages. Legal: 37 Pa.C.S. §§506–511; NHPA Section 106.

Source lists with retrieval dates are on the last page of each PDF. All sources retrieved 17–18 October 2026 unless dated.