Amtrak is also a possibility for passenger rail service to Scranton by way of the Lackawanna Cut-Off.

The PNRRA was formed in May of 2006, when Lackawanna and Monroe counties agreed to merge their rail authorities.

The consensus reached was that the operation of the railroad needed to be a multi-county venture and that a regional approach was necessary as trackage begins and ends outside individual county boundaries.

The Monroe County Rail Authority was created in 1980, and controlled over 12 million dollars in assets, with trackage totaling 29 miles (47 km).

In 2007 the Agency received the 5th Annual John J. Luciania Award for regionalism from the NEPA Alliance, the Agency that serves as the RPO and MPO for the two regions that are working together to implement passenger rail.