CorridorOne, a plan to bring light-rail transit to the Lancaster-Harrisburg line, has jumped the tracks to make way for a more powerful locomotive.

John Ward, president of Modern Transit Partnerships, on Monday unveiled a new moniker for the line: the Capital Red Rose Corridor.

He also said during a morning news conference at the Elizabethtown train station that high gas prices are giving the light-rail concept a much-needed boost of support in Harrisburg.

"It's looking better and better," Ward said. "Do we have every dollar we need now? We do not. … But $4 per gallon of gasoline makes an impact."

Harrisburg approved $11.2 million to fund construction of the light rail in 2007, just months after state Department of Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler announced the project was dead in the water.

However, MTP officials have said they are still looking for a ready source of funds to operate the line once it's built. Even so, Ward predicted the light rail will be running from the capital city and Harrisburg International Airport to Elizabethtown and Lancaster within two years.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, who often rides the train from Lancaster to Harrisburg and Philadelphia, said some people today "just don't get it."

"The age of gasoline is over," he said. "We are going to have to change."

Recent generations have exploited a strong market by "hollowing out our cities and expanding into farmland," Gray said. "We built the way we live right now on cheap gasoline and cheap oil. But it's over."

Alternative sources of oil are "grasping at straws," he said.

"Rail transportation is our future," Gray said. "Let's leave a legacy … our children and grandchildren can be proud of."

Ward said Monday marks the point where CorridorOne shifts from "a generic name" to "one that more specifically identifies the corridor and provides better branding opportunities."

There were 806 submissions for a naming contest sponsored by R.S. Mowery & Sons. Charles Miller, a retired Armstrong World Industries worker from Willow Street, supplied the winning entry.

"I wrote down a bunch of names," he said. "I figured I'd just submit them all."

Miller, who said he plans to use the light-rail line, received $1,000 from Mowery & Sons for submitting the name.

A.B. Shafaye, a Penn State Harrisburg professor and contest judge, said the name was "a good fit" for the region, and it was original, marketable and relevant.

"It is very simple," Ward said. "We wanted it very simple. But it says quite a bit."

Several officials gathered Monday at the foot of the Elizabethtown station were enthusiastic about both the name and the light-rail concept.

"I believe that we are on the threshold of something great," Elizabethtown Mayor Bob Brain said Monday. "This project is innovative and highly valuable."

Rail transit, Brain said, will help decrease American dependence on oil and improve air quality.

"Maybe, just maybe, in 10 or 20 years the residents of the communities along this corridor will look back and say that the folks who developed and implemented this commuter-rail service had it right."

MTP has projected that 1,000 single-ticket riders would take one of 28 daily 37.4-mile trips between Lancaster and Harrisburg.

Elizabethtown council president Meade Bierly said he likes the new name, which tells riders "exactly what it connects."

He said he also looks forward to improved transportation between counties.

"You get to the Lancaster County line and public transportation disappears," Bierly said. "Do you want to take a bus from Dauphin County to Elizabethtown? You can't get there."

E-mail: tknapp@lnpnews.com