May 8th 2008
If you want some wonderful insight into why Penn Station is designed the way it is, I encourage you to read CONQUERING GOTHAM by author Jill Jonnes. The book brilliantly describes the design of Penn Station. You come to learn what we know–it was not designed for daily riders (a.k.a. commuters).
I ride MidTown Direct into NY Penn every day and the time it takes to get from the platform to the intermediate or top level grows by the day. My daily train generally comes in at either track 9 or 10. For the past several months, “work” has been going on to replace the escalators. In doing so, the area is boarded up and riders need to go towards the 7th Ave. end to go upstairs. Only one set of escalators is available–every once in a while. Why? Because invariably there is an Amtrak train leaving on the opposite track and the escalator is running in the down mode. I’ve written to Amtrak about utilizing the same 2 or 4 tracks they need in the morning so they don’t interfere with the hordes disembarking from NJ Transit. I’ve never received a reply and none is expected, sadly. I’ve started going into the City the old-fashioned way–through Hoboken.
Posted at 7:01 pm by coffeelen.
Filed under Service Quality | 4 Comments »
April 27th 2008
This little-used service to Hoboken is eliminated on weekends as of May 11. It will eliminate the use of a trainset and crew with the remaining service run with 3 trainsets. Except for a St. Patrick’s parade in Hoboken, I have never witnessed more than 6 people on board those trains east of Newark. That is partly due to the lack of advertised connections with NJCL and NEC trains at Newark. The service did not dovetail with NYPS trains as they didn’t want the train to sit around Newark. Hopefully the eastbound trains will all arrive on Track 1. As pleasurable as it was to use this service to avoid PATH’s wretched weekend service, and possibly use the 126 bus to enter Manhattan, I can’t blame them.
But a bad by-product of this is that the 5:18am train from Raritan and 2:05am train from Newark are also eliminated. A common schedule defect on the Raritan, Bergen, Main, and Pascack diesel lines is that it is impossible to arrive Manhattan before 7:40am. I have been on that train a couple of times over the years, it is far from empty, and I don’t think anyone gets up to ride it unless they have to. In addition for some that have to be at work on a weekend that early, it will be impossible for anyone on those lines to catch once a day trains like the Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Palmetto, or Carolinian.
Posted at 1:17 pm by Joe Versaggi.
Filed under Amtrak & PATH & Schedules & Weekend service | 3 Comments »
April 25th 2008
Midday weekday M&E service will soon more or less resemble what it is on weekends: hourly service between Dover and NYPS, dovetailing at Summit with a slower hourly Gladstone-Hoboken local service requiring the latter to sit at Summit for 10 or more minutes.
While weekend service frequency remains constant for all stations, there will be no Gladstone-Hoboken local service between Summit and Newark. The Newark-Hoboken shuttle equipment will lay up in Newark for one hour, and there will still be a 3 hour gap in service in the late evening. The Shuttle could easily run up to Montclair and back during that layover, and the 3 hour gap can also be closed. Both could occur for a negligible increase in operating costs.
The equipment and crew utilization on this Shuttle is scandalous. Evidently, NJT cannot grasp the concepts of Incremental Accounting and they continue to shun any influence from rail advocates with short notice of massive service cuts, and slower service on what remains.
Posted at 8:59 am by Joe Versaggi.
Filed under Schedules & Weekend service | 4 Comments »
March 28th 2008
Following is NJ-ARP’s testimony before the Assembly Budget Committee.
Continue Reading »
Posted at 9:10 am by Albert L. Papp, Jr..
Filed under Portal Bridge & T.H.E Tunnel | 1 Comment »
March 27th 2008
NJ Transit will hold two public hearings about the change in plans to the bunker station proposed as part of the T.H.E. Tunnel. The changes involve reducing the station to 6 tracks and placing it almost 20 stories underground.
One public hearing is in Newark on Monday, March 31. The other is in New York City on Tuesday, April 1. Details here.
Comments on the ARC SDEIS can also be submitted in writing to: Tom Schulze, NJ TRANSIT ARC Project Director, One Penn Plaza East, 8th Floor, Newark, NJ 07105 or via email to sdeis@accesstotheregionscore.com. Comments must be submitted to NJ TRANSIT by April 28, 2008.
Posted at 8:45 am by Bob Scheurle.
Filed under T.H.E Tunnel | 7 Comments »
March 24th 2008
The proposed second rail tunnel to New York City should go all the way to Manhattan’s East Side, according to a planning study that will be released Tuesday. Instead of ending at Penn Station, the tunnel would reach Madison Avenue with a possible link to Grand Central.
The Regional Plan Association, a transportation advocacy group, also recommends adding a light-rail loop to NJTransit’s Access to the Region’s Core project to increase midtown circulation that would accommodate new Manhattan development.
“New York and New Jersey need the same access over the Hudson River that Long Islanders will realize when the LIRR starts arriving at Grand Central in 2015 — shaving times off already long commutes and getting to their jobs faster,” said Jeffrey Zupan, senior transportation fellow for RPA and the report’s primary author.
The three-part analysis, the result of a multi-year research effort called, “The New Trans-Hudson Tunnel: Making it Work Best,” says the extension would shave approximately 20 minutes per day off the commutes of 30,000 New Jersey commuters arriving at Penn Station but destined for the East Side.
The Record
Posted at 9:06 am by E-44.
Filed under Service Quality & T.H.E Tunnel | 12 Comments »
March 23rd 2008
More development planned for downtown. They may have parking spaces, but getting in and out of them will be the real challenge. It’s going to get uglier on Rts. 18, 27, 1 and 130 without MOM.
Voorhees still silent on Transit Village need to morph into Transit City.
“…The $650 million plan fits those needs, calling for a 150-room hotel, a 53,000-square-foot supermarket (the downtown could sure use one of these), a health club including a pool, and several pocket parks, helping to refresh the area’s urban landscape.
Rough housing plans call for about 730 apartments and 28 town houses, ranging in price from $500,000 to $800,000; the concept would serve New Brunswick’s need to provide housing for its growing professional and New York City commuter base, as well as high-salaried employees of its burgeoning health-care industry and Rutgers University…
The plan announced Wednesday by City Hall officials and the developer, Tom Moore, principal of New Street Area Development LLC follows closely on the heels of last week’s unveiling of a proposed 34-story office building to be constructed in the footprint of New Brunswick’s George Street and Crossroads theaters…”
The Home News Tribune
Posted at 10:26 am by E-44.
Filed under M.O.M. Line | 3 Comments »
March 13th 2008
The Asbury Park Press reports that doors on NJ Transit trains have been opening while trains were in motion:
United Transportation Union officials revealed a list of six incidents in February in which doors opened up while trains were in motion on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast and Morris and Essex lines.
In addition, a train car door closed on a Raritan Valley Line passenger, said officials from the union, which represents NJ Transit conductors and assistant conductors.
The article lists the six incidents where doors opened, including at least one case where the center doors of a car opened while the train was traveling through the Hudson River tunnels.
NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles said he was familiar with the door malfunction reports and will have a report for the board by the April meeting.
“Our number one priority is safety,” he said.
[Patrick Reilly, general chairman of UTU Local 60], also detailed two design defects with NJ Transit’s Comet V rail cars, the second-newest cars in the fleet, and the new multi-level cars now being delivered. Those involve hand brakes on the rail cars, which he said don’t meet standards of the FRA safety appliance act.
Sarles said that issue is being addressed.
Posted at 3:39 pm by Bob Scheurle.
Filed under Equipment | 10 Comments »
March 4th 2008
In a recent article about delays at NY Penn Station, NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel made the following statement:
“The incidents on Tuesday and Thursday could not have come at a worse time or in a worse location,” Stessel said. “Any time there’s an interruption in the normal two-track flow in and out of Penn Station during the peak period, we feel the pain for the entire rush hour. Of course, this is exactly why we need a new tunnel to supplement the existing infrastructure. It’s also why we’re moving so aggressively to get shovels in the ground.”
That statement seems fine at first glance. But the problem is that after T.H.E. Tunnel and the bunker station beneath 34th Street are built, there will be no direct connection to NY Penn Station. The nearest connection will be in Kearny, NJ, about 8 miles from NYC. Trains from NY Penn Station will still go through the same two tunnels as they do now. So if a train breaks-down in the tunnel from NY, it will still interrupt “the normal two-track flow in and out of Penn Station during the peak period” and you’ll still “feel the pain for the entire rush hour”.
The only advantage will be that people using the 34th Street bunker station, e.g., Midtown Direct passengers, won’t be directly affected. But if a train breaks-down in their tunnel, they’ll be delayed just as much as if they were riding from NY Penn Station.
If NJT really manages to double capacity once the 34th Street bunker station is built, a break-down in either the old or new tunnels will affect just as many people as today. You’ll just have a 50-50 chance that it will be in your station/tunnel combination.
Posted at 3:44 pm by Bob Scheurle.
Filed under Delays & T.H.E Tunnel | 11 Comments »
February 26th 2008
If I’m reading the new proposed state budget correctly, NJ Transit’s funding would go from $298.2 million to $358.2 million, an increase of 20%.
Elsewhere in the above document, I see references to increasing NJT’s funding by $100 million, then reducing it by $40 million. (That’s where the $60 million figure comes from.) The $40 million is tallied-up as a budget cut, even though the $100 million was never spent. It’s like telling your wife you just saved $80,000 by not buying a Mercedes, but in reality, you didn’t save anything because you never had the $80,000 in the first place.
Keep that in mind when you hear the politicians telling you how much they cut spending.
Posted at 2:23 pm by Bob Scheurle.
Filed under Tolls & Taxes | 4 Comments »
