Jersey keeps its light-rail rolling

[JCMAN320]

It says it on the ARC's website that NJT would buy dual locamotives.

[STT757]

I have not heard a single thing about NJT purchasing dual mode locomotives. If you could direct me to where you heard such a fantasy, I'd be more likely to change my tune. But for now, I'll trust the 4 or 5 dozen other people I've heard who ALL say NJT is NOT looking into dual modes. Instead, several people have confirmed that IF the Secaucus Loop is built, NJT will be stringing the PVL, Bergen, and Main lines.

You have obviously been told wrong.

From the Access to the Regions Core website:

http://www.accesstotheregionscore.co...s/4_1_0017.PDF

Check out page 9 to find out where the new slots made available by the new tunnel would go, and again dual modes on page 14.

http://www.accesstotheregionscore.co...%206-29-05.pdf

At the same time, NJ Transit is advancing several other projects that support ARC. Consultants are designing a dual-mode locomotive that can be switch from diesel to catenary power to carry trains through the new tunnel. Others are working to convert 140 acres of brownfields into a yard for 40 new locomotives and 200 new train cars.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbc.../BIZ/703190318

DUAL-mode propulsion has been around for generations, most of it combining diesel and de-third-rail power supply. Equipment that combines ac catenary with diesel propulsion is rare, and non-existent in North America. But New Jersey Transit (NJT) and Montreal's Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT) are now seriously attempting to design and procure dual-mode equipment to provide passengers with one-seat tides between electrified and non-electrified territory while avoiding the high cost of ac electrification.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-148480313.html

[NIMBYkiller]

I'd rather hear it from the horses mouth. And ARC is NOT the horses mouth, they do NOT speak for NJT. If they did, NJT would be at Grand Central and MN would be a Penn Station already.

[STT757]

And ARC is NOT the horses mouth, they do NOT speak for NJT.

What are you talking about? ARC is a study funded by NJ Transit and the Port Authority of NY and NJ. ARC, their website and various documents are funded by the two agencies and the Federal Transportation Administration as part of the planning and engineering stages.

Please read the big bold words at the bottom of the ARC homepage that reads" Sponsored by NJ Transit and the Port Authority of NY and NJ"

http://www.accesstotheregionscore.com/

[STT757]

Also read this page which details the ARC study as lead by NJ Transit as the project sponsor, the Port Authority as the study partner and the Federal Transit Administration as the lead Federal Agency.

http://www.accesstotheregionscore.com/Contacts.html

The Access to the Regions Core, their documents, and public meetings and mailings are all funded by the Federal Government, NJ Transit and the Port Authority.

Here's the lead contacts for each agency and group involved with ARC.

FTA Contacts:
Ms. Nancy Danzig
Acting Director, Office of Planning and Program
Development
Federal Transit Administration, Region II
One Bowling Green, Room 429
New York, New York 10004-1415
Tel: (212) 668-2180
Fax: (212) 666-3329
Nancy.Danzig@fta.dot.gov

Mr. James Goveia
Community Planner
Federal Transit Administration, Region II
One Bowling Green, Room 429
New York, New York 10004-1415
Tel: (212) 668-2325
Fax: (212) 668-2136
James.Goveia@fta.dot.gov


ARC DEIS Contacts:
Tom Schulze
ARC Project Director
NJ TRANSIT
One Penn Plaza East, 4th Floor
Newark, NJ 07105-2246
Tel: (973) 491-8912
Fax: (973) 491-4142
Tschulze@njtransit.com

Mr. David Widawsky, AICP
Project Manager
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
233 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003
Tel: (212) 435-4421
Fax: (212) 435-4423
dwidawsk@panynj.gov

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Study Team

Project Sponsor
NJ TRANSIT

Study Partner
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey

Lead Federal Agency
Federal Transit Administration

Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA)

Study Consultants
Transit Link Consultants – A Joint Venture of SYSTRA Consulting, Inc.
& Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.

In association with:
A. Strauss-Wieder, Inc.
A.D. Marble & Company
InGroup, Inc.
KM Chng Environmental, Inc.
KSE Engineers
LMS Engineers
Matrix Environmental Services
Organizational Learning Associates
Robinson Aerial Surveys
The Louis Berger Group

http://www.accesstotheregionscore.com/Contacts.html

[NIMBYkiller]

Regardless, I think the loop is a waste of money and that the Bergen Arches would be better suited for a downtown NJT line. Send HBLR somewhere else. Continue it along the former CNJ ROW to Newark, across the Bayonne to SI, and up to Tenafly. Those are good extensions. The NJT to downtown can make a stop at Jersey City if the grade isn't too steep.

HBLR to Secaucus wont accomplish anything that's already possible. If you're comming from the former Erie lines, you just transfer at Hoboken to PATH or HBLR. If your comming from any other line operating via Newark Penn, just transfer there to PATH(and HBLR via the extension I suggested).

The only one is if you're comming via Newark Broad, which I think most of those trains are going to Hoboken anyway.

[JCMAN320]

National Guard to patrol PATH stations starting next week

5/11/2007, 11:48 a.m. EDT
By JANET FRANKSTON LORIN
The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — PATH commuters will see National Guard troops patrolling 13 stations in New Jersey and New York starting next week, authorities said.

The effort is similar to one already in place in New York's Penn Station and Grand Central Station.

"Protecting an open interstate transit system requires incredible cooperation and the Port Authority is an appropriate vehicle to test bistate partnerships," Port Authority board chairman Anthony Coscia said in a statement.

The pilot program, which will cost $200,000 a month, will deploy up to 40 National Guard troops in and outside 13 stations. The measure is designed to supplement existing security by adding more manpower at mass transit facilities.

The Port Authority and two states will share the cost of the patrol.

"I think it's just about trying to be smart, using resources from the two states in new ways that keep us ahead of the curve and not behind it," said Port Authority Executive Director Anthony E. Shorris.

Since Sept. 11, the Authority has invested nearly $3 billion to enhance security at its facilities. That includes about $300 million for the PATH subway system, which links Manhattan and New Jersey by century-old underground tunnels.

The transit system is already patrolled by Port Authority police, including K-9 detection and special operations units. PATH passengers are subject to random bag inspections.

About 230,000 passenger trips are taken on a normal weekday, and 67 million passenger trips were taken last year.

The agency said the Guard deployment is not a reaction to any threat, or to the recent arrests of six men prosecutors say planned to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey, but fulfills a promise of renewed regional cooperation on security first discussed by New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and New York's Eliot Spitzer last January.

The two governors said they would work together to pursue money for beefed-up security for things such as mass transit and sent a joint letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The Bush administration on Thursday announced it would divvy up $445 million in grants to protect commuters, shipping ports, and transit systems from attacks — a boost of more than 10 percent from last year.

New York City, which has complained for years that such grants are spread around too widely, was a big recipient again this year, receiving some $93 million.

Some of that money is shared with New Jersey and Connecticut, where many of the city's workers live. The area received $79.5 million in 2006, and $50 million in 2005.

The Department of Homeland Security devoted a lion's share of the $445 million to seaports and mass transit: $202 million for ports, $155 million in grants to bus and rail lines, and $48.5 million for critical infrastructure around the United States.

Concerns have long been raised about potential terrorist attacks on tunnels connecting to New York City.

Last summer, authorities said they had thwarted a suicide-bomb plot involving the PATH tunnels.

Law enforcement officials said the overseas suspects arrested in that scheme had hoped to unleash the Hudson River on the city in part by destroying an underground wall that keeps water from entering the World Trade Center site.

[JCMAN320]

Businesses to move for station

Monday, June 25, 2007
By RONALD LEIR
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

There's always a price to pay for progress.

NJ Transit plans to extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System south to Eighth Street in Bayonne, but to do that, the agency will have to knock out two local businesses that employ nearly 30 people, most of them from Bayonne.

Both businesses are searching for other places to operate.

Meanwhile, NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said the agency is in the process of selecting a team of professionals to implement the extension of the rail line, from its current southernmost point, the 22nd Street station, to Eighth Street off Avenue C.

Stessel said the project's cost "is estimated at about $90 million, inclusive of property (acquisition)." He said the track will be "at grade for about half the distance (from 22nd Street)" and will then be "on a viaduct to an elevated platform at Eighth Street."

Stessel said the station will provide for "short-term parking only - 'Kiss-and-Ride' drop-off mainly. About 15 spaces are projected for the station."

The projected completion date is 2009, he said.

Properties NJ Transit needs to acquire include the land now occupied - under lease agreements with the landowner ALD Realty of Bayonne - by Burger King and STS Tire & Auto Center.

Kaval Walter, manager of the Burger King, said that his bosses "are looking to sites to relocate. Hopefully, they'll find something." He said there was speculation about some type of food concession operating from the new station.

There is another Burger King on Broadway at the city's northern border.

Walter said the downtown store has about 25 workers, of whom "95 percent" are Bayonne residents.

At the tire shop, the four mechanics on duty all live in Bayonne, a supervisor said yesterday. Bayonne has at least two other tire specialists.

When the agency is ready to begin building the West Eighth Street station, it wants to use the old Pagano supermarket site at West Eighth and North streets as a staging area for construction equipment, property owner Asher Lipman advised the city Zoning Board of Adjustment Monday night.

The board had asked Lipman, accompanied by West Orange attorney Daniel M. Murphy, to update it on plans for the site. In February 2006, the board approved Lipman's application to develop 74 residential units and ground-floor retail on the empty lot but nothing has been built.

"NJ Transit has ordered an appraisal of the site and they should be ready in a few weeks to use that as the basis for an offering price for a license agreement to use the property," Murphy said. Lipman will report back to the board in two months for a further update.

[JCMAN320]

Kearny: What would rail service return do?

Thursday, June 28, 2007
By ROSE DUGER
JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

KEARNY - The town's plans to restore commuter train service are steaming forward, with NJ Transit now seeking to establish an advisory panel to look further into the effects a rail line would have on the town.

Mayor Al Santos said top management at the state transit agency has agreed to establish the advisory panel and hold at least two meetings to gauge the public's input.

Preliminary plans call for rebuilding the Harrison-Kingsland Rail Line, a defunct line running along the eastern border of Gunnell Oval, and construct a new station near Bergen Avenue east of Schuyler Avenue.

The plans also call for NJ Transit to provide additional planning support to redevelop the areas both east and west of the proposed rail line.

The rail line would open sometime between 2010 and 2013 and would initially lead to the Secaucus Junction station, where passengers could transfer to trains bound for Manhattan and other locations in New Jersey.

Eventually, the Harrison-Kingsland line would travel through a new tunnel to be constructed under the Hudson River to connect with Manhattan's Penn Station. The $7.2 billion tunnel is slated for completion sometime in 2016.

The advisory panel would consider a wide range of topics, including the station's effect on redevelopment in the area, including schools, infrastructure and traffic, along with potential ridership.

Santos said the panel would most likely include representatives familiar with local school issues, engineering concerns, commuters and members of the Kearny Municipal Utilities Authority.

[STT757]

I have not heard a single thing about NJT purchasing dual mode locomotives. If you could direct me to where you heard such a fantasy, I'd be more likely to change my tune. But for now, I'll trust the 4 or 5 dozen other people I've heard who ALL say NJT is NOT looking into dual modes. Instead, several people have confirmed that IF the Secaucus Loop is built, NJT will be stringing the PVL, Bergen, and Main lines.

The Horses mouth has spoken, NJ Transit and Montreal's Transit agency are seeking dual mode catenary diesel/ac electric locomotives, this and the Secaucus loop will allow NJ Transit to offer direct one seat rider service to NY Penn from non electrified territories.

NJT/AMT dual-mode RFP is out
May 10, 2007

New Jersey Transit and Montreal’s AMT (Agence Métropolitaine de Transport) have released a request for proposals for a joint procurement of dual-mode diesel/a.c. catenary commuter rail locomotives. The initial purchase calls for 30-35 units; options could bring the total number to as many as 70. NJT and AMT, working with prime engineering consultant STV, Inc., have developed a detailed technical specification for the locomotives, which must be capable of running multi-level commuter rail coaches in push-pull configuration at speeds up to 125 mph in single or multiple-unit locomotive consists. Responses to the RFP are due at NJT by July 20, 2007, and a pre-proposal conference is scheduled at NJT headquarters in Newark, N.J., for May 31. NJT and AMT will be awarding separate contracts.

Dual-mode diesel/third-rail-electric propulsion has been around for quite some time in North America, but locomotives that combine a.c. catenary with diesel propulsion have not been seriously attempted. NJT and AMT now want to provide passengers with one-seat rides between electrified and non-electrified territory while avoiding the enormous cost of electrification. NJT already operates services where a transfer is required and is moving ahead on the multi-billion-dollar ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) project, which includes two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River. AMT plans to construct new lines that feed into an existing electrified line, the 25Kv Deux Montagnes Line, which serves Montreal’s Central Station and which includes a three-mile-long tunnel. AMT plans to connect the non-electrified Blainville Line to the Deux Montagnes Line just outside the tunnel, and construct a new, non-electrified Repentigny-Mascouche Line, which will feed into the Deux Montages at Mont-Royal.

According to STV, today’s modular locomotive designs should be able to support a dual-mode locomotive configuration within several constraints. Among these are Amtrak’s tunnel clearances (the locked-down-pantograph height in the Hudson River tunnels is 14 feet 7 inches), carbody space (no more than 75 feet long), noise levels, EPA emissions compliance (Tier II, with Tier III coming up in 2010), tractive effort, and weight (Amtrak’s maximum locomotive weight on the Northeast Corridor is 288,000 pounds GRL for speeds above 79 mph). The challenge for builders will be to fit a diesel power plant and an electrical transformer into one carbody within those parameters.

Industry observers say potential builders for this new-design locomotive are Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, and Vossloh. They say it’s unlikely that EMD or GE will bid, though either builder could partner with someone else to supply diesel power plants. EMD, for example, supplied diesel engines for NJT’s PL42AC, which is built by Alstom.

[NIMBYkiller]

Well, good luck to NJT with the dual modes. I still think the loop is a rediculous waste

[ablarc]

Wow, 125mph!!

I guess the track's already upgraded for Acela.

[NIMBYkiller]

125mph, nowhere do they go that first. Maybe the Trenton express? Even that is doubtful. Maybe 90, but 125? Granted....it is Newark to Princeton Jct no stops

[JCMAN320]

NJ Transit posts record ridership

by Tom FeeneyTuesday July 10, 2007, 4:51 PM

Commuters took nearly 10 million more trips last year than the year before on NJ Transit's trains, buses and light rail cars, marking the fourth straight year of ridership growth, the transit agency announced today.


The number of trips climbed from 241.1 million to 250.9 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. That's an increase of 4.1 percent.

"Given our strong regional economy and job market and sustained higher fuel prices, more New Jersey residents than ever are relying on public transportation," Gov. Jon Corzine said. "This continuing trend of record-high ridership on our state's transit network underscores the critical need for additional capacity expansions such as the ARC project and enhanced intrastate bus service. "

NJ Transit's three light rail lines saw an increase of 22 percent to 18.8 million riders, the agency announced. Ridership on its 11 rail lines was up to 73 million from 68.8 million. That number reflects a 6 percent increase in peak-hour travel, a 5 percent increase in off-peak travel and a 7 percent increase in weekend travel. Ridership on the agency's 240 bus lines grew 1.4 percent to 159.1 million.

Since NJ Transit began operating the state's transit system in 1980, ridership has increased by 41.7 percent.

But as transit ridership has grown so too has the volume of cars on the state's highways. The number of vehicle miles traveled on New Jersey roads has increased between 1.5 and 2 percent a year over the past 20 years except in times of recession, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Erin Phalon said.

Since the creation of NJ Transit in 1980, the number of vehicle miles traveled on New Jersey highways has increased by 45.9 percent, a rate slightly higher than the transit growth.

[JCMAN320]

State approves Bayonne light rail extension

NJ Transit has approved the taking of property in Bayonne to extend the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System south to 8th Street, the agency announced today.

The property that NJ Transit will need to acquire includes the land now occupied - under lease agreements with the ALD Realty of Bayonne - by Burger King and STS Tire & Auto Center.

Kaval Walter, manager of the Burger King, said last month that his bosses are looking to relocate.

“I would like to thank the board of NJ Transit for moving the light rail extension to 8th Street closer to reality," Mayor Joseph V. Doria, Jr. said in a written statement. "I look forward to the completion of the line to 8th Street and the benefits it will bring to our residents in 2009. I am hopeful that the businesses that will be moving as a result of the construction will be able to find other appropriate locations elsewhere in the city of Bayonne.”

The project will extend the light rail from 22nd Street, the current southern terminus of the system, to a new station at 8th Street.

From the elevated 22nd Street Station, the light rail tracks will be extended south, hugging the existing Conrail right-of-way along Avenue E. A viaduct will carry light rail vehicles over local streets to an elevated platform at the new 8th Street Station, which will feature an elevator and stairs between street and platform levels.

It is expected to be complete in 2009.