Parking improvements under way at Salisbury Mills station

Metro-North Railroad will commence a series of improvements as well as expansion and rehabilitation at its Salisbury Mills station. The work will begin this week.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/SalsM ... 0May05.htm

The 675 spaces are a lot, almost as many as at Harriman. I wonder how this expansion will affect NJT's efforts to get people to use the Ramapo Route 17 garage?

Minimal parking at Tuxedo, and minimal at Southfields

The access road needed to be widened quite badly. I wish they would install a traffic light on route 94 that could be activated with a conductor's key. The wait to get out of the station can be quite long.

Why not make this station more aware to people especially folks up in the Newburgh area.

I think the biggest reason (for low use) is that you'd either have to change trains in Secaucus or commute into Manhattan from Hoboken. When you figure that the (MN/NJT) ride is only slightly longer than the Beacon-GCT trip, the extra time to NYC "kills" it for many people.

Keep in mind that the Beacon station is less than a mile from I-84 (at exit 11, which is only a few feet from the eastern end of the Newburgh-Beacon bridge. The Salisbury station is about 5-10 minutes from Rt. 32, which leaves you near Vail's Gate, south of the city of Newburgh. Anyone who lives on the North half of the Town of Newburgh "ring" (around the city of Newburgh) would have to take local city streets to get home.

Nester

yes, it is understandable why people do not want to change, especially at SEC. The thing is that you have to go up and down. Also, the Pt. Jervis line's service needs to be brought up to frequency standards. I take it that most people who use Salisbury Mills-Cornwall live quite below Newburgh, especially around vail's gate. Still, wherever people live around Newburgh and in the city itself, many of them go across the river to Beacon. The prices might be a little high, but you are paying for better service and equipment. We all know it is a one seat ride into Midtown. GCT is just as close to times square as penn station.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:yes, it is understandable why people do not want to change, especially at SEC. The thing is that you have to go up and down. Also, the Pt. Jervis line's service needs to be brought up to frequency standards. I take it that most people who use Salisbury Mills-Cornwall live quite below Newburgh, especially around vail's gate. Still, wherever people live around Newburgh and in the city itself, many of them go across the river to Beacon. The prices might be a little high, but you are paying for better service and equipment. We all know it is a one seat ride into Midtown. GCT is just as close to times square as penn station.

If NS would allow the line to be double-tracked through to Middletown, maybe this could be done, but does the population warrant increased service? (NOTE: I have not ridden WOH Metro-North services.)

Even though you have to take 3 escalators to change trains at Secaucus, it works pretty well. If I lived near the Becon-Newburgh bridge, I'd drive to Beacon, assuming you can park there (I don't know how parking is at Beacon.) But if I lives south and west of the bridge I'd use the PJ line.
That said, Orange County's population is booming. I think right now it's the fastest growing county in NY. They are slowly increasing train frequency on the PJ line, but it does need more service. Rather than double tracking the whole line, they could increase capacity by installing a couple more sidings.
Of course, the best would be the construction of a rail line paralleling I287, with a connection to the Hudson Line, but I doubt if that will happen in my lifetime.

Orange county NY is growing just as fast as the real orange county in Southern Cal. Even in Cali, you have at least some suburb to suburb commuter rail service, but public transit in general in southern cal is a joke for the most part. There are a few exceptions.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:Orange county NY is growing just as fast as the real orange county in Southern Cal. Even in Cali, you have at least some suburb to suburb commuter rail service, but public transit in general in southern cal is a joke for the most part. There are a few exceptions.

OC NY is growing faster than OC CA, more than 50% faster.

According the the US census, the NY county grew at a rate of 8.5% from 2000 to 2004, while the CA county grew at 5%. Of course, the CA county is almost 10x larger in population

I believe OC NY is the fastest growing county in the MTA NY region, based on census records.

http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/C ... 04-02.html

JoeG wrote:Even though you have to take 3 escalators to change trains at Secaucus, it works pretty well. If I lived near the Becon-Newburgh bridge, I'd drive to Beacon, assuming you can park there (I don't know how parking is at Beacon.) But if I lives south and west of the bridge I'd use the PJ line.
That said, Orange County's population is booming. I think right now it's the fastest growing county in NY. They are slowly increasing train frequency on the PJ line, but it does need more service. Rather than double tracking the whole line, they could increase capacity by installing a couple more sidings.
Of course, the best would be the construction of a rail line paralleling I287, with a connection to the Hudson Line, but I doubt if that will happen in my lifetime.

Many new spaces are being added to Beacon, about 300 worth. Right now, it is very crowded though.