by philipmartin
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Railroad Forums
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EuroStar wrote:Can someone explain to me why they do not do this with regular service?Personally I don't think the ridership would justify it south of Long Branch. Anywhere south of LB is looking at a minimum commute of 95 minutes each way on an express as it is. While there may be some that do that can't see that number being over 100 people RT per day.
I know there is no refueling facility at Bay Head, but why are they not doing the following: replace a pair of trains, one from Bay Head to Long Branch (train A) and one from Long Branch to NYP (train B) with one direct train from Bay Head to NYP making the same stops as the two trains, then have the set with the dual-mode do the same thing that the set currently on train B does all day long running on electric power and at the end of the day probably during late peak evening hour have the set head from NYP to Bay Head replacing a train that currently has a connection at Long Branch to Bay Head? Overnight they can figure out how to refuel the dual mode the same way they refuel these direct beach trains on the weekends. Given that this does not add a new train anywhere, one would hope that with the right shuffling of behind the scenes things such as crew assignments and train-set locations they can get this to be cost neutral.
This certainly is not direct service to Penn all day long, but because they are not creating a new train into Penn they do not need a new slot into Penn. In fact if they do this with couple of peak hour morning trains that might attract some new riders who are currently put off by the train change and the resulting 5 or so extra minutes in the schedule.
35dtmrs92 wrote:A big part of the problem with CL service is that many CL trains are forced to do local duty on the inner-zone NEC, which kills running times. There really should be more South Amboy locals (to free Long Branch trains to run express), just as there should be rush-hour direct RVL service, but the tunnel slots just don't exist. Once we have new capacity under the Hudson, I think both become possible. Until then, neither will really be possible, and NJT will be stuck playing the same zero-sum slot game. Gubernatorial elections can't come soon enough.Well there is Gateway, an Amtrak project unlike ARC which was mostly NJT.
ExCon90 wrote:Also, any fueling facility at Sunnyside would have to be paid for by NJT; might there be a political problem (like Trenton-Morrisville) with NJ spending money on a facility in a FOREIGN state?Sounds like a problem manufactured by government. Back when it was all private companies, no such problems existed, except between railroad companies; and on what is now today's NJCL, the CNJ and PRR were disciplined enough to keep operations coordinated.
CentralValleyRail wrote: Personally I don't think the ridership would justify it south of Long Branch. Anywhere south of LB is looking at a minimum commute of 95 minutes each way on an express as it is. While there may be some that do that can't see that number being over 100 people RT per day.If there are only 100 people per day going from south of Long Branch to Penn Station, where are all the other people going? Newark? Rahway? Are these trains running completely empty? I have not taken anything south of Long Branch in ages so I have no first hand observations.
jackintosh11 wrote:Couldn't they just build a fueling facility in Bay Head?NIMBYs killed that a while ago as far as I know.
EuroStar wrote:I haven't either but this number was from a Monthly Pass Dest to Dest data log. Someone who works within told me this.CentralValleyRail wrote: Personally I don't think the ridership would justify it south of Long Branch. Anywhere south of LB is looking at a minimum commute of 95 minutes each way on an express as it is. While there may be some that do that can't see that number being over 100 people RT per day.If there are only 100 people per day going from south of Long Branch to Penn Station, where are all the other people going? Newark? Rahway? Are these trains running completely empty? I have not taken anything south of Long Branch in ages so I have no first hand observations.