Randalls Island Connector crossing gates broken?

The South Bronx Greenway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bronx_Greenway) has a gate-protected crossing with the freight rail lines running through the South Bronx. I saw this message on the TransAlt mailing list just now:

I attempted to ride from The Bronx to Queens today via the Randalls Island Connector, only to find that the gates protecting the railroad crossing on the Bronx side were closed. Anecdotally, a skateboarder told me that they've been stuck closed since yesterday. I used the Triboro Bronx leg instead (and had to use the east side - the side with stairs on the Bronx side.

I called the number on the crossing gate - turns out it's NYC Parks - and they're trying to get it fixed, but who knows how long it will take? Anyway, if your travels take you from Queens to the Bronx anytime soon, be prepared to take the Triboro instead, and if anyone sees that the gate has bee reopened, please post it here.

How does one find more information about who owns the gates, and what's being done to fix them? Having them inoperative is a fair amount of suckatude for bicyclists.

If the crossing has a blue placard on it (and it should) that will list the DOT crossing number, owner, and the phone number to call if there's a problem.

Armed with the crossing number, you can research the crossing on the DOT crossing inventory (you'll have to Google it), and that should tell you all the information that's easily available.

When you say crossing gate, are you talking about a traditional railroad crossing gate - red and white striped bars that lower to block the crossing, or some other arrangement?

Some other arrangement. There's a picture at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ng_jeh.JPG

Well, it turns out the NYC Parks Department controls the crossing!

More details at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/ta-bron ... lFnJHgDAAJ.

You said that right in your original post...

I called the number on the crossing gate - turns out it's NYC Parks - and they're trying to get it fixed, but who knows how long it will take?

mkirsch wrote:You said that right in your original post...

This is true, but I assumed the person who said that must have not gotten the story straight. I just assumed if it was a railroad crossing, it had to be owned and maintained by the railroad. It still seems rather surprising to me that somebody other than the railroad can erect (and control) a gate across the railroad's tracks.

That is an unusual arrangement. Those phone numbers usually connect directly to a RR and/ or their dispatcher desk so that if there is a situation where there is an obstruction on the crossing the dispatcher can contact trains in the area to warn or stop them. Or is NYC Parks in the business of dispatching trains?

roysmith wrote: I just assumed if it was a railroad crossing, it had to be owned and maintained by the railroad. It still seems rather surprising to me that somebody other than the railroad can erect (and control) a gate across the railroad's tracks.

I'm guessing that it's still tied in to the railroad and is activated as would be a normal road crossing. As noted, though, you'd think the number would be for the appropriate railroad.

I'm guessing that the original poster on the other website was actually speaking to the railroad, but they were saying that fixing the crossing wasn't their responsibility. In such a situation I assume the railroad can't go barreling through a crossing when they know the gates are broken even if the gates are broken in the down position, since they know that pedestrians/cyclists are going to ignore a broken crossing.

BandA wrote:I'm guessing that the original poster on the other website was actually speaking to the railroad, but they were saying that fixing the crossing wasn't their responsibility. In such a situation I assume the railroad can't go barreling through a crossing when they know the gates are broken even if the gates are broken in the down position, since they know that pedestrians/cyclists are going to ignore a broken crossing.

Check out the image in an earlier post. The "gates" are actual fence gates, and look to be about 8 feet high. If they are closed, ain't nobody getting through.

Guarantee the Parks Department does not repair railroad signal circuits. The may have to pay the bill, they may call the railroad, but come on, guys. Crossing protection is covered under regs administered by the FRA, it requires specialized knowledge, it can affect train movement and train safety beyond the crossing itself, and is no doubt a unionized field as well. No way somebody is going to jump off his lawnmower and go walking the track to see where a circuit is open or something.

My guess is the railroad has more important things to do than worry about hikers, but obviously for political reasons cannot say that.

Just guessing here, but I would presume that the railroad may provide the necessary input via track circuits for gate operation, but due to the non-standard nature of the actual gates, the parks folks maintain them.

Using that presumption, a failure might mean that the parks folks start the troubleshooting, followed by a call to the RR signal maintainers if that's where the problem ends up being.

Or, I could be wrong.

Altho I know nothing about this installation, what you suggest does make some sense. Whatever the set-up is, it certainly is not a common arrangement. I must say I like the idea of 8-foot tall gates completely blocking the tracks - how do we adapt that to highway crossings?

The crossing is for a siding into a newsprint plant. It is not for fast moving trains. NYC did overkill making the crossing and now they are paying a price for it.