Rye, NY and New Rochelle, NY- why the switch?

I remember back in the 1980s, Amtrak moved their only New Haven Line/NEC stop in Westchester County from Rye, NY to New Rochelle, NY.

- Why did Amtrak stop at Rye in the first place?

- Who campaigned to have the stop moved to New Rochelle?

-otto-

Even more important.....

Why bother stopping at New Rochelle OR Rye in the first place?



-JH

I agree, that extra stop --- be it Rye or New Rochelle --- has always irritated me too. Rye was only 11 miles from Stamford, after all. But, just as with Metro Park --- which is equally irritating --- they were looking for an additional place from which to serve the large business population in the suburbs. Rye was close and convenient to the city of White Plains which has a huge business professional population.

The reason for the move to New Rochelle was kind of subtle. Originally Amtrak was going to construct their own station on their own site south of New Rochelle Jct. They figured 1) Hey, we have our own real estate and track here; and 2) a lot of times we have to stop here (Boston-bound, anyway) due to signals anyway. They dropped that idea probably for capital reasons, but decided to shift the suburban stop to Metro North New Rochelle station. Why? I don't know, but perhaps they still had, or have, it in their head to build their own station there one of these days when capital permits.

New Rochelle is a much larger city, that's one of the main reasons. It is among the top three largest Westchester cities by population (along with White Plains and Yonkers), Yonkers is the largest.

Ever wonder where some of the "Pioneers" with names like Roger Lewis and Hal Graham made their homes?

Ever wonder why the New Haven Metroliner stopped there?

Nuff said?

Gil, you hit the nail right on the head.
In my opinion, only a couple of morning trains westbound for Philadelphia
and Washington sould stop at New Rochelle and a couple of eastbound
evening trains from Philadelphia and Washington should stop at New
Rochelle.
Passengers out of New Rochelle going to points between New Haven and
Boston can easily transfer from a Metro-North train to an Amtrak train at
Stamford.
The only reason that I can see to keep New Rochelle at all is for morning
passengers to be able to get to points south of New York without the nasty
transfer of stations in New York City and for returning passengers in the
evening to be able to do the same.
I suspect that it would be much easier for Metro-North to handle Amtrak
trains and that they would get a better shot if none of them stopped at
New Rochelle.
Noel Weaver

That the Pioneers had their own personal train is nothing new. The entitlement was bred into them elsewhere.

Dramatis Personnae:

Rock Sound, Eluthera Island, The Bahamas (be assured, it aint Nassau)

Pan Am: Pan American World Airways; ceased flight operations 1991, formerly employed in executive capacity, Roger Lewis, and Harold W. Graham

Flight engineer; Second Officer, position gone the way of a Locomotive Fireman.

Shugure; Martin R. Shugure, Flight Officer Pan Am, later an Executive.

Juan T. Trippe, Founder and first CEO Pan Am; despite the surname, Yale educated 100% WASP.

Source; Skygods: the fall of Pan Am/Robert Gandt ISBN 0-688-04615-0

One thing he didn't understand, for example, was Rock Sound. Here he was on a Sunday morning, riding sideways in his flight engineer's seat , flying down to Rock Sound on the island of Eluthera in the Caribbean. Pan Am maintained a regular 707 service to Rock Sound. The flight was almost always empty. Nobody wanted to go there.

Why were they flying to Rock Sound?

And then one day during the transit in Rock Sound, Shugrue suddenly understood. They boarded two passengers who had a home on Eluthera. their names were on the manifest: Mr. and Mrs. Juan T. Trippe.

Pan Am was providing what amounted to a private 707 to carry the boss back and forth to Eluthera. On most days the flight's only purpose was to deliver Trippe's New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

The stop never should have been moved from Rye. The station's proximity to I-287 and I-95 gave it easy access to most of Westchester County. Ideally, Amtrak should have worked with the local transit authority to establish dedicated bus connections to downtown White Plains, Tarrytown and the office parks along I-287 to make it practical for people to use rail for travel to/from Boston or Washington.

Don't know if this is truth or not, but I heard "back when" that W. Graham Claytor had a residence in Rye, and that that fact pulled some weight about Rye becoming a stop.

Having lived in the North Bronx, and traveling to visit my parents, I would much have preferred New Rochelle to Rye. And there are currently lots of bus connections to the Bronx, Westchester, etc.

There's also more operating flexibility at New Rochelle, with interlockings on both ends of the station. None of that at Rye, except Harrison to the east, about a mile.

Mr. Rockingham notes:

Don't know if this is truth or not, but I heard "back when" that W. Graham Claytor had a residence in Rye, and that that fact pulled some weight about Rye becoming a stop.

WGC in Rye? No way; too far away from the "action'.

I'm sure "working his way up" with the SRY, he had a few residences, but he was always a creature of Washington.

The real "culprit"? refer to my earlier postings.

Don't forget the not very worldly Pan Am/Boston-Maine Airlines. http://www.flypanam.com/

Well, now I know why Pam Am is bankrupt and its logo is no longer on the former "Pan Am Building" (what do they call it now?).

I always wondered about Rye, NY. But more to the point, I think we'll probably see New Rochelle disappear once CP 216 is finally reconfigured. At present, trains to/from the Hell Gate Line must be on the local tracks (tracks 1 and 2, IIRC) at New Rochelle, so they run through the platforms anyway. My understanding is that, post-reconfigure, Amtrak will stay on the express tracks (3 and 4). Two crossover moves would be required to serve New Rochelle, so why bother? The point of the interlocking work is to reduce conflicts with MNR.

Stamford has been reconfigured as well, with an island platform to obviate the need for crossover moves, so if Amtrak trains can just stay on the express tracks, everybody's life will be easier. Say goodbye to Amtrak at New Rochelle.

Well, now I know why Pam Am is bankrupt and its logo is no longer on the former "Pan Am Building" (what do they call it now?).

The former Pan Am building is now the Met Life building.

The tracks are as follows, on the 4-track mainline...
(v To New York) 3-1-2-4 (^ To New Haven).

On the PRR side, the numbering is much different, but on the NH side, everything's based off a 4-track mainline.

-JH

Be assured, Mr. Geep, the airline you note, owned by Guilford interests, merely acquired the name and logos from the Estate of "Pan Am".

Beyond that, no relationship.