Schedule Lengthened for Port Jervis trains

In the last schedule change, the running times of most or all Port Jervis trains between Suffern and Hoboken have been lengthened by 2 minutes. Maybe some have been lengthened by more. These trains, in recent months have often been several minutes late. Before that time they were much more on time. As far as general on time performance I can't be comprehensive because I only know what happens on the trains I am on. And usually, they are only a few minutes late. But, it's noticeable because they used to be much more punctual.
Does anyone know what's going on? And, is the schedule lengthening temporary or permanent?

JoeG wrote:In the last schedule change, the running times of most or all Port Jervis trains between Suffern and Hoboken have been lengthened by 2 minutes. Maybe some have been lengthened by more. These trains, in recent months have often been several minutes late. Before that time they were much more on time. As far as general on time performance I can't be comprehensive because I only know what happens on the trains I am on. And usually, they are only a few minutes late. But, it's noticeable because they used to be much more punctual.
Does anyone know what's going on? And, is the schedule lengthening temporary or permanent?

Raritan Valley Line trains also had a couple minutes added. This has happened in other years as well, the running time gets lengthened a bit at a time.

JoeG wrote:In the last schedule change, the running times of most or all Port Jervis trains between Suffern and Hoboken have been lengthened by 2 minutes. Maybe some have been lengthened by more. These trains, in recent months have often been several minutes late. Before that time they were much more on time. As far as general on time performance I can't be comprehensive because I only know what happens on the trains I am on. And usually, they are only a few minutes late. But, it's noticeable because they used to be much more punctual.
Does anyone know what's going on? And, is the schedule lengthening temporary or permanent?

I think you partially answered the question yourself. "these trains, in recent months have often been several minutes late" most likely meaning they did this to improve OTP.

However like you stated the question is WHY are they running slower than previous dates.

Believe this may have something to do with civil speed restrictions being incorporated into the signal system and signal aspects, in the wake of the MNR derailment over at Spuyten Duyvil.

Yes, methinks as cab signals come into play on the line and Rule 562, you will see the schedule lengthened even more as engineers will have to comply with them.

It probably has to do with work being performed as mentioned in the Metro-North pours $370M into Port Jervis thread.

The slowdown I posted about, refers to the time these trains take east of Suffern. This is NJT territory. Anything in MN territory isn't relevant here. So, I still don't know why the line's performance east of Suffern has suffered and why the timetable has added time. Of course this stuff happens all the time at NJT where speed usually seems irrelevant.

JoeG wrote:The slowdown I posted about, refers to the time these trains take east of Suffern. This is NJT territory. Anything in MN territory isn't relevant here. So, I still don't know why the line's performance east of Suffern has suffered and why the timetable has added time. Of course this stuff happens all the time at NJT where speed usually seems irrelevant.

Are you sure? If Metro-North is performing work on their segment causing late arrivals on the NJT portion which can impact meets and turns, they may may have adjusted the schedule to compensate.

While I'm not sure this is the case, it is a common practice.

ThirdRail,
If your hypothesis were true, then the time the train left Suffern (eastbound) would be later but the running time Suffern to Hoboken should not have increased. To use my regular morning train as an example, it used to leave Suffern at 7:32 and arrive Hoboken at 8:21. Now it is scheduled to leave Suffern at 7:30 and still arrive Hoboken 8:21. In our brief time with the new schedule, the train seems to leave Suffern on time but get delayed on the NJT portion of its run. These facts lead me to believe that nothing in MN territory is relevant.

Thanks for the visual. I see what you're saying. I have one more idea, but since I don't know the exact routing of your train (I don't have a Hoboken Divison master timetable), it is without substance. Perhaps MTASUPT or Srock will be able to provide the insight you seek.

Looks like all weekday and weekend trains operating via the BC line have additional time. Maybe to reflect new speed restrictions for curve stepdowns and Midland avenue crossing lower speeds.

Thanks for the info, Srock. Any idea why they have had lousy timekeeping these last few months? That would include Mainline trains...

JoeG wrote:Thanks for the info, Srock. Any idea why they have had lousy timekeeping these last few months? That would include Mainline trains...

Lousy timekeeping as in a late trains? We've had one hell of a winter, haven't we?

As mentioned above, not just those to Hoboken, RVL trains had a couple minutes added also. I happened upon a 10 year old Raritan Valley line timetable in a file drawer at the office today while cleaning out old files. The two minutes added to RVL trains in the recent timetable makes the trains I compared now traveling a 5 minute longer trip then those of 10 years ago.

Ken W2KB wrote:As mentioned above, not just those to Hoboken, RVL trains had a couple minutes added also. I happened upon a 10 year old Raritan Valley line timetable in a file drawer at the office today while cleaning out old files. The two minutes added to RVL trains in the recent timetable makes the trains I compared now traveling a 5 minute longer trip then those of 10 years ago.

Train timings for your 10 year old RVL timetable and timetables up to this current one reflect 6 car single level trains. Now that every RVL train is a 7ML, timings had to be adjusted for the heavier and slower consist.

-NO BS