I noticed that someone suggested that the New Jersey River Line had restricted rail-use to commuters. Do you know if that's just for the rush-hour commutes and to what radius it extends? Our Minneapolis/St. Paul electric LRT can't find legislature funding for expansion, as they are pushing to build more freeway lanes which will sit idle in off-hours. We really need the freedom to reserve the rails for light European DMU trains during the 3 hours mornings, and 3 hours evenings on weekdays. I look around and hardly ever see a passing freight train, so certainly 18 hours is enough to bring containers of imported goods in. The legislators are trying to find work for those whose jobs were lost to those imports. Imported cement, steel, and construction equipment uses the transportation money fast and the same for our LRT, with little left for paychecks. Any idea how this is done? Do they get FRA waivers? Or is this a design rule change?
ordinaryguy wrote:I noticed that someone suggested that the New Jersey River Line had restricted rail-use to commuters. Do you know if that's just for the rush-hour commutes and to what radius it extends?All light weight European built DMUs running in America are using FRA waivers to do so. The wavier is based upon a set time of separation between non FRA complaint (lightweight) and FRA compliant (freight) operations. In every case so far in America, the old freight corridors are now owned by a transit agency. The freight business isn't busy, and all freight operations can be moved to the graveyard shift when the lightweight passenger trains aren't operating. You will find it difficult to convince freight operators to do the same on the corridors they own. Additionally I would like to add, all the corridors using light weight DMUs are looking at running trains midday, if they aren't already doing so.
We really need the freedom to reserve the rails for light European DMU trains during the 3 hours mornings, and 3 hours evenings on weekdays. I look around and hardly ever see a passing freight train, so certainly 18 hours is enough to bring containers of imported goods in. Any idea how this is done? Do they get FRA waivers? Or is this a design rule change?
At one time, Colorado Railcar was the only manufacture making FRA compliant DMUs. That's not true anymore. Colorado Railcar was bought out by a freight railcar builder, and Nippon Sharyo is now building FRA compliant DMUs in Illinois. So, there are choices of DMUs available today.