Penn Station Emergency Repairs: Trackwork, etc.

[Railjunkie]

A little birdie told me NRO is a no go.

[TCurtin]

That's interesting.

On another part of the same subject, I have recently observed on a number of occasions the wye tracks at MO (From our new home we have reason to ride the Hudson Line quite a bit) and they appear to me to be in quite lousy shape.

[JimBoylan]

Speaking of lousy track, there is an old NYC tunnel under St. Mary's Park in the Bronx, a route that avoids going all the way up to New Rochelle to get to the NorthEast Corridor. It used to have 3rd rail.

[Amtrak7]

That's interesting.

On another part of the same subject, I have recently observed on a number of occasions the wye tracks at MO (From our new home we have reason to ride the Hudson Line quite a bit) and they appear to me to be in quite lousy shape.

It's used for revenue service most Yankee games.

[Jeff Smith]

Speaking of lousy track, there is an old NYC tunnel under St. Mary's Park in the Bronx, a route that avoids going all the way up to New Rochelle to get to the NorthEast Corridor. It used to have 3rd rail.

If you're talking about the Port Morris connection, it's disconnected now from the Harlem, with a platform extension from Melrose? blocking the path. AFAIK it was never used in revenue service, and has quite tight clearances/curvature. I doubt an Amfleet would make it.

It would also require crossing all four tracks of the Harlem line above the MO wye; not something MNRR would really want.

To add to that, the other end by the NEC goes through Oak Point yard in the wrong direction, and would still require a change of ends/tow-in to NYP.

I'm sure folks have mentioned the Oak Point link, which is what obviated the need for the Port Morris. However, that's "dark" territory, would also require cooperation from CSX (which I don't think would be too big a hurdle, given that it was built FOR them to get them out of MO), and would require the same change of ends.

You are saving quite a few miles, and it's not impossible (well, Port Morris IS impossible), but the path of least resistance is NRO, which as ThirdRail points out, has only really been discussed here, with no mention of it elsewhere.

[DutchRailnut]

Speaking of lousy track, there is an old NYC tunnel under St. Mary's Park in the Bronx, a route that avoids going all the way up to New Rochelle to get to the NorthEast Corridor. It used to have 3rd rail.

it also no longer has rail, it has no way to connect to MO, it would connect in wrong direction on hellgate line, it also had no signalling and would not be viable for passenger operation.

[Gilbert B Norman]

A little birdie told me NRO is a no go.

Not surprised that little birdie has been going tweet tweet tweet to you, Mr.Junkie.

Yes the reroute through NRO has been done. but it was done under emergency conditions and was rescinded as soon as the emergency situation was stabilized.

Let us review the definition within the legal community of emergency:

...An emergency event is a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected incident or occurrence that requires an immediate reaction or assistance for emergency situations faced by the recipients of public assistance. The main purpose of such assistance is to bring the situation under control and to restore normality

The Penn Station track work, albeit crucial, is a planned event. I'm willing to bet that MNR "powers that be" are aware of the cited definition and will suggest to Amtrak "take it elsewhere".

[pumpers]

Assuming it is just the Lake SHore, Adirondack, and Maple Leaf, that is 6 trains a day for the NRO option. And looking at the scheudle, only 3 are peak periods. So should certainly be doable, especially if during the shutdowns for the Hudson line track to NYP (I forget the name of the track) are on the weekend. Jim S

[Allouette]

Empire access only touches the edge of the "A" interlocking. Access from the Empire Tunnel to tracks 5-7 isn't part of the area on Amtrak's map. On the other hand, access to longer tracks 8 and 9 might not be possible during some of the work, so they're obviously looking at options. NJT normally shares tracks 5-9 with Amtrak during rush hour.

[hs3730]

NRO was done for the planned weekend Spuyten Duyvil switch replacement about 6 years ago; only 4 movements each day: a combined Maple Leaf/Adirondack and the LSL. Everything else was either cancelled or Grand Central.

Since this time they only need to reduce the pressure on Penn Station trackage (rather than close the Empire connection outright) it makes little sense to do this, especially on weekdays. It's more likely they'll put a P32 on each end and occasionally use tracks 1-4 for some Empire departures.

[Allouette]

Unless things have changed recently, tracks 1-4 aren't equipped with third rail.

[Railjunkie]

They are not. We will see but me thinks three RTs a day in/out of GCT everything else will be business as usual.

[Amtrak7]

MTA CEO Hakim confirmed that Amtrak is doing the 3 r/t into/out of GCT.

[Patrick A.]

Albany-Times Union article from Friday notes while it is not official these are the projected trains which will be routed to GCT:

Southbound: 230,236,242
Northbound: 233,235,239

Weekend service will not be impacted (Monday-Friday only)

Source: http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-busine ... 209740.php

[glennk419]

While stopped at the Alexander Hamilton rest stop on the NJ Turnpike around 3:30 yesterday, the results of the trackwork were quite evident. With a EB Amtrak Regional stopped on Track 1 with an NJT train nosed it to its rear, a WB Acela and 3 NJT WB trains came by in the space of about 10 minutes. It was quite a show.