Railroad Forums
Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, nomis, FL9AC, Jeff Smith
...“New Jersey Transit is working with Metro-North to identify equipment and slots to accommodate service,” NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyde r told The Journal News on Wednesday. “The discussions continue.”
As part of the largest service expansion in its history, Metro-North is planning to add a new weekday rush-hour train leaving Spring Valley around 8 a.m. There will also be a new peak afternoon train that will run Monday through Thursday but it’s time is not known. On Fridays and holidays, Metro-North will offer a mid-afternoon “getaway” train.
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Randy Glucksman, who represents Rockland on the Metro-North Commuter Council, said county riders needed a mid-afternoon train because there’s currently a two-hour gap in the afternoon for service between Hoboken and Rockland.
“That’s the train we need,” Glucksman said.
The West Nyack man was also pleased that the morning train would be toward the end of the rush hour. He initially thought they were going to bring back an early morning train that was eliminated in June 2010.
Starting Oct. 15, the suburban rail agency will add a weekday morning rush-hour train for commuters and one in the early evening to bring them back to the county from Mondays to Thursdays. Metro-North will also begin offering an early afternoon “getaway” train exclusively on Fridays.
The new morning express train, No. 1618, will depart Spring Valley at 7:59 a.m. Monday through Friday, stopping at Nanuet at 8:05 a.m. and Pearl River at 8:10 a.m. before heading south to two key transportation hubs in New Jersey. It will arrive at Secaucus Junction at 8:44 a.m. and Hoboken at 8:56 a.m.
About 900 people take the train from the three Rockland stations on the Pascack Valley line.
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Anders said a new evening train would replace a local train that also was eliminated in 2010.
The express train, No. 1639, will leave later — 7:20 p.m. from Hoboken and at 7:30 p.m. from Secaucus — but will improve travel time, arriving in Pearl River at 8 p.m., Nanuet six minutes later and Spring Valley at 8:12 p.m.
County Executive’s Corner “Severe Shortcomings”
Last week NJ Transit surprised Rockland County commuters with yet another unfair and unwarranted elimination of services. NJT announced that two of Rockland’s express trains on the Pascack Valley Line would be cut to facilitate the installation of PTC (Positive Train Control) with not a peep of protest from Metro-North.
While I fully support PTC installation and look forward to the day it will help safeguard our commuters, it cannot come at the expense of already underserved PVL riders. NJT’s lack of planning and near panic to meet the minimum Federal deadlines should not constitute an emergency for our riders.
Over the past two years, Rockland County’s PVL commuters have endured more service disruptions than would ever be allowed to occur on Metro-North’s East of Hudson service. Since 2010, we have already permanently lost two trains through service cuts. We have endured chronic cancellations and delays, poorly coordinated temporary busing, late customer notice and extremely limited service schedules – all of which have a severe effect on Rockland commuters. Yet PVL commuters pay essentially the same fare as Hudson Line commuters for the privilege of riding the most unreliable service in the entire Metro-North system.
To be blunt this entire situation is an outrage. It is Metro-North’s job to ensure that its West of Hudson customers are provided with the service to which they are entitled and for which Metro-North is paying NJT. In the face of Rockland County’s $40 million annual value gap, one would think that MTA and Metro-North would prioritize service from Rockland County. Instead, we are, once again, the first to be sacrificed.
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Rockland Pascack Valley Line commuters feel the burn from NJ Transit's sorry state
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Left in a sorry state after years of declining resources and a bleeding of talent on top of equipment shortages and failed safety tests, NJ Transit announced it was canceling the 7:59 a.m. to Hoboken and the 7:20 p.m. to Spring Valley — two of the four daily express trains to and from Rockland — in order to install train safety technology.
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In February, New Jersey's Acting Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said NJ Transit was 37 cars short of being able to provide full daily service, leading to train delays and cancellations.
Then, Gov. Phil Murphy was announcing a plan to get more cars back in service. It included putting 20 cars back into service that had been out of service for upgrades, leasing cars from Maryland Area Rail Commuter and hiring a private contractor to help ease the service backlog. Gutierrez-Scacetti said the rail yards were full of cars, leaving little room to get work done.
That has led NJ Transit to dispatch as much equipment as they can on a daily basis, leading to inconsistent length of cars on the Pascack Valley Line. Sometimes trains have three cars, sometimes four.
"It shouldn't be very hard for them to go find the other four cars and an engine," Glucksman said. "It's just an abuse of NJ Transit. They've gotten away with it in the past and they think they can get away with it. We have to stop it now."
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According to MTA documents, through March, 159 trains have been more than 15 minutes late and 53 trains have been canceled on the Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines. The annual goal for those lines is to have 300 or fewer trains more than 15 minutes late and 60 trains canceled.
The average late train is 21 minutes behind schedule.
Meanwhile, Pascack Valley Line ridership dropped nearly 6 percent in 2017.
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Day threatens to pull Rockland out of MTA over canceled trains
Rockland County Executive Ed Day is threatening the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with the nuclear option.
At a news conference called by U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey to address New Jersey Transit's cancellation of half the Pascack Valley Lines' express trains, the county executive threatened to leave the MTA entirely if public transportation to and from the county does not improve.
"I'm not of a mind anymore to just go along," Day said. "Everything's on the table."
Day also demanded, and Metro-North Raiload later confirmed, that it would be cross-honoring Pascack Valley Line tickets on all lines and the Haverstraw-Ossining Ferry. Metro-North, which is run by the MTA, said it would be working with NJT to get the canceled trains up and running as soon as possible.
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Lowey, a Democrat whose district includes much of Westchester County and all of Rockland, said PTC installation was "incredibly important" but choosing between running trains and installing the technology was a false choice.
"Frankly, I'm outraged," she said.
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Jeff Smith wrote:They'd have to contract directly with an operator, instead of through the MTA.Wouldn't be hard, as it could be done through NJT directly. NJT owns the entire PVL up to and including Woodbine terminal facility.
