The Main/Bergen/Port Jervis Line Thread

[Backshophoss]

Scratch another cab car for a while,Bus Driver seems to have tried to run the gate,since the crossing is in the middle of an intersection,
Bus Driver didn't try to backup. Driver is toast as is his CDL.

[MSC34]

From YouTube - about five minutes in you can see the front of the train:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UkYWA9X2PI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Backshophoss]

Cab car will need bodywork on the engineer's side,new windshield glass,bus is totaled,frame might be bent.

[Defiant]

Scratch another cab car for a while,Bus Driver seems to have tried to run the gate,since the crossing is in the middle of an intersection,
Bus Driver didn't try to backup. Driver is toast as is his CDL.

NJT really needs to work on slowly eliminating these deadly grade crossings. They are just inherently unsafe. I believe there is even federal funding for this. I will try writing Governor Murphy about this...

[EuroStar]

NJT really needs to work on slowly eliminating these deadly grade crossings. They are just inherently unsafe. I believe there is even federal funding for this. I will try writing Governor Murphy about this...

If you think a letter to Murphy will make a difference, please, do write one, but do not keep your hopes high.

Many of the crossings on the Bergen Line are hard and expensive to eliminate:
1. Park Ave in Rutherford is next to a station that recently got a face lift. Only option is for the tracks to go up (and the road to be depressed a little), but that will get shot down by the "elevated structures are blight" crowd.
2. Central Ave next to the US Ink plant should be closed, but it recently got resurfaced. Probably NJT did not want to fight that battle given the small payoff.
3. Continuing west, given the availability of real estate in the area of Patterson Ave a road overpass over the tracks should be built. NJT is too broke to pay for one and NJDOT probably does not want to pay as this will be $25+ million project.
4. In Garfield Hobart Pl and Somerset St need to be closed. Hobart got redone over the last few years. As these are close to a station and a curve NJT probably does not want to fight the public given the small payoff.
5. Monroe St and Van Winkle Ave are in very tight spots. I see no chance of anything ever getting done there. Maybe close one of them, but grade separation does not seem possible without large residential takings which are the big "No-no".
6. Outwater Ln and Midland Ave are next to Plauderville Station which is relatively new. I see nothing as feasible there.
7. Next are Market St and South Midland Ave. The latter recently got fancy traffic light and new surface at a cost of half a million or so. It was one of the top ten most dangerous crossings in the country. After lots of pondering NJDOT decided that an overpass was not justified and forced the railroad to drop the speed (you can notice that on the expresses). In my opinion this was a missed opportunity as they could have eliminated the crossing of Midland with NYSW too, but Cristie and his administration were adamant on not spending any money to improve infrastructure, especially rail, so there is no chance in the next 50 years that it will get another look.
8. Next one is Morlot Ave in Fair Lawn. It is in residential Neighbourhood. There is no way to do anything without takings or at least temporary construction easements.
9. There is a pedestrian crossing at Berdan Ave.Short of closure there is little that can be done as any overpass will need to be ADA accessible and that means elevators or long ramps for which the space is limited.
10. Fair Lawn Ave is next to Radburn station. Only hope could be to elevate the tracks and the station, but that is not an option due to the close underpass of 208.
11. Harristown Rd in Glen Rock is next. Good luck getting the locals to agree to elevate the road or the tracks. It will not happen. The town is too rich and by extension lawsuit happy.
12. Rock Rd in Glen Rock. Elevating the tracks and the station is difficult given how close Ridgewood interlocking is. Elevating the road will change the face of downtown and will not happen.
13. You can go on

Note that the Main line is practically grade separated but tends to be slower due to the extra length and the curves at Patterson. I hate to say it, but the only way you will get any grade separation is if a train runs over a full bus stuck on a crossing with multiple casualties. Only then the powers to be might find the strength to close a few crossings and consider grade separating some of the others.

[SecaucusJunction]

Keep going up the line and you get to Ramsey Main Street. People have been barking about that crossing for years due to people getting hit. They recently did safety improvements and put up fencing, but people will still find ways to get hit.

[EuroStar]

NJT is back to the practice of running the engines around the trains at the end stops including Suffern and Hoboken. There is at least one set today which has a geep leading long hood forward into Hoboken without a trailing cab car in the set. Suffern has no wye or loop where a train could be tuned around, so the good old practice of running the engine around is back temporarily. Unfortunately this works only for the geeps. The PLs and the ALP45s cannot be used in this manner. While I have not seen it yet, the same is probably occurring with at least some APL46s on the electrified lines.

Edit: I did not pay attention whether the car immediately after the engine was a cab or not. It could have been that the cab crapped out and instead of cancelling the train they ran the engine around.

[R36 Combine Coach]

If you think a letter to Murphy will make a difference, please, do write one, but do not keep your hopes high.

I hate to say it, but the only way you will get any grade separation is if a train runs over a full bus stuck on a crossing with multiple casualties. Only then the powers to be might find the strength to close a few crossings and consider grade separating some of the others.

That's exactly what happened on the LIRR at Herricks Road in 1982 when a daughter of a area assemblyman was killed.

[MACTRAXX]

[quote="R36 Combine Coach"]That's exactly what happened on the LIRR at Herricks Road in 1982 when a daughter of a area assemblyman was killed.[/=quote]

R36-Correction: The one and only survivor of the 3/14/1982 LIRR Herricks Road grade crossing
accident - in which 9 young people were killed - was Kathleen Caemmerer - the daughter of NYS
Senator John Caemmerer (passed away in February 1982) who was a supporter of mass transit.
The LIRR named the WSY Caemmerer Yard after it opened in 1986.
viewtopic.php?f=63&t=66264" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Getting on topic: Eliminating dangerous grade crossings is ALWAYS a good idea. I will note two
major problems: Money (each one is a potential multi-million dollar project) -and- NIMBYs that
will be against any changes in the current status of grade crossings especially if access needs to
be restricted in some way, shape or form. One of the best examples is going back to the LIRR to
take note of the long time opposition - even with all grade crossings being eliminated - to the
Floral Park-Hicksville Third Track Project from certain villages on the route...MACTRAXX

[R36 Combine Coach]

Getting on topic: Eliminating dangerous grade crossings is ALWAYS a good idea. I will note two major problems: Money -and- NIMBYs . One of the best examples is going back to the LIRR to take note of the long time opposition - even with all grade crossings being eliminated - to the Floral Park-Hicksville Third Track Project from certain villages on the route...MACTRAXX

It took 30 years for the entire South Shore to be grade eliminated - from Rockville Centre in 1950 to Massapequa Park in December 1980. The Lackawanna took some 20 years (1901 to 1922) to elevate the entire M&E main line between Hoboken and Convent Station (plus open cuts in Newark and Summit).

[rhallock]

On both New Years day and Thursday, the trains I saw in Campbell Hall all had a cab car followed by the engine, followed by the rest of the train. Is this something to do with Positive train control? I had never seen anything like it on this line.

[CentralValleyRail]

On both New Years day and Thursday, the trains I saw in Campbell Hall all had a cab car followed by the engine, followed by the rest of the train. Is this something to do with Positive train control? I had never seen anything like it on this line.

Yes, it's a work around to be PTC compliant. Amazing Phil said that NJT was ahead of schedule. Classic bait and switch... 2 more years to go .

[trainbrain]

I was riding train 49 yesterday which on the schedule does a receive only stop at Route 17. Yet at least 30 people got off there with no word from the crew at all, so I assume this is common practice. I remember it being discussed earlier that they won't prevent you from getting off there, but you need at least a Suffern ticket. I can't believe all those people would have known that was a rule.

[EuroStar]

Given that this is practically the only train on NJT with a receiving only stop, I suspect that not all crews (if any) are enforcing the rule. For that matter has anyone observed the rule actually enforced recently, as in a passenger made to pay extra for the Rt17-Suffern segment on that train?

[trainbrain]

I think it is the only one in the entire NJT schedule with an R stop. The only reason for it is political. Trains that stop in both states are typically funded by both states, but that one is only funded by NY. Normally Route 17 wouldn't be a stop on trains like that, but it is because of the Don Bosco kids getting on there.