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Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.

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 #1489351  by Return to Reading Company Olney Sta
 
Or start at the Toms River Bus Terminal, can then have it as "Transportation Center". Right off Exit 81 of Parkway. The ROW of the Barnegat Branch runs directly by it and AFAIK ( been a number of years since I've been in the area) it is still clear from where the CIBA siding branches off to the bus terminal.

No real space for a yard there but the CIBA location could serve for that. Not a very long distance for deadhead moves.
 #1489451  by ApproachMedium
 
2 months ago i got caught in traffic in that jamesburg/monroe area and boy is it miserable. would be nice if there was a commuter train to get a lot of them cars off the road
 #1489527  by Steampowered
 
The parking factor is whats important . If a parking garage near 295 in trenton was built. It would be so much better for parking and ridership.
 #1489551  by njtmnrrbuff
 
The Hamilton Station is extremely close to 295. In fact, anybody who is driving up from South Jersey is very fortunate to use that road to Hamilton Station.

I thought of this idea years ago but let NJT trains use part of the Jamesburg Branch to a large park n ride lot near where the turnpike is. This would be a short spur. The catenary poles are there. If you live in the Jamesburg and Monroe area and want trains, you are going to drive over to the NEC, either New Brunswick or Princeton Jct. It depends where you live in those towns. If and when that new station opens up in North Brunswick where Johnson & Johnson used to be, then that would be the closest station to anybody living in Jamesburg and Monroe Twp. That new station is needed in North Brunswick as well as moving the yard there. Jersey Ave is a poorly designed station.
 #1490163  by Backshophoss
 
This is a "backburner" project NOW and will be untill NJT gets it's act back together,ACSES project DONE and the FRA is happy!
The "Christe" admin did a lot of Damage to NJT and IS NOW paying the price,it will take years to undo what was done by that admin!
NJT was forced to shut down the ACL line and the dinky to keep every thing else running on the Rail side,that needs to brought back
online BEFORE any service expansion!
 #1490171  by njtmnrrbuff
 
Wait until after all projects related to Gateway gets done. If NJT wants to build MOM, either build it right or don’t build it at all. Maybe for those people heading from nyc, the best idea would involve reactivating the old CNJ Branch from Matawan.

If they want to build anything that involves using the NEC, then they can build a suburb to suburb operation from maybe New Brunswick or just have a light rail diesel operation.
 #1490206  by kilroy
 
But a light rail system would require changing trains and that is a no-no in the one seat ride world we live in today (God forbid anyone burn an extra calorie walking to another train).
 #1490490  by R&DB
 
In the 25 or so years since this MOM idea has been around, the traffic has gotten worse each year on the major north - south corridors through the 3 counties. Let's look at each corridor and the commuter traffic patterns:

Turnpike - US1 - US130
Already fairly well served by NJT and Amtrak in New Brunswick and Metropark, additional service from North and South Brunswicks may relieve some congestion. But this really does't belong in MOM, rather the NEC.

US9 - NJ18
The real meat of MOM. From Toms River to Old Bridge US9 is overloaded with commuters and buses every weekday morning and evening. In Old Bridge NJ18 splits off to the New Brunswick area diverting some (30%?) traffic off US9. The majority of this flow is from Lakewood north. Many of the commuter cars go to Metropark or other park and ride facilities. Not many commuters from this area drive into NYC, they park and take public transportation. Other commuters whose destinations are such as Newark, Jersey City or Hoboken could also benfit from MOM. The idea is to get these people out of their cars and onto rail as far south as possible. They are already using the NEC and/or PATH if they are going into NYC, so no new tunnel capacity is needed for this group of commuters. The argument that the tunnels are the only thing holding back MOM is not true. Only when MOM attracts additional commuters through growth after it is built. The current commuter base can be accomodated but may require a change of trains for some commuters.

Parkway
Lots of traffic on this corridor! From Toms River to Red Bank, there is almost no alternative. There are many who drive from this area to park and rides further north. THe NJCL serves fairly well from Red Bank north, but rail commute times from south of Long Branch are not desirable. If these commuters had another choice, MOM might be an alternative.

So which MOM route(s) should be built? What are the benefits from each route?

The 'preferred route' Lakehurst - Lakewood - Farmingdale - Freehold - Jamesburg - NEC
This would probably garner the most ridership. It is also the longest and therefore the slowest for commuters below Freehold.

The 'Matawan route' Lakehurst - Lakewood - Farmingdale - Freehold - Matawan - NJCL - NEC
Good ridership potential and probably a little quicker than the Jamesburg routing.

The 'Red Bank route' Lakehurst - Lakewood - Farmingdale - Red Bank - NJCL - NEC
Fastest route for commuters below Farmingdale. Least cost to inaugurate.

So which MOM route(s) should be built? All of them! But with some modifications:
The 'preferred route' should have its southern terminus at Farmingdale or Lakewood.
The 'Matawan route' should have its southern terminus at Farmingdale or Lakewood.
The 'Red Bank route' should have its southern terminus at Toms River.

Unfortunately none of MOM will get built until NJT gets it's house in order and the Federal and State governments invest in rail transportation infrastructure.
 #1490602  by R&DB
 
One more reason MOM will probably never be built: Commute Time. To be competitive commute times have to be comparible or shorter than car or bus time. To do that MOM would have to be built to FRA Class 4 to achieve the speeds necessary. The cost of this would probably exceed $3 million PER MILE just for the railbed and rails. Add to that crossing protection, signaling, communications, stations, parking lots, etc. Monmouth Junction to Lakehurst (the preferred route) is about 35 miles. All included the non-rolling infrastructure cost will probably exceed $1 billion. Not cost effectivebut would be nice to have.
 #1490608  by andegold
 
$1 billion in todays money and carrying the volume of passengers that it will sounds like a bargain compared to the cost of RiverLine however many years ago that was built.
 #1490612  by ApproachMedium
 
R&DB wrote:One more reason MOM will probably never be built: Commute Time. To be competitive commute times have to be comparible or shorter than car or bus time. To do that MOM would have to be built to FRA Class 4 to achieve the speeds necessary. The cost of this would probably exceed $3 million PER MILE just for the railbed and rails. Add to that crossing protection, signaling, communications, stations, parking lots, etc. Monmouth Junction to Lakehurst (the preferred route) is about 35 miles. All included the non-rolling infrastructure cost will probably exceed $1 billion. Not cost effectivebut would be nice to have.
That shouldnt be a problem if you do it off the times it takes during rush hour. Right now with no traffic you can always beat the train to the city from anywhere on the coast line but people still take it. More people ride it during the rush hours when road traffic is at its worst and having a seat on the train is less stressful.
 #1490665  by njtmnrrbuff
 
The ride on the coastline from the beach areas to the city takes too long on a local train and unless if there is a lot of traffic, the train doesn't work well with people's schedules. Most of the people who take the train from the south end of the Coastline are either commuters heading to NWK or NYC or your vacation travelers wanting to head from NYC, NWK, or other stops to go to the beach either on a Friday later in the day or Saturday in the morning and then they come back up in the late afternoon to early evening on a weekend. There are many people who live very close to the south end of the Coastline who prefer to drive up the Parkway or Rt. 9 to Metropark for faster and more frequent service. There are probably many people who might drive to Aberdeen-Matawan as well. The proposed preferred MOM routing by NJT, which isn't really my favorite, takes way too long. The problem is not the NEC but once the trains travel on Conrail's Shared Assets. I have never traveled on Rt. 9 south of Sayreville during rush hour but I am not too surprised that there is a lot of traffic. I noticed that NJT runs various zone bus expresses which helps with the travel time and crowding. If I was head of NJT, I would say either build the route through Matawan, Marlboro, and Freehold or don't build it at all.

As for the Rt , Turnpike, and 130 corridor, the improvements should be focused on the NEC for the most part. It's very important that the station in North Brunswick near the old Johnson & Johnson site gets built as well as the yard there. It's way too long of a gap for a stop for NJT between Jersey Avenue and Princeton Jct. In fact, I would probably say move County Yard to N. Brunswick as there is more room. I believe there is a plan to build a loop at the proposed yard which would probably help trains not tie up all of the mains which happens at County yard and interlocking. Getting to the Jamesburg Branch-I had this suggestion before to maybe build a park n ride lot near where the NJ Turnpike goes over the Jamesburg Branch and run some rush hour trains there. It's important at the very least that the station and yard get built in N. Brunswick and that would be beneficial if you live in S. Brunswick, Monroe Twp, and Jamesburg because it would be a matter of heading up 130 a few miles rather than heading into Downtown New Brunswick. Jersey Avenue station could and, in fact, should have high level platforms on both sides of the NEC.
 #1539698  by Youngster
 
I know NJT has been for years been studying its Monmouth Ocean Middlesex (MOM) service. My question is how much of the CNJ southern line would be used in that service.
The southern line always has interested me and I have several questions pertaining to it.

When was it last used as a direct New York-Atlantic City route? Was it the Blue Comet or did any other NY-AC train use it after the Comet?

When did the last commuter service operate on the line?

Did the line ever connect to the line serving Cape May, Ocean City, and Wildwood?

Is the whole ROW, including disused portions, still intact?

Can it ever again serve as a vital north-south New Jersey rail link?

I know some of these questions should be in the CNJ forum but I’m interested in NJT use of the line for the future.
 #1539757  by Jeff Smith
 
Wow there were a lot of MOM topics. If you're bored, I merged them all in to this last, main thread, so you can go back and peruse while we're all under Shelter in Place.
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