andegold wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:48 amWouldn't a tunnel also facilitate the development of ports on the island anywhere from Brooklyn in the east all the way out to Montauk? Unload the ships on the island right onto the train and express to the mainland. Quicker (marginally) time to port for the ships but also no worries about bridge clearances or harbor traffic. Of course shoreline real estate is way too expensive for this now but it could have worked 50 or 75 years ago.
Not really. The port of NY&NJ is well established, and is located in the harbor where it is protected. The challenge with the idea of container trains in NYC is that there just isn't a whole lot of space to make it all work beyond a small TOFC or container shuttle operation from NJ to Queens. The whole northeast needs some container shuttles out of port of NY&NJ. There have been barge proposals, but I think shuttles via the Cross-Harbor Tunnel would make sense to Cedar Hill, Davisville, and Worcester, which could carry domestic/international COFC as well as domestic trailers in well cars. Somewhere out on Long Island would probably make sense as well for domestic/international COFC. Trails aren't possible due to the combination of low clearances for traditional TOFC, and the third rail that prohibits well cars.
Aside from intermodal, the primary purpose for the Cross-Harbor Tunnel is carload freight. There is already quite a bit of transload and warehouse type of freight that comes down the Hudson Line to Oak Point. A lot more carload freight would make sense if it didn't have to go over the Selkirk Hurdle, and logically, CSX or CSAO could run mixed freight up the corridor from Oak Island to serve the NY&A at Fresh Pond, CSX at Oak Point, and CSX at Cedar Hill.
Tom V wrote: ↑Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:50 amSpeaking of increasing freight rail service into the city, the most obvious is to add back the fourth track to the Hells Gate Bridge. It used to have two passenger and two freight tracks, now it’s three ( 2 passenger 1 freight). That and improvements in Queens and Brooklyn to the existing freight lines can really do wonders for increasing freight rail into the city.
That only makes sense for TriboroRX or maybe for Cross-Harbor Freight. The current configuration just isn't capacity limited by the Hell Gate, or anything else for that matter, it's a matter of having to go over the Selkirk Hurdle.
photobug56 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 31, 2021 1:43 amObviously some heading to New England and upstate NY, but judging from what I saw on Staten Island, a lot of that traffic is heading to NYC and Long Island.
Plus, you connect Oak Island to Cedar Hill and Worcester for traffic headed in that direction. This should be done as part of a national plan for freight rail electrification. Although it would still be a relatively small line compared to the major mainlines, it would be a feeder for CSX and NS on their main east-west routes if run by CSAO. Cedar Hill and CSOR could be mostly served out of Cedar Hill via Oak Island instead of West Springfield, as the B&A doesn't make any sense to electrify west of Worcester for MBTA. Fresh Pond and Oak Point could be entirely served out of Oak Island, and Oak Point would be significantly less busy, allowing for that track to be turned over to Amtrak/MN, and possibly some of the space redeveloped as transload space instead of rail yard.
lensovet wrote: ↑Sat Jan 01, 2022 2:30 pmphoto bug, it's like the cutoff thread all over again. how are the freight trains going to clear the third rail? "lots of people"? please.
Carload freight clears just fine, and containers could go via COFC. TOFC just isn't possible over electrified LIRR territory, they either have to offload in Queens, or head up the New Haven Line with trailers in well cars, which would meet the 15'6" clearance there.
This might have some merit as you could include rapid transit tracks on it too and finally connect SI with the rest of the city without needing ferries.
In order to make it time competitive with the SI Ferry, and make up for not having all the connectivity that the ferry has, you basically have to make a tunnel in a straight line to Manhattan, which would be astronomically expensive. There's already provisions for a subway tunnel to Brooklyn, but it wouldn't be any faster than the ferry. They should focus on better transit on SI, not crazy proposals to link SI to Brooklyn.
eolesen wrote: ↑Sat Jan 01, 2022 10:20 pmWhy does access have to be from New Jersey to Brooklyn? Why couldn't you build something between Stamford and Long Island, which could solve a whole different set of problems. Freight doesn't care if it backtracks a bit.
Huh? That's a way worse version of the Selkirk hurdle.
Dogbert666 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 03, 2022 3:38 pmPoland Spring was going to build a facility in southeast CT to carry their water into the area by rail. They were thinking southern CT as it would be a one rail carrier move (pan am). Now that CSX is buying pan am, it could be hauled all the way to NYC & LI. I haven't heard anything about their old plan, or any new ones in a post Pan-Am world, but the shifting landscape of new england rail could present new freight opportunities.
So that's one shipper. There is already a robust freight rail link from New England to Long Island via the Hell Gate Line. The missing link is to New Jersey.
