Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

Harry, I don't either. That just means FIT and Southern gotta get reconnected before they can operate on the Southern. And that means the reconnect's gotta get done first, before the turnover. Since the work will take some time (a year? I have no clue), conrail will be servicing woodhaven, bel-ray, et. al. for some time.

Charlie

More: that's why I suspect the work will start before a STB filing.

This is the last time I'm going to say it, so pay attention. There will be no construction on the Freehold IT until AFTER the filing with the STB is approved. There will be C&D trains on the Freehold and Southern before the construction is complete. My PM's are open, I've already said too much.

#1577215 by CR7876
Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:53 pm

So what you are saying is that as soon as STB approval is gotten, C&D could start operating. To my knowledge no filing has been made yet. Any idea what's holding it up that you can share?

R&DB wrote:

#1577215 by CR7876
Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:53 pm

So what you are saying is that as soon as STB approval is gotten, C&D could start operating. To my knowledge no filing has been made yet. Any idea what's holding it up that you can share?

Correct. Typically, it these minor transactions, the STB will render a decision 30 days after the initial filing of a Verified Notice of Exemption, pursuant to any public comments that may, or may not arise. In other words, it would give the new railroad STB authority to be a common carrier and serve customers.

From what I understand, there isn't much left to hammer out. If I had to guess it will be sometime in the 4th Q of this year.

BTW.....when DDR acquired the NS washington (NJ) line to Hackettstown and trackage rights over NJT boonton and M&E lines..they leased 2 PTC equipped GP-38's from NS. Afaik, they are still using them..so either a long term lease, or they bought them...
So id say its entirely possible that the C&D would begin operating the southern (assumimg it happens) by leasing 2 PTC units from NS or CSX and operating via NJT until the freehold line is rebuilt.
They acquired their operating rights on the washington line before improvements were made....which including rebuilding an interchange track at Phillipsburg and undercutting the main track to allow plate F cars, and the also rebuilt all the grade crossing circuits.

Rebuilding from Freehold to Farmingdale is obviously a much larger project....But i wont be surprised if they operate the southern via NJT until the FIT is rebuilt.

There are fresh markouts in Farmingdale on rte 524 (Aadelphia Rd) where the FIT / Southern connection crosses it. Due to traffic couldn't read the writing, just saw the fresh red line and characters crossing the road. Perhaps the county thinks it's gonna happen?
Didn't see anything at Southard Rd or Railroad Ave.

We are coming into mid-October now and still nothing...

There’s something wrong here. All through spring we were hearing they were supposed to start up by mid summer, then we were hearing they were gonna start in September.

Now here we are, early October, and there’s been rumors that C&D wants to drop out of the project.

I don’t get it. Did something come up? Is C&D really backing out? Is there something that all parties involved forgot to address and now it must be attended to before anything progresses??? What truly is going on here???

According to what CR7876 has said, and I trust him on this, we will see things start to take motion at the end of the year. Keep in mind we're still dealing with the pandemic and in New Jersey, so of course those two things combined will throw a wrench in the plans. Not to mention, we aren't more than two or three months into NJ's financial year, which started back in July.

As of now (10/12/2021 9:15am) there is still no filing with the STB.

R&DB wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 8:12 am As of now (10/12/2021 9:15am) there is still no filing with the STB.

We still have a little over two months of the year left.

In addition, since this is a "speculation," I wonder if this venture is a backdoor for some sort of mass transit operation in the future. Since the Gateway Tunnels are indeed happening (knock on wood), that means that once that project is finished, there will be enough capacity on the associated lines for something like MOM to occur.

I don't see any other reason for a very seldom used freight line to have this kind of state investment into it, unless they are trying to get a private company to take the risk of improving the tracks and reconnecting some ROW instead.

JohnFromJersey wrote: In addition, since this is a "speculation," I wonder if this venture is a backdoor for some sort of mass transit operation in the future. Since the Gateway Tunnels are indeed happening (knock on wood), that means that once that project is finished, there will be enough capacity on the associated lines for something like MOM to occur.

NO.

I don't see any other reason for a very seldom used freight line to have this kind of state investment into it, unless they are trying to get a private company to take the risk of improving the tracks and reconnecting some ROW instead.

The project qualified for the NJ State FREIGHT grant.

#1582442 by CR7876
Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:17 am

Absolutly. That's why I check the STB filings every few days.

R&DB wrote:

#1582442 by CR7876
Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:17 am

Absolutly. That's why I check the STB filings every few days.

I wouldn't expect to see anything until at least late November or very early December ( for a Jan 1 change over, if that's still the target date ).

CR7876, I didn't know the target date was Jan 1 2022. I infer from that statement the operation change--over will occur then and it has nothing to do with the construction.