New Dinky to Nassau Street

Where would you get the 750vDC, and where would you service the LRVs?

A high platform vehicle isn’t necessary and would make a Princeton extension much more costly re: platform construction. Better to raise the railbed ~3 1/2 feet at Princeton Junction and the University, since it isn’t that expensive (it’s just a bunch of ballast) and still allows for level boarding.

mtuandrew wrote:Where would you get the 750vDC, and where would you service the LRVs?

A high platform vehicle isn’t necessary and would make a Princeton extension much more costly re: platform construction. Better to raise the railbed ~3 1/2 feet at Princeton Junction and the University, since it isn’t that expensive (it’s just a bunch of ballast) and still allows for level boarding.

SFMUNI runs LRVs that support both high level and street level boarding.

Flexity Swift units have been built supporting 15 kV @ 16.7 Hz. I'm sure between Siemens/Bombardier/whoever a unit can be found that will support the NEC catenary. Once you have that in place, arrangements could probably be made to run these units down the corridor to Morrisville or County yards…

lensovet wrote:Flexity Swift units have been built supporting 15 kV @ 16.7 Hz.

I did not know that. Seems expensive and impractical for a single short line, which means NJT has already ordered four

lensovet wrote:Once you have that in place, arrangements could probably be made to run these units down the corridor to Morrisville or County yards…

That “probably” is doing a lot of work to hold up that sentence

Noted on the high/low floor equipment, though I have doubts that their equipment is accessible within the car (i.e. board at high level, disembark at low level.)

yes the accessibility problem is solved with having mini-highs. clearly they think it's working well as they just ordered an entire fleet replacement from Siemens with this setup.

Patrick Boylan wrote:lensovet, pateljones asked about active passenger. What was the active passenger service that HBLR replaced?

There was none that I know of. Raritan Valley service to Bayonne ended in 1978, more than two decades before HBLR used that route.

We really do need a new Dinky. I posted the following in the "normal schedule resumption" thread, and someone there asked me to repost it here:

New Jersey Transit: Dinky train (Princeton branch) service won’t resume until spring (or later)

https://planetprinceton.com/2019/01/25/ ... il-spring/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Further, Alexander Rd, the route of the replacement bus service and 1 of the 2 roads between Princeton and Princeton junction (the Dinky endpoints) shuts down completely later this year for an extended time for major bridge replacements, with utility work and partial daytime shutdowns and detours starting next month already. The bus already often has major delays and overcrowding.
A major screw-up all around, to put it mildly.

EDIT: I feel sorry for the mid-level managers who have to get the trains out and staffed and in service every day (probably a non-stop juggling and high-wire act), and save my ire for the big shots that feathered the nest at the top with their political cronies and paybacks rather than hiring the best person for the job. This is what results...

Pumpers: That was me asking that you post in this topic.

I was not previously aware that the Dinky was under long term bustitution...
What was the last day that the Dinky ran?
What has the effect been on parking at Princeton Junction Station?

Road work on the bus routing is causing problems as noted - any idea when Dinky train service
may return? MACTRAXX

Mac, I seem to recall the last service being in September 2018, but am not sure. I am not a regular at Princeton Junction station, but the "pay by the day without a permit" lot by the Dinky platform (not the lot a 5-10 minute walk away) always used to fill up around 6:30 or 7:00 AM. Don't know how early it fills up now . (They did re-stripe that lot recently so I imagine they squeezed in a few more spots).

As pointed out on the "restoration" thread, NJT can promise all the possibly "fake news" they want about restoration Q2 in 2019, but without engineers and rolling stock with current inspections, not much can happen.

The dinky was scheduled to be suspended on October 14, but was actually suspended on October 11 due to equipment issues. One of the cars' inspection ran out around the weekend of the 5th-7th so they were only running one car from then until the 10th, and that car had issues on the 10th that led to service being suspended and replaced by a bus some time between 3pm and 10pm on the 10th. (I rode it on the afternoon/evening of the 4th, on the evening of the 7th, and on the afternoon and evening of the 10th.)

Service resumed on 12 May. The Princeton University Band met the train at Princeton station.
Brief quote from http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/articl ... es-service

The Band played several classic songs from its repertoire, and the entire crowd cheered as the Dinky departed from the station again.

“We also played the ‘Free Ride,’ but the conductor of the train ignored our unspoken request to play on the actual train, so we just played it in and out of the station,” Miller said.

Tucked away at the end of the "Bus Infrastructure" section of NJT's new Capital Projects sheets is a new section on the "Princeton Transitway" which calls for

a new surface transportation route to serve the Princeton area. The existing Princeton Branch right-of-way would provide an anchor for this new system, which would help to accommodate Princeton University’s plans to expand housing and facilities beyond the current campus limitations. The study and design phase would determine the preferred alternative for the initial implementation of the surface transportation route. The design phase would include removal of the electrified rail service, which is costly to maintain, and replace it with a surface transportation route between Princeton and Princeton Junction.

Estimated cost of $61 million.

As a railfan, I want to see the Dinky remain rail but I think from a business perspective, NJT is thinking more on the bus end of things. If they do go with bus, they should match the times that it takes to travel by bus as much as possible with what it takes to travel by train from the current Princeton Station. The catenary system on the Princeton Branch dates back to when the PRR started running trains and it is certainly very costly to maintain. With NJT moving the Princeton Station to where it presently is right now has affected ridership a lot and a lot of that lost ridership may never return to the Dinky.

If running electricity is costly to maintain, they why can't the NJT de-electrify the Princeton shuttle and have DMU service on the branch? They've tested it before when the Colorado Railcar DMU tested on the Princeton Branch with a Comet V cab car back in 2002. Not to mention, the shuttle in general is a direct connection for residents of Princeton and students of the university to transfer on the same platform to Amtrak and NJT service. Using an environmentally friendly DMU would also have fewer emissions than a bus.
Here is another example of a branch line which is nearly one third the length of the Princeton shuttle, and uses DMU service equal with the need of ridership.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stourbrid ... ranch_line

I really believe the Dinky conversion is because the Arrow IIIs are approaching the the end of their useful lives and
no solution fits the short branch (Multilevel MUs would not be practical).

A RiverLine style DMU could work though.

Please let's not bring up Colorado Railcar (that has been dead for years). River LINE DMUs might work, though they are now so old you would have to do a new procurement. If anything, given the electric is there, I don't understand why they couldn't just take an NLR set (perhaps one of the extended ones) and call it a day.