New Short Line/Industrial RR in NYC?

On October 26, 2004, the Forty Plus Foundation, doing business as Manhattan Central Railway Systems LLC, filed with the STB to take over the Highline and begin using it as an industrial track.

Full details of the petition are here:

STB Filing

Comments anyone?

I would like to see some freight service restored to Manhatten. I wish them luck, the NIMBY's are gonna have a feild day with this one.

Good luck! It is my understanding that parts of this line passed through buildings and that some of these structures have been closed off. Is there a viable freight traffic market for this line? Anyone have any more information on this foundation? I notice there are some major companies represnted on their board. All I could find via Google was this STB document. Interesting indeed.

Here is a very nice picture tour of what remains today of the "High Line" in Manhattan.

Not only is there no more freight , there is no way for freight to get to high line. The Empire connection has no freight and Amtrak will not allow freight on that line. Freight is not allowed in via Penn station or the Hudson tunnels so only viable option would be to create a floatbridge somewere.
I just can't see this thing happening.

A new York channel did a show on this line. Showed the tree growth & spoke of trying to make it into a trail...YUPPY,DINK=NIMBY!

I'm afraid this petition is about 20 years too late - should have been filed the day after Conrail moved those legendary last 3 cars of Turkeys...

Very little rail freight possibility in the area nowadays, lots of housing and small offices, plus light industry (autoshops and the like - no need for rail freight) maybe 10 years ago they were kicking around the idea of using the line for waste hauling (which could make a go of it), but not now - I remeber walking along the line in the late 1980s - the area right north of the St. John's Terminal was 'garden apartment' styling housing, so that killed any expansion south...

Look, if anything they should have kept the old 60th Street yards, with both float and rail access (Amtrak would have been running on Conrail's Empire corridor then...) - move trucks via intermodal from there - too late now of course, that being Trump's Riverside development. Heck, they don't use the Oak Point intermodal yard much now (I mean for trailer offloading - they use it for other stuff including Waste haulage).

Eh, just hook it into the expanded 7 line (or the L line, doesn't matter to me) and use it for transit... or most likely, make it a linear walking trail...

Hillarious. It seems like a practical joke or political move of some sort. There's no freight to be found on the high line, unless perhaps they rebuilt the connection to that big post office building.

the city wants that entire area to be redeveloped for office use, expanded javitis center, and a stadium over the LIRR yard there. My bet would be that this is some sort of political cannon fodder that would be used against the stadium plan, since building the stadium would entail removing the high line over and around the yard 9so far as I can tell)...

Physically though, it would be possible to reconnect the high line to amtrak's empire line tracks. the high line comes down and dead ends in a parking lot where track could be laid to wrap around northward and connect to the line just north of the single track box tunnel that goes into Penn. I don't think amtrak runs at night on that line at all, so it would be possible. Even during the day there's not that much traffic by comparison...

connect yes but part of Empire connection construction was that all rights were signed over to Amtrak and there is an agreement not to run any freight on the line. Conrail at the time had to sign an agreement not to allow or seek freight rights on the Empire connector.

Love to see it happen, but too much change in the last 20 years: new developments built, loss of industry, etc.

For more on this line see: http://www.rosshorwood.com/RailSiteLink ... eight.html

Very interesting. But, If you read this press release, dated the week before:

http://www.thehighline.org/newsletters/100704_pr.html

It would seem the state and the mayor all have a plan to turn this line into a rail trail all but sewn up (with a $45 Million price tag.)

I wonder if this filing isn't part of that process. Or NYCHR's attempt to stop it (you'll notice in the STB filing that Manhattan Central Railway Systems is part of the New York Cross Harbor Railroad.)

I'd love to see it happen, too but I think its 30 years to late! If enough $$$ was spent, I think you could develop it for successful use as a short subway/trolley line with freight possibilities. One of the old buildings through which the High Line is routed could be developed as a modern-day freight station. If there is some financial compensation for Amtrak, they'll allow some freight movement over the Empire Connection.

Why would the NYCH want to prevent a rail trail? Is there more to that story? It's not as if, as shown many times in the posts above, this will be used for transit or active freight anytime soon otherwise...comments, anyone?

Dave Becker

My hunch is that NYCH is blocking the rail trail idea because they feel the more rail, the better for NYC and their business opportunities. There is the wildly remote (but interesting) thought that NYCH could float cars from their NJ facility to the High Line. It would bring good directly into Manhattan from the national rail network without heading up to Albany and back.

I suspect this whole thing is just an underhanded attempt by some to throw a wrench into the redevelopment of the west side of manhattan. There's a plan for a new stadium over west side yard, and the drawings of how it would look do NOT include the portion of the high line over west side LIRR yard. If that portion of the line was to be saved, it'd throw a wrench into the stadium plans (the stadium itself is a hotly debated topic, since it will require public money to build a platform over the yard for the stadium to sit on). I don't know where those who are working to make the high line into a park stand on the stadium issue, but I presume they'd be willing to give up that short stretch of line if it meant saving the rest of it. NYCH is probably mentioned as a partner in this thing just to make it look more ligit and less politically influenced.

If it ever did happen, there's no way to connect it to car floats. Tracks would have to cross 12th av, which is a very busy road, and cut through the park/walkway along the water, as well as require a whole new pier/floatbridge. No way will any of that come about.

This whole proposal is political cannon fodder. If NYCH or anyone else were serious about reviving the line, they would have stepped forward long ago. The fact that they only stepped up now while the stadium plan and rezoning is being hotly debated shows where the motives lay... It's more cannon fodder likely backed behind the scenes by those against the stadium and rezoning/development.