NS's Heartland Corridor Project

Anyone think it will reduce traffic in Pennsylvania on the mains ?

There are probably many more examples of inefficieny between Harrisburg and the New Jershey terminals that will have to be addressed in order to accomodate the additional overhead traffic.

Well, for one the Lehigh Line east of Bethlehem to Port Reading Junction would have to be double tracked in NJ. I don't think the current passing sidings could handle all the new traffic they expect by 2020.

As some of you may be aware, the Reading Line has been eyed for a revival of NY-Lehigh Valley-Harrisburg passenger service. This is only going to be possible if either additional trackage is added, or some of the freight is diverted to portions of the former PRR Low Grade/Trenton Cutoff. much of which remains intact.

I wouldn't worry about the Hershey plant - I have a feeling it will be shut down by 10 years.

To handle any more traffic, the Lehigh Valley line would need 261 signaling east of Blandon, and more double track into Jersey.

But that will all be moot unless something happens to the terminals in N. Jersey. Those smaller yards like Erail, Croxton, Port Newark, Dockside, etc... can barely handle what they have now. What they need is a new, large intermodal yard with arrival and departure tracks. Trains already are sitting out on the Royce or in Oak Island on a regular basis.

They were looking at upgrading the Lehigh Line already - but then traffic kind of went pfffffffft....

It is pretty slow out here right now.

gp80mac wrote:They were looking at upgrading the Lehigh Line already - but then traffic kind of went pfffffffft....

It is pretty slow out here right now.

What in the world do you mean by the traffic went "pfffffft"? It isn't exactly as busy as it was expected to be at this point, but some factors such as the economy, and the fact that people aren't shipping as much can have an adverse affect on the traffic.

I don't know what traffic you are talking about, but I counted 3 extra sections on NS today.

And also, when you constantly see the carloadings up in the west and down in the east it says something about the railroads delivering the goods! I don't think NS has the capacity to deliver in a timely matter like UP and BNSF do.

Could this excerpt taken from the NS Q3 earnings report explain how the Lehigh Line traffic seems to have softened?

"...Declines were driven by soft consumer demand and resulting import weakness, as well as some ocean carriers’ ongoing reduction of inland services and changes in vessel ports of call. Our East Coast port volumes grew 16% while West Coast port volume fell 17%, as shifts in business between ocean carriers and a general decline in transcontinental imports impacted Intermodal volumes...."


Not sure if this trend impacts the prospects for the Heartland Corridor, though. BTW, IIRC, didn't NS claim it was going to use the Southern Tier route for NJ to Chicago intermodal traffic? So why bother upgrading the Lehigh route? Just divert some traffic to the old EL route.

Simple - traffic is at the lowest levels in the past couple of years. The yards are dead. A couple of extra trains means nothing when the regular ones are running at 3,000 feet or being annulled.

And this is supposed to be "peak season".

blockline4180 wrote:
What in the world do you mean by the traffic went "pfffffft"? It isn't exactly as busy as it was expected to be at this point, but some factors such as the economy, and the fact that people aren't shipping as much can have an adverse affect on the traffic.

I don't know what traffic you are talking about, but I counted 3 extra sections on NS today.

And also, when you constantly see the carloadings up in the west and down in the east it says something about the railroads delivering the goods! I don't think NS has the capacity to deliver in a timely matter like UP and BNSF do.

The yards are dead.

Not so! I have no idea what yards your talking about, but here in NJ they can't put anything anywhere because everything is clogged! There is not enough yard space at Joke Island, Dockside, and E-rail. I have good friends that work out of there and they tell me how it is and 9 times out of 10 they can't get anything in or out..

But whatever, since you probably work for the railroad you know more, so i guess the yards are dead & empty like you say.

You can't go by the limited capacities that the N. Jersey yards have. Plus the track system around there really works against them.

Yeah, I do work for a RR... so I get to see these things all the time. I've never been denied out of Erail or croxton. Actually, my last intermodal train was an impressive 1800'.

Now dockside is a different story due to where the train is supposed to be left.

But hey, I only work here.....