A large portion of the NEC is only 90mph on the outer tracks for NJT equipment. Its 90 all the way to County on track 4, and 90 east of Lincoln on track 1. Even if it was 100 inbetween the "middle zone" stops, (Metro-Jersey Ave) trains aren't going to get much faster than that anyway before having to slow down. You could do it, but it would be a minimal distance before having to put the brakes on, which would have to be further back than it is now because the speeds are higher.
Sure it would help expresses, but the signal progressions to slow down for crossing back over would really eat up and time savings.
If the NEC had the capacity where trains weren't catching up to each other or being held out for overtakings places or held outside of stations for another train to make a stop, where max speed would really be the only limit to how fast to get from A to B, id say go for it, but because of reality and how things really work out there, it makes no sense to sacrifice other areas of performance for a relatively few trains to enjoy these benefits.
Its the same thing as to why the Geeps are geared for 100mph. Thats all well and good that they can do that, but they would be so much faster if they were limited to 80mph as they would perform much better at slower speeds where they are operating 95 percent of the time. So what if the trailers can go 100 or faster. The ALPs can/maybe will be able to go faster, so its not like that allowed higher speed is going to go to waste.
Anyway, I think we would find that the MUs would be mroe for the Hoboken side rather than the Newark side. Im sure there would still be some on the Newark side, but they are still very ideal on the MandE and Gladstone Branch. If that were the case, then more than 90mph would really be a waste.
Im still trying to figure out why/how PL42s came into this discussion?
And the a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a (etc) made me think of "Dancing Queen"......thanks.........now that stupid song is in my head.........
On the RR, "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see"
John, aka "JTGSHU" passed away on August 26, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.