TomNelligan wrote: ↑Mon Aug 10, 2020 8:47 pm
it seems to me that if NJT runs out of functioning Arrow 3s, they could "isolate" the line from the national system to get out from under FRA crash standards and such and run some basicallyoff -the-shelf DMUs like the River Line cars. They'd only need a couple.
Yes, because such cars are maintenance free, right? The Stadler GTW 2/6 cars that are running on the River Line are all being re-engined due to very low mean distance between failures (they're 16 years old). And then where are you going to maintain them anyway, since they won't be allowed onto the NEC? There would also be the matter of who would operate them, presuming that NJTR personnel will not.
I don't know how much money NJT spent to build the high platform at Princeton Junction for the dinky, never mind how much money was blown to move the Dinky out of its long-standing Princeton terminal for the sake of that "arts and transit" thing, but that will mean yet more money (since the Stadler cars do not have an alternate form that can use platforms that are four feet above rail, although Stadler does say they will sell "tailor-made" cars albeit not specifying how much more money that would be) and the dinky will not run any closer to the center of Princeton than it currently does.
BTW, the Stadler GTW 2/6 also comes in EMU form.