Rail New York - East-of-Hudson Freight Rail Alliance

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I've been busy putting together a public advocacy organization, comprehensive website, and Facebook page dedicated to promoting freight rail in New York City and Long Island. The group, known as Rail New York, is a public advocacy group intended to inform the public, shippers, and local politicians about the virtues and benefits of shipping freight by rail. I believe the website makes the case. I would like to make clear this is NOT a railfan site, but a public advocacy site intended to distribute facts and information related to the undeniable benefits of shipping freight by rail. We have absolutely no connection to CSX, NYA, or any other company, politician, city agency, or shippers.

Our first major victory was helping to persuade the Suffolk County legislature to approve the expansion of the BRT a few months ago through an aggressive letter-writing campaign. If you'd like to join or become involved, please visit the website and Facebook page shown in my signature below. You can also message me directly or on this thread. We are building our membership roster and the more people on our side, the more leverage we will have in actually making an impact on the overall freight logistics picture in the New York City/Long Island region.

Also, if you have any ideas on how to better position the organization to have a bigger impact, please let me know. Thanks!

http://www.railnewyork.com

good efforts. i read your stuff. as a pioneer of waste-by-rail in the metro area, i was happy to see the creation of your group. i assisted in the harlem river start-up, varick and the barretti move via the cross harbor. 20 years plus.

i learned that the 263 restriction was not based on track geometry but on illusion and folklore. also, 286 is not the end-all for freight rail stimulation. proper rail pricing is. which means costs and therein is the hurdle. it's just costly to run trains from selkirk to fresh pond. a cross harbor tunnel would never be justified by the economics. double-stack? it will be tough to crack into the new jersey profile. the cross harbor with a new 15 car barge and a filet/toupee op at 65th street then ny&a has to be less per car than $900. (current trucking of 40' is $450 from newark to brookhaven).and the transit is awful. tropicana has some small margin for a cross-harbor move. good luck. ken patrick

Excellent site/page. One thing I have to give the LIRR credit for is the studies(Mercer Management) done in the mid-nineties to privatize the rail freight. However they do charge a rediculous price for the switch fees that increase every couple of years. I think the double tracking east of Farmingdale will help ease freight movements and has the most potential for rail freight growth.

NYCS,Double stack service to the Island and a dedicated freight tunnel under New York Harbor(Upper Bay) could be
considered "pipe dreams",Running a spine car intermodal train thru the North + East River tunnels to the center of
Long Island during the overnight hours is within the realm of possibiltys,with the exception of "Haz-Mat" loads.
You would need 2 slots(1EB+1WB) to make it work. The other trick is to get CSX to run a spine car intermodal
train from Selkirk to the Island using the Montauk Cutoff to get to central Long Island.
Spine cars should clear both MNR +LIRR 3rd rails.


A freight tunnel may only happen with help from the Port Authorty of NY/NJ to build it.(ie,if the PA can make $$$ off it!)

This is great, truly. I'll probably be in touch with some ideas, relevant photos, etc. I have one particular article in mind that should be written up, which might make some of these cures type people think a little differently.

My only critique: A good photo of all the truck traffic going over the GWB would be a little better than them shots of regular car traffic. Even the LIE in queens can yield some good shots of that.

On the topic of intermodal: I read long ago that LIRR & CR ran a test train with some sort of well car that could clear the 3rd rails and clearances. I've never seen any photos of this move though. I believe it was around 1990 & was written about in Railpace. Does anyone know anything about this - if it ever actually happened?

It did happen and they went all the way to Hicksville and back. I was told by retired RF Conductor Paul Ettorre.

So if the only obstacle is to have a fleet of specially designed cars to meet the clearance issues, that isn't insurmountable, and easier than getting all the clearances up to par.

The trailers-on-rail-bogies thing I heard was prone to derailment, but the optimist in me thinks it was just a flawed design that could certainly be improved on.

With the PA owning the cross harbor now, and investing in freight facilities o the brooklyn side, perhaps out onto LI will be the next step. PA can still make money from the move and eliminate trucks that people hate from it's bridges.

It's about time for an organization such as this.

Two things:

(1) There are no individuals' names or any offline contact details for the organization, which in my view makes it less credible. For all the average visitor to the site knows, it could be funded by CSX or Norfolk Southern. Listing a real person on the site and a real address would make it seem more "real".

(2) Without deep pockets, political change by grassroots activists is done by having media presence and contact with politicians--and the more the better for both. Why not list information about legislative hearings, politicians in charge of decisionmaking about freight rail, etc., so concerned citizens can be in touch?

Look at NumbersUSA, a grassroots immigration group; it has significant impacts on the political process, despite not having a lot of money, by sending out tons of emails and getting activists to fax their legislators and show up at legislators' town hall meetings and the like.

It's about time. Even among railfans, there's naysayers about expanded freight rail service - but with suitable expansion of demand, more car loads can be put out on the road.