Southern Tier Signals

Kind of interesting then. If getting south of Port Jervis is more and more of a problem, maybe this substantiates some of the NYS&W restructuring rumors. Campbell Hall south through Sparta is wide open....

one thing i dont understand is how the NS croxton local seems to leave without any problems running into a NJT train and it has to traverse the entire line to cambell hall. NYSW runs on a short stretch from PJ to cambell hall and its a problem. Of the few times i waited in ridgewood during those re-routes, i must've seen 3 trains come east and west at aroud the same time, then there was nearly 75 minutes where no trains would come in between.

So how is there no room to get freights up the line?

SecaucusJunction wrote:Unfortunately for freight trains, the traffic on NJT is up too. The nightly window at Port Jervis went from about 4.5 hours a few years back to an hour and twenty minutes today. Would be hard to run a good amount of freight trains on the line with the infrastructure they have today.

There have been no legal changes to the lease agreement that would close up the freight operations window for NYSW or NS on the line east of Port Jervis. The time frame during which freight operations are restricted is written into the lease between NSR and MNR, and there are terms that say neither side will cause undue delay to the other's operations at any time of day.

Practically speaking, there are a few more passenger trains now than there were in 2003 when the NS/MNR lease was begun, but not so much more traffic that it would have a huge impact on freight operations.

If, down the road, NS and/or NYSW wants to run more trains than the infrastructure and passenger traffic permits, then it would be up to NS to fund improvements that would allow such traffic. By then, MNR will have purchased the line outright.

Jim

There are no real problems running trains east of SF. They may be held but there is enough capacity with the double and triple track to get freight trains through at most times during the day with the exception of the intense part of rush hour. The real problem would be the single track from Sterling to BC. With only a handful of sidings along the route, it is very difficult for any train to run against the rush hour. If a freight went eastbound into Port Jervis around 5:30pm, he might as well settle down for the evening because he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

More trains do traverse the Port Jervis Line than did in 2003. If I remember correctly, there were 9 each way during that time and now there are 13. They also pass on sidings along the way now so it might get tricky if they ever tried to run any freight traffic.

SecaucusJunction wrote:There are no real problems running trains east of SF. They may be held but there is enough capacity with the double and triple track to get freight trains through at most times during the day with the exception of the intense part of rush hour. The real problem would be the single track from Sterling to BC. With only a handful of sidings along the route, it is very difficult for any train to run against the rush hour. If a freight went eastbound into Port Jervis around 5:30pm, he might as well settle down for the evening because he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

More trains do traverse the Port Jervis Line than did in 2003. If I remember correctly, there were 9 each way during that time and now there are 13. They also pass on sidings along the way now so it might get tricky if they ever tried to run any freight traffic.

would it be possible to even double track most the way to port from where the line becomes single track around tuxedo?

In most places it would be possible. Whether or not it is probable, that is a different story. Metro North has done a good job improving track conditions there over the past few months. It looks like all of the stick rail has been replaced east of Port Jervis. Not sure if the signals have been upgraded but the delays on the rainy days east of Port Jervis seem to have dissolved.

Something may be up..NYSW is qualifying a lot more crews for road trains..I am thinking CSX might divert a junk train(Q271) over the Q to relieve congestion on the river sub.
As for intermodal stuff. Why not the former Port Jervis yard area? with access to I-84 its a no brainer and you won't interfere with NJT/MN. I think wally should consider this if not NS

One problem with the Panama Canal route is it sees more theft. I sold an automobile recently to someone in Australia who wants it shipped to the west coast to go in a container there. It seems a friend of his had a container loaded and shipped from New York, which dissapeared in Panama, and turned up months later, empty, doors swinging in the wind, in India.

I would think as ships become too big to use the canal and containers have to be transferred to other ships to cross, this will increase the transit time enough to make using rail more attractive. Particularly with items that have little or no expiration issues. There are theft and damage issues via rail, also, but it's usually a lot harder for thieves in the US to make the entire container dissapear.

How many crews is the NYSW qualifying?? I dont trust these CSX folks with the NYSW. They start diverting trains over the route and then without notice they are gone again.

They are gone again becuase the NYSW cant handle them in a time efficent manner. When you have empty autoracks sitting on the Southern Tier for a day or two I dont think CSX likes it to much.

Well that is no one else's fault except the Susquehanna. There is no way they should be running trains this slowly when they used to be able to deliver expedited container trains over their route. Conrail and NS both also ran stack trains over this route as well.

"and there are terms that say neither side will cause undue delay to the other's operations at any time of day. "

Now if only Main Line would hold up his end of the deal...

of course in fairness, Main Line might be more inclined to really dispatch if NYS&W were more inlcined to really maintain their power. As it stands NYS&W power craps out regularly so I can udnerstand why Main Line is hesitant to let them out anytime a passenger train is due within an hour or two.