Super Bowl Rail Service

bleet wrote:

BigDell wrote:

Pardon the preschool drawing, yellow is current, blue is pipe dream.

But a pretty nifty idea, none the less.... Was there ever a thought or plan to have this line extend or loop? Or was it always envisioned as this stub? I guess the real issue is how efficient is this line for the majority of other events at the stadium. If it's more than enough 80-90% of the time, then that says it all. But if it's chronically deficient...... well....

This was basically one of the options considered in the early planning for the line. I think another option was to head due south and cross Rt 3 and the Turnpike and the creek and rejoin farther south on the mainline. For obvious reasons neither of those options were supported. The reality in my view is that the line is fine as is and the problem was the gross under-estimation of the crowd size for the Super Bowl. I'd be curious what would have been done differently if the NFL and NJT had estimated that 30k fans would ride the trains that day.

The super bowl was not the first time this happened. (think soccer game, U2 concert) The system was not designed to handle large overflow crowds. Now the meadowlands has at least 1 or 2 large overflow events a year. Some of you might say for those 1 or 2 times, it's not worth any upgrades to the current system. The problem with that is then once or twice a year NJT gets a black eye. The thing is if I knew I was going to get one black eye a year, every year, then sooner or later I'd do something about it, because I'd be tired of getting that black eye every year.

That's not to say the system isn't good, it just can't handle a mega-event, where everyone decides to take the train.

I just heard that the LIRR had similar consequences at the Belmont Stakes yesterday. They expected 20,000 and got 36,000. People waited up to 3 hours for a train.

I'm curious as to who comes up with these "expected number of people" numbers? Because whoever is in charge of that department needs to take that number and assume there will be more people than expected so that your prepared for ANY eventuality.

Both NFL and NJT employees underestimated the number of people who would use the train, and the lopsided game exacerbated things. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1601175" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has more details. 2000 parking spots that had been sold went unused. Fewer people took the Fan Express buses than expected. And thousands of attendees left the game early, but the Fan Express buses were not going to start to leave until an hour after the game ended (why?), and NJT was only running one train per hour from the stadium to Secaucus prior to the end of the game.

2000 parking spots that had been sold went unused

Yes that was fascinating... I believe a large number of those were bought up for speculative reasons. I watched them being sold off on StubHub (or one of those sites) for big markups.... except people weren't buying them - they were still available. Anyway, in the end, I'm guessing that if the NFL hadn't made such a drama over the parking situation and if things ran they way they do for normal football games, there would have been nowhere near all the problems...
I've been out there when there are events at both the stadium and arena, it wasn't awful. Since nothing else was scheduled out there that day I really have a hard time understanding why they couldn't leverage that extra parking from the Izod center. I don't know.... I could be wrong, but...

Interesting customer notice today from NJT that I've never seen them do. Although not heavy rail related, the notice seems to be the direct result of their experience at the Super Bowl.
http://www.njtransit.com/sa/sa_servlet. ... iceId=2377" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Attendees planning to use Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR) service to and from Liberty State Park for the July 4 fireworks will encounter crowded conditions and delays due to the operating capacity of HBLR system.

Light rail vehicles can transport a maximum of 3,000 customers every hour in each direction. Current estimates forecast attendance to potentially be in excess of 100,000 people.

Im sure they are planning to do that, however, you forget about the herds of people walking and driving out of LSP crossing the tracks, which will hold up things

Are these for the Macy's fireworks? Can you even see them that well from J.C when they are launched on the East River?

Is it ever likely for 10 car train-sets to get used again on the Meadowlands Rail Line?

Thomas wrote:Is it ever likely for 10 car train-sets to get used again on the Meadowlands Rail Line?

Obviously for another major event, yes.

Fan Railer wrote:Obviously for another major event, yes.

Such as if USA gets a future World Cup! (Although NJ Transit might run 9 car Multilevel train sets instead of 10 car Multilevel train sets).