Welcome to Railroad.net and thanks for your report, Mr. Wagenblast.
But for now a large chunk of the ALP-45DP's (the dual-mode engines that can do both diesel and electric running) are currently being used heavily on the Gladstone-Hoboken trains. During Hurricane Sandy, one of the substations that feeds power to Hoboken Terminal was severely damaged, meaning there is no overhead wire power in Hoboken. The main electric trains that bear the brunt of that outage come off the Gladstone Branch (as the other trains mostly come off of diesel lines).
So to remedy this, they have been primarily using ALP-45DP's on these runs, in electric mode between Gladstone and Newark, then in diesel mode between Newark and Hoboken. One may think, well why can't they just use plain diesels then? Well, two things: 1) the plain diesels have trouble keeping a schedule that is normally kept by much faster accelerating and more agile MU's (especially considering the stations are fairly close together), and 2) the plain diesels are louder and would annoy the residents who already whine and complain about menial things anyway.
Currently, there are a couple kinks in the one-seat ride plan, some of them alluded to in your report, that have to be settled before there are any RVL one-seat rides:
- No track space in New York Penn. NYP is where all of these people want to go, however there is 0 room in the inn. The main problem of getting into Penn Station is that the tunnels leading to New York Penn (the North River Tubes) only have 2 tracks, one for each direction. Since the addition of MidTOWN Direct trains and all like that, there is no more space to squeeze any more trains into NYP. So to get RVL trains into NYP, you would have to take another train out and send it someplace else. The only possible option (kinda) is to send some MidTOWN Direct trains (trains from the Morris & Essex Lines or the Montclair/Booton Line that go to NYP) to Hoboken, where they can transfer to the PATH and all to New York. Taking trains off the NEC/NJCL and sending them to Hoboekn would require use of the Waterfront Connection, which is currently at capacity as well. Programs like ARC and Gateway which plan to build two new tunnels to supplement the existing ones (thus providing 4 sub-Hudson tunnels) would allow a whole bunch of new space for RVL trains and the like. NYP is even crammed on the Weekends. The weekend schedules have to be set up in such a way that they can only use 1 tunnel if necessary (be it track work or what have you). Therefore, the schedules have to be contorted in such a way to allow this, and all in all there isn't any space for RVL trains there too (despite there being less trains).
- No flyover at HUNTER. HUNTER interlocking is where Raritan Valley Line trains split or join the Northeast Corridor for the quick trip to Newark Penn Station. Currently, there is effectively only one way on/off the corridor and that is on the west side of all the tracks. For a train to go east towards New York Penn Station, the train would have to cross over 4-6 tracks of the very busy corridor to get all the way over to the correct side. During rush hour, a move like this would be far too time-consuming and any delays could cause big problems. Current operations on the RVL don't necessarily necessitate a flyover at HUNTER. The eastbound (inbound) trains just sneak along the "wrong" side of the tracks for the short distance between HUNTER and track 5 of Newark Penn. Something like that's okay for the distance to NWK, but all the way to NYP like that is a no-no. So before any serious amount of trains go there, a "flyover" track (which is a track that goes over/under the NEC tracks to the other side) is necessary. Currently the HUNTER is set up like a highway, with cars going in both directions. Currently we have this exit which only has access to one side of the highway. To get to this exit from the other side of the highway we have to go the wrong way on the other side for a little while (a bad idea). A flyover is basically like another exit being built on your side of the highway, so both sides have quick and easy access to the road.
- Amtrak has not cleared the ALP-45DP's for use on the NEC. The Northeast Corridor, including Newark and New York Penn Stations, is owned by Amtrak. And when they're on Amtrak's tracks, we have to play by Amtrak's rules. Currently Amtrak has not OK'ed the use of ALP-45DP's on their property, so they are not allowed to run on any track owned by Amtrak (this applied to the RVL). You'll see them on the Main/Bergen/Pascack Valley Lines and the Gladstone-Hoboken trains like I mentioned above because they run on tracks owned entirely by NJTransit. Until Amtrak gets their head out of the sand (which takes a while with them) and OK's these things for revenue service, no one-seat rides for any RVL folks yet.
This has all been discussed at length at various stages in the
Raritan Valley Line Thread, but if you have any questions, people would be glad to help.