Who here...

Who here has ever seen those videos that Railroad Video Productions made in 1989/1990 on the Northeaset Corridor. It's Spooky how much has changed.

For many of us it is a little different: Has anyone seen the Corridor today?
It is spooky and amazing how much has changed since ______________!
(Fill in the blank according to your age: Over 70, over 60, over 50, over 40, over 30, over 20, over 10.)

20 minutes from Elizabeth to NYP - 10 minutes from NWK to NYP

Now, 25-28 minutes Elizabeth -NYP, 18-19 minutes NWK to NYP

Sheesh.........

Jtgshu wrote:20 minutes from Elizabeth to NYP - 10 minutes from NWK to NYP

Now, 25-28 minutes Elizabeth -NYP, 18-19 minutes NWK to NYP

Sheesh.........

and, using MP-54 trainsets or GG-1 plus heavyweight coaches. None of the new fangled equipment with lights / heat / air conditioning

Lackawanna484 wrote:

Jtgshu wrote:20 minutes from Elizabeth to NYP - 10 minutes from NWK to NYP

Now, 25-28 minutes Elizabeth -NYP, 18-19 minutes NWK to NYP

Sheesh.........

and, using MP-54 trainsets or GG-1 plus heavyweight coaches. None of the new fangled equipment with lights / heat / air conditioning

That is equivalent to the 29 minute Hoboken to Chatham time in 1975 using 45 year old DL&W olive green drap Mu cars!.....Now the fastest time is around 37 or 38 minutes..........

Don't you love riding backwards??

Steve

Lackawanna484 wrote:
and, using MP-54 trainsets or GG-1 plus heavyweight coaches. None of the new fangled equipment with lights / heat / air conditioning

Long live the GG-1, may she rest in peace....

may she rest in peace....

may she RUST in peace...

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/GG1/#survivors

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I used to post here occasionally on the old forums. My grandad rode the DL&W from Summit to Hoboken from the 1920s to the 1960s, while my dad rode Summit to South Orange and Newark for Seton Hall Prep and U. I started making the commute out on the Gladstone Branch to Hoboken in the mid 90s.

The combination of the lengthening of schedules and then the end of the express to Millington were major factors in the deterioration of everday quality of life for me. Most of the ridership didn't know any better, of course, but to be stuck following a MidTOWN Direct train late off the corridor several nights a week was just maddening. Good people certainly worked many of the trains, but institutionally, you could tell the attitude was, "this is the service we offer - take it or leave it." I left it.

Not for the car, however, but for Vermont. The lack of good express service on NJ Transit definitely removed some of the advantage of living further out however, while the utterly unchecked growth in all of NJ removed any vestige of what had been a semi-rural place (towns along the Gladstone nee P&D like everywhere else in the state). And I'm not some transient who didn't understand the place, but someone born in NJ to a family who'd been around the state for a long, long time.

To me, watching a train schedule slip said a lot about the changing motives of the organization, the lack of a focus on measurable standards of excellence, and a general alienation of the constituency of ridership. NJT has focused on the portion of ridership who use the train as transportation of last resort (no knock to them), and has tailored the product accordingly. For me, it was part of an equation that no longer made sense.

henry6 wrote:For many of us it is a little different: Has anyone seen the Corridor today?
It is spooky and amazing how much has changed since 1775!

I mean, dang, they terminated all the express stages, got rid of all the stumps, mud, and dirt (well, in most places) and now have these daemon powered silver tubes gliding up and down under these cables.
Aaron Burr would NOT be amused...

Actually the corridor seems to have changed alot since even the mid-1990s - maybe change is the only constant here.

Alright, Sir Ray, I am not that old; just old enough to screw up my typing however.

And DLWDowntown, I echo your sentiments exactly about the deterioration of schedules especially on the former DL lines. Wrong choices of equipment (push pull rather than MU) and PRR flatland and long stretches Planning. Finding ways to utilize the right of way better with track additions where possible (you gotta look for the possiblities guys, they are there), more crossovers in the 3 track territory instead of fewer, better use of the Boonton-Montclair Line beyond MSU with double track to Denville (better schedules, relieve the Morristown schedules), then more expressing from Newark to Summit, spliting/rejoining trains at Summit (remember I am talking MU's), etc. Think out of the Right of Way!

I don't think there's anything anybody can do to get rid of housing developments and office parks where farms once stood, but there's lots NJT could do to speed up schedules.

---Seriously examine 79 mph running between Hoboken and Millburn (and lots of other places, like Wharton to Hackettstown)
---More aggressive use of wrong side running, esp between Millburn and Summit
---More tiered express trains (esp M'town and east, Summit and east, SOrange and east, etc)
---Offpeak monthly tickets to encourage offpeak riding

Lackawanna484 wrote:I don't think there's anything anybody can do to get rid of housing developments and office parks where farms once stood, but there's lots NJT could do to speed up schedules.

---Seriously examine 79 mph running between Hoboken and Millburn (and lots of other places, like Wharton to Hackettstown)
---More aggressive use of wrong side running, esp between Millburn and Summit
---More tiered express trains (esp M'town and east, Summit and east, SOrange and east, etc)
---Offpeak monthly tickets to encourage offpeak riding

Great suggestions!!! However we all know NJT mgmt. doesn't have the brains to make these changes!!!! So expect the status quo for the rest of your life@!


Steve

During a few serious snow storms in 1964, the PRR ran diesels on some passenger trains. Saw Southern and RF&P E units go through Metuchen. On a night in the late 60's, I was coming up Route 27 where it joins Route 35, St. George's Avenue, going home to Metuchen. Up on the fill sat an SP DD-35 in a freight consist, as the second unit. A good time on the Corridor was in the late 70's. You could find one of those nice spots along the line in Edison, and sit all day, not being bothered, and witness GG1s, E44s and lots of diesel freights. There were still a few sets of MP54s, also. Yes, things have changed.

better use of the Boonton-Montclair Line beyond MSU with double track to Denville

Henry,

Don't you think that it might be difficult to get a project like double tracking this portion of the line between the old DLW/Erie diamond in Mt. View and the the end of double track where the Caldwell Branch joined the NY&GL approved?

Ideas....just ideas....of what has to be thought about. There are a lot of places where another track is impossible, but who knows what really could be done if minds were set to work to look for solutions. My main tirade is that push pulls and double decker cars on lines other than the Corridor are a waste of money and effort due to short distances between stations, grades, low platform stations, multiple lines and services, and density of traffic and needs. A lot of (misguided) thought has gone into equipment and very little into the right of way and structure on these lines.