NYSW Passenger Service Restoration

uzplayer wrote:There is bus service from my understanding.

It continues to get worse on 23 and 80 everyday. Rail service is needed.

I believe that even Washington DC with their urban sprawl going all the way out to West Virginia now even has rail service provided by Virginia Railway Express. So people actually have a plethora of transportation options in the Washington DC Metro Area.

Perhaps both regions can learn lessons from each other.

I wouldn't call DC area service a "plethora." With the exception of MARC's DC-Baltimore-Penn service on Amtrak, MARC and VRE are rush hour only railroads, a few trains into DC in the morning, and a few out in the afternoon. The Penn Line operates hourly during the day. No lines operate on weekends.

WV Service is MARC's Brunkwick Line (B&O) to Martinsburg, WV. Two inbounds in the morning, three returns at night. I think even the PVL has better service than that.

Currently an engineering design company I am familiar with is doing soil borings along the line between Hawthorne and Hackensack. This is preliminary work (I would assume design) for the resumption of passenger service and the (re)installation of a second track form Hackensack west to Hawthorne.

They were in Hawthone a week or two ago, and are currently in Paterson.

Chris

cjvrr wrote:Currently an engineering design company I am familiar with is doing soil borings along the line between Hawthorne and Hackensack. This is preliminary work (I would assume design) for the resumption of passenger service and the (re)installation of a second track form Hackensack west to Hawthorne.

They were in Hawthone a week or two ago, and are currently in Paterson.

Chris

Who knows.. Maybe some NJT top mgmt are watching this thread and decided to actually do something....

Vernon to ask residents about their ideas on mass transit

www.strausnews.com/articles/2006/04/07/
advertiser_news/news/4an.txt

Too bad it's about bus service...

Great article. Try searching for "rail" or train" and you find nothing. Show where their heads are at!!!

I plan on writing a letter to the newspaper this week about the train service.

uzplayer wrote:I plan on writing a letter to the newspaper this week about the train service.

Good luck.

NJTRailfan wrote:I say NJT should just give those closed minded backwooded anti rail hicks in Sparta the finger...

But if NJT as usual doesn't have the guts then save the headaches for those that uses Rt 23 twice a day and surrounding roadways and have the service go far west as Stockholm.

Your enthusiasm is admirable, but it goes right up hard against the reality of the situation. Transit agencies like NJT cannot simply build anything anywhere, much as that would help the rail picture in the state, and make people like us giddy with happiness.

So, giving citizens "the finger" is not an option. Nor is "having guts" and just barging ahead with construction. The only real option is to build consensus amongst the public, and that's best done by *not* antagonizing them with rhetoric. This is one of the things that many rail advocacy groups miss in their advocating; there is an arrogance that creeps in wherein advocates believe that they know better what people need, and the desires and opinions of "the people" don't really matter. They're just "NIMBYs", and they need US to tell them what they should want.

That's great if you're just spouting off to your like-minded friends (and this is not directed at you, NJTRailfan, it's just a general observation...I feel the same way that you do). But it won't result in any meaningful progress being made on getting a rail service instituted.

To be fair, the NIMBY side has their own agenda, obviously, and their own particular arrogance. I've seen it in many public meetings. The only answer is to build consensus with reason, facts, and defensible/supportable positions. Antagonizing them simply won't work.

This is the reality under which NJT and other transit agencies have to operate.

* stepping down from soapbox *

To add to that, NJT cannot operate on a private railroad without that private railroad's consent. AFAIK, the NEC is the sole railroad that NJT operates rail services on that is not owned by the state of NJ, within NJ borders.

Irish Chieftain wrote:To add to that, NJT cannot operate on a private railroad without that private railroad's consent. AFAIK, the NEC is the sole railroad that NJT operates rail services on that is not owned by the state of NJ, within NJ borders.

Isnt part of the Montclair/Boonton Line owned by Norfolk Southern or is thst no longer a factor?

uzplayer wrote:

Irish Chieftain wrote:To add to that, NJT cannot operate on a private railroad without that private railroad's consent. AFAIK, the NEC is the sole railroad that NJT operates rail services on that is not owned by the state of NJ, within NJ borders.

Isnt part of the Montclair/Boonton Line owned by Norfolk Southern or is that no longer a factor?

With the construction of the Montclair Connection between Bay St and Walnut St, NJT service on the portion of the old Boonton Line that is owned by Norfolk Southern was discontinued.

Let me recant one little piece: AFAIK, the Lehigh Line segment of the RVL (Hunter to Aldene) is owned by CSA.

Jishnu wrote:

uzplayer wrote:

Irish Chieftain wrote:To add to that, NJT cannot operate on a private railroad without that private railroad's consent. AFAIK, the NEC is the sole railroad that NJT operates rail services on that is not owned by the state of NJ, within NJ borders.

Isnt part of the Montclair/Boonton Line owned by Norfolk Southern or is that no longer a factor?

With the construction of the Montclair Connection between Bay St and Walnut St, NJT service on the portion of the old Boonton Line that is owned by Norfolk Southern was discontinued.

That's right... I remember now...

My letter got published.

nice letter. maybe the politicians will read it and actually use there brain and do something good.