Why does Train 57 use Mainline and not BCL?

Train 57 is a Port Jervis train whose first stop after Secaucus is Mahwah. However, it is routed via the Mainline instead of the Bergen County line and is therefore several minutes slower. Does anyone know why?

Simplicity perhaps?

As far as I know, all the other rush hour PJ trains use the BCL.

JoeG wrote:As far as I know, all the other rush hour PJ trains use the BCL.

True, When I am at Rutherford Station watching the evening rush, I always match up the Metro-North expresses with whats on the schedual.

Has this benn happening alot, or was this a one-time thing?

^I don't know about this specific train, but I do know that due to traffic concerns or whatever, MN trains are occasionally routed through the Main Line. But I do believe that they are all supposed to travel to the PJ via Bergen.

I think this train always takes the mainline. It's listed that way at Secaucus, also.

JoeG wrote:I think this train always takes the mainline. It's listed that way at Secaucus, also.

Really, that is strange. I didn't know that. I should hope then that the timetables reflect that. My guess then is, they did this to allow a reverse non-peak direction train on the BCL access to Hoboken.

JoeG wrote:Train 57 is a Port Jervis train whose first stop after Secaucus is Mahwah. However, it is routed via the Mainline instead of the Bergen County line and is therefore several minutes slower. Does anyone know why?

I checked my TT and the times look about the same. Main Line should be up to par with the County now that the Paterson Jct.-XW bottleneck has been removed. The ML does lose out to the County in the speed dept. though. BC is mostly 70mph territory while the ML is 60mph.

Isn't the bcl shorter? Wasn't it called the Bergen County Shortcut in Erie days?

Yes. It has always been shorter.

#57 usually took the ML back in the early 80s. A few times he'd detour on the BCL. Recall the solid set of MTA Comet IAs (aka Juiceless Electroliners). If he'd detour there was a local ahead of him only by a few minutes. Recall the U-Boats and MTA Comet IAs slamming the shabby 112 lb. stick rail back then.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:#57 usually took the ML back in the early 80s. A few times he'd detour on the BCL. Recall the solid set of MTA Comet IAs (aka Juiceless Electroliners). If he'd detour there was a local ahead of him only by a few minutes. Recall the U-Boats and MTA Comet IAs slamming the shabby 112 lb. stick rail back then.

Shabby? The stick rail between Paterson Jct. and West Secaucus was some of the smoothest riding track on the division. Now the old stick rail on the Montclair branch was shabby!!

The shabby track was between Dundee and Passaic Jct. before CWR was put in in 1983.

JoeG wrote:Isn't the bcl shorter? Wasn't it called the Bergen County Shortcut in Erie days?

Yeah they used it for express passenger and through frieghts, while most local passenger trains went up the main line.

The BCL occasionally got some local commuters though.

Although the single track bottleneck between Paterson Jct and XW is no more, there is still a single track section at the Upper Hack lift between Secaucus and Lyndhurst.