NJT Dual Modes In the Near Future?

According to an article in the Courier News, NJT is going forward with a study about dual modes to give RVL passengers direct NYP access.
http://www.c-n.com/news/c-n/story/0,2111,934629,00.html

This would be interesting, it would be easy to extend the third rail back true the hudson tunnels and built a new substation.
Only dual-mode's considered dependable are the GE P32acdm's and GE has a newer GEVO version of that one available.
ConnDOT may be looking for more Dual modes so with a combined order with NJT it would be feasable to order the minimum of 15 locomotives.
Trying overhead/diesel dualmodes or other manufacturers would be just another gamble if or should it work.

Yea right....if there's any chance for something/anything for NJT to 'study' you can bet your last tax dollar that NJT will find it !

Maybe NJT should embark on a 'study' on how to run trains less like busses and more like trains.

Too bad if (and that's a big IF) they get them, it won't be until new North River tubes are built, whenever that miracle will happen.

That comment on the pocket track at Newark PS should say the same PLATFORM, not track, as the New York trains, to enable cross-platform transfers.

Interesting article........I liked how they discuss the possible dual modes and one seat rides, but then the last paragraph of the article discusses the Harrison Pocket track which would allow same track transfers for NYP bound trains.

I put on the old RR.net a blurb from an old Railfan and Railroad magazine I had from teh summer of 1987. It states the same thing pretty much. Except that NJT seemed to be in the lead in teh study and the MTA and Amtrak was joining in. Well, surprise surprise, guess who doesn't have dual modes, and who does. The article also states that NJ was finally going to make good on its promise for a one seat ride into NYP some 20 years after the Aldene Plan put into effect.

Its now 37 years after the fact......haha......im not holding my breath

BTW, recent decisions and purchases prove the fact, that NJT doesn't seem to go with what works, but rather start from scratch with everything. (C5's, PL42's come to mind) So I wouldn't expect NJT to go with an existing GE product, and instead somehow build an EMD derived dual mode, either by EMD themselves or another builder with EMD guts (like the PL42).

Also, if this were to come to fruition, my best guess would be within about 10 years, even if the tunnels are not completed by then, to replace the GP40's which aren't scheduled to be replaced by the PL42's, and possibly the F40's, which will be around 30 years old, and some of the GP40's will be over 45 to almost 50 years old.

Well, I am optimistic. Warrington promises when the ARC is finished a one seat ride into NY would be a reality. Granted we are talking ten years but still, I am pleasantly surprised. I wonder though if they still would have trains terminate in Newark and Hoboken and only have certain trains go to NY; a "MidTown Direct" if you will.

It will happen eventually, no doubt about it. With dual powered locomotives, there may also be a chance of a one seat ride from Bay Head to NYP.

The article also states that NJ was finally going to make good on its promise for a one seat ride into NYP some 20 years after the Aldene Plan put into effect.

Where is Bob Scheurle? He will deny this was ever promised. Frankly, I've never found definitive proof that it was promised, although there is much anecdotal evidence that it was.

The Aldene Plan was well before my time, so I don't have first hand knowledge, but the Railfan and Railroad article from Summer of 87 states this fact.....if its true or not, well, thats another story.

But the way things are run in this state, I wouldn't be surprised if they told the passengers the world, back then in 67.....sort of like better and faster service on the Monclair/Boonton line with the Montclair Connection........

As I see it, dual modes will never happen on NJT. There is too much involved in the design and fabrication of the units, not to mention the maintenance nightmare they would invoke on the MMC crews. The only way something even similar to a dual mode would occur is if NJT puts a diesel on one end of a train and an ALP on the other. This might not be as expensive as it seems, as the cab cars could be cut back in the corresponding equipment order. For example, if NJT decided to do this a few years ago, they wouldn't need 80 Comet V Cabs, and the money saved there could have gone to pay for more ALP46s.

One thing I found very interesting on the old forums was NJT's initial thoughts on the dual modes. It was posted by D. Carleton that NJT had plans to gut the E8s and use their massive bodies to house both diesel and electric components. That would have been quite a sight!

using a diesel on one end and an electric locomotive at other end redults in dragging 170 tons of dead mass arround not making money. a cab car is just regular car with about 5 tons more stuff, and car still produces revenue.

Dual modes are NOT mainenace headaces, as a Duelmode AC propulsion unit already carries all the stuff needed for electric operation, only thing differed is DC link feeder and shoe mechs.

so why not make the PL42ac a dual mode, it could be done but as I told mr Cesar Vegara about a year ago the carbody is 7 " to high for comforable acces to Penn or low catenary points.
The PL42ac should have been built in same size body as Genesis to have no restriction.

GE now could produce a Genesis IIb version, GEVO equipped 4200 hp and updated crash resistant for Tier I compliance, its in they Catalog but min of 15 units is required for them to break even on production.

I myself don't see NJT realistically engaging in a dual-mode project. The only way they would look at such a thing is if they were planning to shut down Hoboken Terminal. As it stands, they can have the RVL and NJCL operate to that terminal, what with it being on the waterfront and right across from Manhattan, as an alternative to bothering with dual-mode technology.

Access To The Region's Core is too Midtown-centric anyhow; plus they focus on getting all of the region's rail service concentrated into a station not designed for such intense operations, not to mention a station designed back during the era of when having trains terminate closer to Wall Street was more popular and useful. I don't see ARC proposing a new rail station in lower Manhattan that would link up the Hoboken Division and the LIRR's Atlantic Avenue branch; but that would be what they should aim for more than jamming more trains into NY Penn...

IIRC Amtrak had 3rd rail capable F40PH's and at the time I rode a spring break trip from GCT to Buffalo eons ago.

YDRC.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:IIRC Amtrak had 3rd rail capable F40PH's and at the time I rode a spring break trip from GCT to Buffalo eons ago.

Amtrak used its old dual mode FL9s to drag the trains from GCT to either Croton-Harmon or Albany where they were swapped out for F40's. AFAIK Amtrak never had dual mode F40s.