On the Hudson Line

I think MNR still owns the station building. They've been trying to attract retail tenants for quite a while. I've seen it mentioned by both Marjorie Anders and Dan Brucker and there's been a sign on the station for several years. There was a rumor a Starbucks was coming but I think the franchisee backed out.

I believe the Village of Tarrytown owns some of the parking lots. There was a big stink a couple summers ago after the Yankee Stadium service started operating and the village started charging for evening parking.

Tommy Meehan wrote:I think MNR still owns the [Tarrytown] station building. They've been trying to attract retail tenants for quite a while.

What space is there to rent? The only "retail" space I can think of is the little coffee-and-news stand on the southwest side of the waiting room, which was in business the last time I was in the waiting room.

The waiting room is in active use, as is the ticket office, and the area north of it (except for the men's room) is AFAIK being used by MNR. South of the waiting room are the coffee stand and the ladies' room.

Also, any tenant might face restrictions in how they could change the space to suit their needs -- one aspect of the renovation of the station building was to restore it to its historical appearance.

The stations buildings I'm familiar with that have significant non-railroad-related occupants -- Philips Manor and Irvington -- don't have any railroad-related operations and aren't open to the public.

Tommy Meehan wrote:I believe the Village of Tarrytown owns some of the parking lots.

I thought all of the public parking around the station was village-owned, except maybe the lot behind the paper recycling place (way south of the platforms, on the east side of the tracks.)

There's a Starbucks (or was a Starbucks) in the Hartsdale station. That shows how the tenant can make good use of a relatively small amount of space.

The statement below is from a MNR web page for prospective interested parties. There's a link to the page below it. It answers all your questions and then some.

MTA Metro-North Railroad is seeking tenants for four 19th century station buildings it owns - Port Chester, Peekskill, Ossining and Tarrytown. Each building is unique, each is centrally located in densely inhabited villages and each has recently undergone physical improvements to increase its attractiveness to potential businesses.

http://www.mta.info/mta/news/releases/? ... 0708-MNR33

The question I was addressing, however, was whether or not Metro-North still owns the station. I can't tell from your post exactly whether you agreed with that but you seem to. (And they undoubtedly do.)

Yes the newsstand/coffee stand is still in business in the Tarrytown station. I stop there every weekday morning for coffee, a roll and a paper. Wouldn't miss it!

Tommy Meehan wrote:The question I was addressing, however, was whether or not Metro-North still owns the station. I can't tell from your post exactly whether you agreed with that but you seem to. (And they undoubtedly do.)

It never occurred to me that Metro-North didn't own the station. After all, they use 90% of it.

I still find it odd that they would describe improvements to "the Tarrytown Station" in the past tense, when, in my mind, the platforms are as much a part of "Tarrytown Station" as the building (and are the only part I deal with on a daily basis), and their improvements are anything but in the past tense.

Tommy Meehan wrote:Yes the newsstand/coffee stand is still in business in the Tarrytown station. I stop there every weekday morning for coffee, a roll and a paper. Wouldn't miss it!

I stop by there, too (though I don't drink coffee) on the rare day that I get to the station more than 2 or 3 minutes before my train.

Update on the Tarrytown Station:

1. The Track 2/4 platform is finished. The little bit on the North end (about 1 car length?) was finished a few weeks ago. The south crossover opened about 2 weeks ago.

2. Track 4 is back in service.

3. None of the stairways have windows (the bridges do.) The workmen say they are supposed to. No idea when they'll be in.

4. They're in the process of pouring the concrete for the sidewalks along the south half of the track 3 platform, so only some of the exits are open. I'm figuring they'll all be open by the end of next week.

5. Worth noting is that they now have elevators on both sides of the tracks, so there's handicapped access from both sides. On that note: does anyone have any idea about the reliability of the newer elevators? The old ones broke down too often for anyone who could not climb stairs at all to rely upon them.

6. Both bridges have a ~ 1/2" cast iron pipe running along them, inside, with what look like ball cock valves. Any idea what they are for?

amm in ny wrote:
6. Both bridges have a ~ 1/2" cast iron pipe running along them, inside, with what look like ball cock valves. Any idea what they are for?

Possibly for the e-cleaners, for pressure washing the platform. This way they don't have to run the hoses across the overpass.

In the twenty-one years I've been using the station, I'm sure Tarrytown has always had elevators on both platforms. I use them all the time and can not agree that they can't be relied on because of frequent breakdowns.

They do breakdown occasionally, usually the one on the northbound side for some reason. Two memories I have:

1) One Saturday afternoon the elevator on the northbound side was continually going up and down. It would come to the landing, the doors would open, then close and....there it goes again! I called the number on the timetable, they took the information, thanked me. When I came home that evening it was still doing it. By Monday morning it had been 'fixed.'

2) ** Once I got in the northbound elevator pushed the button to go up and nothing happened. A maintenance guy happened to get on the car and I told him, "I don't think this elevator is working." He showed me a trick. Press the door close button and hold it. Then press the desired floor button. That worked! He explained to me the most common defect in the elevators is they don't "read" that the door is fully closed.

Kinda like a getting a doorlight.


Edit - ** Reality check. More than once.

Tommy Meehan wrote:In the twenty-one years I've been using the station, I'm sure Tarrytown has always had elevators on both platforms.

However, they did not always have an elevator on the west side of the tracks. Only on the east side and on the island platform. That is, they've gone from 2 elevators to 3.

Tommy Meehan wrote: I use them all the time and can not agree that they can't be relied on because of frequent breakdowns.

They do breakdown occasionally, usually the one on the northbound side for some reason.

Are you confined to a wheelchair, or otherwise unable to use stairs? If you were, I suspect you would have a different perspective on whether an elevator which breaks down "occasionally" counts as "can be relied on."

There was a time, a few years after the elevators were installed, when my knee was acting up and I was avoiding stairs. One or the other elevator was non-functional on the average of one day a week for at least a year. Fortunately, I could still climb stairs. I'm glad to hear that they elevators have become more reliable.

Question: what happens if someone who is unable to use stairs at all arrives on the island platform and discovers that one of the elevators doesn't work? (no doubt after the train has left.) Call 911? Does the fire department or the rescue squad get you out? Or do you have to wait for the next train? And what if you're trying to get onto the island platform (e.g., to catch a train to NYC)? How many such experiences would it take before you decided not to use the train any more?

Am I confined to a wheelchair? Otherwise unable to use stairs? Are my knees acting up?

No to all of the above.

I use the elevators for a different reason. I'm just plain lazy!

Tonight for some reason -- approaching senility? -- I timed the Hudson Line locals I rode between Yonkers and GCT.

Southbound the local was 5 minutes late at Yonkers. The schedule allowed 37 minutes running time to GCT but we made it in 32 minutes. So we actually arrived on time.

Coming north the train was on-time all the way. I noticed ten minutes out of Grand Central we were crossing the Harlem River Bridge into the Bronx. Exactly ten minutes after that we were just south of Riverdale. (This was an express.) Four minutes later the doors were opening at Yonkers. That's 24 minutes from E.42nd Street to Larkin Plaza in Yonkers. That's pretty good time.

Don't try it in a car unless it is equipped with lights and a siren.

Tommy Meehan wrote: Southbound the local was 5 minutes late at Yonkers. The schedule allowed 37 minutes running time to GCT but we made it in 32 minutes. So we actually arrived on time.

Your Yonkers to GCT southbound train arrived on time due to one of two things: 1) the engineer, conductor and RTC were able to expedite things to shorten the delay and 2) Time is made up in the time table.

Example of 1 is the conductor being quicker on the doors, engineer quicker with the starts and stops and RTC routing a delayed train ahead of another (this would happen at CP5). An example of #2 is if you look at the time table, the south bound Hudson Line locals have an average of 5 to 7 minutes to get from Yankees E153 to Harlem 125th. All the north bound locals have three minutes to go between those stations going north. It is typical that more time is given between the last stops of a train no to impact the on time performance as the performance is measured when the train reaches its final destination.

Tommy Meehan wrote: That's 24 minutes from E.42nd Street to Larkin Plaza in Yonkers. That's pretty good time.

It may not be as good as you think. There are no trains that depart at East 42nd St. Only the entrance of the terminal. The block is between 43rd and 44th streets.

My girlfriend -- who is more of a subway rider than a commuter train rider -- always refers to Grand Central as "Forty-second Street."

Of course you're right. I often notice the support beams above the platforms that have "45th St" spray painted on them

The other day I stepped out the back entrance of the Yonkers Metro-North station to make a call. I had time to kill before the train. I've gone out there before but something registered on me for the first time. The Saw Mill River flows under the station! Actually, when you think about, it's obvious that the river would have to come under the station in order to get to where it empties into the Hudson.

The portion of the Saw Mill under Larkin Plaza, the square on the east side of the station, was recently 'daylighted.' (The Army Corps of Engineers 'buried' this part of the Saw Mill, the part that flows through downtown Yonkers, about ninety years ago, in 1922, for sanitation reasons and for flood control purposes.) The Saw Mill empties into the Hudson directly west of where the river flows through Larkin Plaza and you-know-what is exactly in between.

This afternoon, despite the crummy weather, I took a couple cell phone photos. Here's the rear of the Yonkers station on Van Der Donck Street-



Closer look at the Saw Mill River:



Yuck!

I continue to be fascinated by the discovery that the Saw Mill River flows under the Yonkers train station. Judging by where the river emerges, the river is under the north side of the station: under the former agent's office, the police substation and the stairs up to the platforms.

The other afternoon I was at the station and went out the Van Der Donck Street exit for a look. The Hudson River is tidal in Yonkers and the high tide was apparently coming in and pushing water up into the Saw Mill River. I could hear the water rippling and when I looked over the railing the water was visibly moving, lapping against the concrete column visible in the photos above. It was a very strange sight and sensation. I took a couple cell phone photos but they were too dark so I'm not going to bother posting them.

Here's the seldom seen (west) side of the Yonkers railroad station. It shows the mouth of the Saw Mill River, where it emerges from under the station. (It looks nicer at high tide. A little bit anyway.) The river goes under the station where the red mark is. Any other station (anywhere) that has a river flowing under it? The Hudson is behind me.