I posted this content on the NS forum in railroad.net but I thought I would share it here:
The NS Southern Tier line between Silver Springs, NY and Binghamton as well D&H South lines north and south out of Binghamton are not indicated as receiving PTC per NS' March 2017 v1.0 implementation plan (PTC is to be implemented in H2 2019 on the Tier between CP-Draw Buffalo and mp368.3, as well as on the Lake Erie Div (ex-NKP?) west of Buffalo by H1 2020). See Table 1 in Appendix B for the list of NS lines targeted for PTC and Table 1 Appendix C for the list of all track segments with proprietary tonnage data redacted.
I'm guessing that at the time this project plan was published, the Tier east of the R&S connection at Silver Spring (lots of salt traffic interchanged/hauled?) didn't meet the 15M annual tonnage and PIH/TIH thresholds. However, now that the new Portage bridge is complete, there has been a measurable traffic increase in bulk commodities like grain and frac sand over the Tier with multiple sections of 310 manifest trains per day running (eg, interchange with Delaware Lackawanna now runs across the Tier to the Sunbury line to Scranton).
Interestingly on the D&H South route to Mechanicville, the CP segment east of Schenectady from CP-485 to Mechanicville will require PTC presumably due to presence of Amtrak trains, requiring 22K/23K, 11R/14R, 30T/31T, 28N/287 to operate with PTC (and PAS engines operating over this CP segment will also need PTC gear). Comments?
Click on the link below to download a copy of the 400+ page .PDF file to your computer:
https://www.regulations.gov/contentStre ... ntType=pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The NS Southern Tier line between Silver Springs, NY and Binghamton as well D&H South lines north and south out of Binghamton are not indicated as receiving PTC per NS' March 2017 v1.0 implementation plan (PTC is to be implemented in H2 2019 on the Tier between CP-Draw Buffalo and mp368.3, as well as on the Lake Erie Div (ex-NKP?) west of Buffalo by H1 2020). See Table 1 in Appendix B for the list of NS lines targeted for PTC and Table 1 Appendix C for the list of all track segments with proprietary tonnage data redacted.
I'm guessing that at the time this project plan was published, the Tier east of the R&S connection at Silver Spring (lots of salt traffic interchanged/hauled?) didn't meet the 15M annual tonnage and PIH/TIH thresholds. However, now that the new Portage bridge is complete, there has been a measurable traffic increase in bulk commodities like grain and frac sand over the Tier with multiple sections of 310 manifest trains per day running (eg, interchange with Delaware Lackawanna now runs across the Tier to the Sunbury line to Scranton).
Interestingly on the D&H South route to Mechanicville, the CP segment east of Schenectady from CP-485 to Mechanicville will require PTC presumably due to presence of Amtrak trains, requiring 22K/23K, 11R/14R, 30T/31T, 28N/287 to operate with PTC (and PAS engines operating over this CP segment will also need PTC gear). Comments?
Click on the link below to download a copy of the 400+ page .PDF file to your computer:
https://www.regulations.gov/contentStre ... ntType=pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
