Wither Great Notch station

Tri-State Tom wrote:
It would appear that your students are lucky to have you in the classroom !

Thank you. (He writes while the students are on laptops writing lab reports.)

oknazevad wrote:…if I may butt in, to clarify each other's points, it seems to me that Tom is saying that Great Notch is now redundant and closing it will contribute, even if only a small bit, to speeding up the slow through service in WORM-land by requiring one fewer stop for those trains. Pullman seems to be saying that that idea is illogical because Great Notch is a WORM station, so closing it is actually a reduction in WORM service.

I hope I understood you respective positions correctly, and am sorry if my stepping in here offends. These are the sort of techniques used in moderating an effective class discussion (I'm a teacher in my day job) and I just saw an opportunity to practice.

I was objecting to the "greater good" comment in particular; I find utilitarianism objectionable, and frankly, so should everyone else. (However, closing some of the many stations in Montclair, on average about 1½ miles apart, the "greater good" proponent will object to, even though this will speed up average speeds for push-pull trains particularly. Let's be even-handed, at least.)

You do raise an interesting point. Frankly, closing Great Notch will not speed up trains through the yard location there, because trains are already running at slow speed around the curve; a stop will not contribute to a significant diminishing of the overall average speed. When you compare through service to the forced MSU transfer (which looks like the only real way NJT can bump up ridership numbers for the MSU "pork station"—personal opinion FTR), the greatest impact on average speeds is said transfer in particular, where diesel trains and electric trains wait at MSU for each other over long periods

Tri-State Tom wrote:Erie -

I know if I lived in Great Notch, I wouldn't want to walk on the side of 46 to get to MSU.

Me neither.

Tell me, do Notch Road and Long Hill Road ( toward U.Montclair ) now have sidewalks ? Ever seen the traffic on these two during the am/pm rush hours ?

Thirded.

There is a section of sidewalk on Notch Rd near the station, which continues on Long Hill down into Little Falls Main St. There are none on Long Hill going towards Montclair. There are sections which have a wide enough shoulder for walking, but not the entire distance. I've occasionally seen people walking or biking there, and personally I think they're nuts with the narrow shoulder and all those curves. Not to mention how dark it is at night; in fact I almost hit someone walking on Long Hill on my way home from MSU the other night. I would not risk it myself.

A while back I read a newspaper article about a proposed low-income housing development to be built in the wooded areas off of Woods Rd. It mentioned that the developer was thinking of putting in a "staircase over the mountain" should that go through. That would be ideal, but the housing is (rightfully, IMHO) being fought so I'm not holding my breath. The only other options I see at this point are:
1) helicopter shuttle
2) chair lift/cable car from Woods Rd. to the top of the MSU parking deck
3) rappel down the cliff (fine in the morning, but getting home would be a bitch )

rappel down the cliff (fine in the morning, but getting home would be a bitch )

Well, for that purpose, write Sarles to start an NJT Funicular Division. He ought to be open to that, right?

or just do like peter griffin and buy a medeival catapult and hurl everyone over the mountain

PullmanCo wrote:

rappel down the cliff (fine in the morning, but getting home would be a bitch )

Well, for that purpose, write Sarles to start an NJT Funicular Division. He ought to be open to that, right?

What about a COG Railway instead.

The cog railway could be powered by a WORM gear. Corny mechanical joke, right there.

SemperFidelis wrote:The cog railway could be powered by a WORM gear. Corny mechanical joke, right there.

i liked it

?

Looks like a virus trap - CAUTION !

Uh oh. That look like spambot all right.

How ironic the Spambot would think to stop at Great Notch, but not NJT!

Any word on the station's fate? When is the next schedule due?

On another note, I love how people are proposing to close down some Montclair stations when those Montclair stations probably see more traffic than Great Notch ever will.

Perhaps a connector road could be built between MSU parking deck and Great Notch for under $300 million dollars. That seems like a good alternative.