Reviving passenger service between West Trenton & Bound Brook

Man that's tough. I expected to see 6 car trains like 10-12 minimum. Sure maybe a few 3 or 4 car trains would work back in the 1980s but this is the 21st Century where people want mass transit and look for relief from the congestion, help the environment and avoid high gas prices. I'm not saying NJT should go for 8 car bi levels with back to back engines but a 6 car train with 10-12 trains a day should be used.

How about just using whatever is needed?

If its crowded that first day, the next day they add cars...........

In this "day and age" there are still 2 and 3 car sets running on your beloved MandE, and the MandE isn't exactly a "new start" operation........

Talk about putting the cars before the locomotive (hahahhaahhah - get it? cart before the horse - cars before the loco? I crack myself up hahhahha...........)

What is a practical schedule for these trains? Is there excess capacity on the RVL for additional trainsets. Speed and timing seem to be concerns.

What about West Trenton to Bound Brook (local) and then express to NWK (with 79 mph running to Cranford)? Passenger can transfer at Bound Brook for locals both to Union and Raritan. Does this seem practical? Comments?

Stop at Westfield, express to Newark and I'll be happy.

Here's something from the Trenton Times back on Sunday:

All aboard?
Sunday, December 02, 2007
BY ANDREW KITCHENMAN
EWING -- The West Trenton Train Station is quiet after the weekday morning rush hour, the parking lot and platform reduced to gravel after years of use as the end of a Pennsylvania commuter line.

When the number of passengers on NJ Transit's West Trenton line dwindled to 200 in 1982, the agency pulled the plug, leaving the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to maintain the station.

While many proposals to revive the line have been floated in the past 25 years, recent studies on restarting the line are more advanced than at any time since the line ended. The public will have a chance to weigh in on the potential revival of a second Mercer County rail link to North Jersey at a public meeting Thursday in Ewing.

"This is something that should be a priority from both a state and a federal perspective," Assemblyman W. Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough, said of the line.

The projected $219 million project's future is uncertain because NJ Transit hasn't figured out how it will pay for the project and has listed other projects ahead of West Trenton in the line for funding. However, local officials are intensely interested in seeing whether the line can be revived, providing relief for residents interested in traveling north without using the heavily used Northeast Corridor line.

"We're going to have to take a look at ideas like reopening the WT line simply because of the pressures that are on our system already," Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes said.

The rail line was first built in the 1870s by the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad and continued as a passenger line under various owners for more than 100 years. The line is still maintained south of the West Trenton Station by SEPTA, which uses it for its R3 line. North of West Trenton, CSX Transportation maintains a single track for freight traffic.

The project would include a series of improvements, including new tracks and train cars; a new rail yard and 90 new parking spaces in West Trenton, as well as new stations in West Trenton, near Interstate 95 in Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough, the Belle Mead section of Montgomery, and Hillsborough. The 27-mile line would link with the NJ Transit's Raritan Valley line in Bridgewater before heading to Newark, where passengers would transfer to go to New York.

The new stations would be basic structures with canopies and windscreens to protect passengers from the elements, according to NJ Transit spokesman Joseph Dee. The exception is the Belle Mead station, where an existing structure could be renovated. There also is a small red-brick building in West Trenton, but the large original West Trenton Station was sold in 1989 to Clarke Caton Hintz, an architectural firm that renovated the building for office use.

Hopewell Township Mayor Vanessa Sandom said she supports the concept in a general way, but township officials want to know the plan's specifics, such as the exact location of stations.

"As a concept, whenever you move people out of car and into mass transit, the state as a whole benefits, and that includes Hopewell Township," Sandom said. "I think there's a great deal of interest in the town."

Sandom wants to make sure that parking and traffic concerns are worked out by NJ Transit.

A $3.3 million environmental assessment found the project would have no significant impact on either the environment, traffic or the historical heritage of the area around the line.

Jack Kanarek, NJ Transit senior director of project development, said the assessment was done with the expectation that it wouldn't cause problems because the line has been used in the past.

"The goal of these documents is to plan for the project," Kanarek said.

NJ Transit plans to finalize the assessment after the public comment period closes. From that point forward, nothing is certain.

"There just isn't any funding that's available," Kanarek said.

If the agency finds a way to restart the line, the trip from West Trenton to Newark's Penn Station would be one hour and 20 minutes, which is longer than the trip from the Trenton Train Station to Newark, which ranges from 45 minutes to one hour and 20 minutes depending on the time and the number of stops.

NJ Transit projects that the West Trenton line would generate 2,660 daily trips by 2025 if the line was restarted.

Ewing resident Steve Carroll said it would be convenient to start trips to visit friends in Boston by taking a train from West Trenton.

"It would be nice to park right here," said Carroll, whose family operates Carroll Service Center, a Gulf gas station across Railroad Avenue from the West Trenton station.

Ewing Mayor Jack Ball said the possible rail line could relieve local traffic to employers like Merrill Lynch.

"I definitely think it would be of benefit to our residents and I think it's important to encourage people to use mass transit," said Ball, who cautioned that the state's difficult financial straits could make funding the project difficult.

Mercer County Freeholder Lucy Walter noted that these trips would provide relief for local drivers, as well as the Northeast Corridor trains. That line's Hamilton and Princeton Junction stations are at or exceeding their parking capacity. Walter urged the county to support the expansion.

"I think Mercer County and certainly the whole corridor that we live in is heavily populated," Walter said. "Everybody knows that and we can't keep putting cars on the roads."

Walter, a Ewing resident, said the project should be a priority for both NJ Transit and the federal government.

"This project should have been in place long before all of the housing developments were allowed to be built," Walter said.

On a recent day at the West Trenton Station, New York resident Elijah Rodrigez said he would like to be able to take a northbound train from West Trenton. He was returning from a week visiting his girlfriend and newborn son in Lower Moreland, Pa.

Rodrigez said he took a taxi from Trenton to Ewing to take the R3 to its Bethayres station.

"That would be a whole lot more convenient," he said of a new rail line.

The public meeting on the draft environmental assessment will be Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Ewing Senior/Community Center, 999 Lower Ferry Road. NJ Transit will accept comments on the plan until Jan. 15.

NJ Transit's board of directors would then decide whether to have the project advance to a preliminary design.

Even if the board of directors decides to proceed, many details would have to be worked out. These include reaching an agreement with CSX on splitting the line's use between commuter and freight, as well as Merrill Lynch's concern that no parking be located on its side of the proposed Interstate 95 station.

Both Gusciora and Hughes expressed hope the next federal administration could bolster the project's chances by increasing funding for mass transit.

The assessment is available on the Web at www.njtransit.com, under the system expansion section of the capital projects page.

A few comments here:
1) If you can get the Ewing Public Meeting tomorrow, please do so and show the support for revival of West Trenton.
2) I agree with Guisora's comment that this should be a priority, this should have been done long ago, not wait 25 years+ to revive this line.
3) Reviving WT would give a huge relief to the NEC Line. It would need to have Weekend Service right away, Pascack Valley Line and WT are two different animals.
4) I can see the concern some have with this, especially in Hopewell Township. But the study that NJT did said that it wouldn't be too big an issue (i.e., Traffic).
5) While the trip to NWK would be longer from West Trenton, the benefit from that would be the commute from new areas such as Hillsborough, Belle Mead, and Hopewell would be a lot smoother than if they had to drive and leave their cars at the NEC stations.
6) I agree with Walter here, and I've been saying this for a while now, the sooner this gets done, the better it'll be in the long term. The people want it and its badly needed, especially on Weekends.

Here's the Link to the Story from the Trenton Times

BlockLine_4111 wrote:Is there excess capacity on the RVL for additional trainsets. Speed and timing seem to be concerns.

With the CNJ right of way reduced to two tracks, express service will have to be properly coordinated. Its a shame that stations like Plainfield and Westfield were constructed to only accommodate two tracks. On top of that, a bridge in the Plainfield area was rebuilt to only handle two tracks. It replaced a structure that once had four track capacity.

transit383 wrote:

BlockLine_4111 wrote:Is there excess capacity on the RVL for additional trainsets. Speed and timing seem to be concerns.

With the CNJ right of way reduced to two tracks, express service will have to be properly coordinated. Its a shame that stations like Plainfield and Westfield were constructed to only accommodate two tracks. On top of that, a bridge in the Plainfield area was rebuilt to only handle two tracks. It replaced a structure that once had four track capacity.

there is only one bridge that was rebuilt to only 2 tracks, and that is west of Westfield - I can't remember the name of the street - edit - Crossway Place I believe it is, and it looks like it was raised several feet and now there are long approaches up to the bridge.

The bridges in Plainfield are actually being totally rebuilt, albeit very slowly. They have shifted tracks 1 and 2 to the southernmost ROW, while the 2 northern ROWs bridges (track 1 and the abandoned ROW) are being totally rebuilt, from the supports up. Once they are finally done with that, then they will shift track 1 and 2 over to those new bridges, and redo the ones that are currently handling the traffic.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:Is there excess capacity on the RVL for additional trainsets. Speed and timing seem to be concerns.

Here's an idea that I've thought about a few times. Why don't they run expresses on the old CNJ mainline and keep locals going to Roselle Park and Union? That way train service continues to serve those two stations, and NJT gets a dedicated line to the NE Corridor. Wouldn't the extra distance traveled be mitigated by the faster speeds and not having to make stops along the way?

Newarknj76 isn't alone in seeking overlapping service patterns here. NJ-ARP long has advocated running some service to the ex-CNJ station in Elizabeth (change for Northeast Corridor trains).

The operational issues are one thing, but manageable. More difficult, we believe, is the political weight: Which trains (and what kind) goes to Elizabeth? Followed by the crunching conventional wisdom which we reject: "But it's not a one-seat ride" to New York, or even Newark.

That said, it'll be a long time before the Aldene bottleneck is unplugged, given the likelihood of increased rail freight needs, and not just passenger. And should NJ Transit ever commit to a true diesel multiple-unit (DMU) order, the Cranford-Elizabeth stretch is, in our view, one place to apply the gear.

For now, the (thoughtful) idea of parceling out express and local runs is one we'll pass on, at least until West Trenton becomes more "real." But too many advocates for the line are making the same mistake those backing the Cut-Off, MOM, and other lines have made. Not all O/D pairs end with "New York."

Jtgshu wrote:Talk about putting the cars before the locomotive (hahahhaahhah - get it? cart before the horse - cars before the loco? I crack myself up hahhahha...........)

You keep cracking yourself up there Jt.....

And it sounds to me that NJT is being overly-conservative.... maybe they are using this as a way to get more funding and support for the project.

Jtgshu wrote:The bridges in Plainfield are actually being totally rebuilt, albeit very slowly. They have shifted tracks 1 and 2 to the southernmost ROW, while the 2 northern ROWs bridges (track 1 and the abandoned ROW) are being totally rebuilt, from the supports up. Once they are finally done with that, then they will shift track 1 and 2 over to those new bridges, and redo the ones that are currently handling the traffic.

So are they going to rebuild them as four track bridges?

As far as I know, yes all 4 bridges will be rebuilt , but they will at least have to rebuild three tracks for service to continue without having to single track while the work is going on.

A few comments here:
1) If you can get the Ewing Public Meeting tomorrow, please do so and show the support for revival of West Trenton.
2) I agree with Guisora's comment that this should be a priority, this should have been done long ago, not wait 25 years+ to revive this line.
3) Reviving WT would give a huge relief to the NEC Line. It would need to have Weekend Service right away, Pascack Valley Line and WT are two different animals.
4) I can see the concern some have with this, especially in Hopewell Township. But the study that NJT did said that it wouldn't be too big an issue (i.e., Traffic).
5) While the trip to NWK would be longer from West Trenton, the benefit from that would be the commute from new areas such as Hillsborough, Belle Mead, and Hopewell would be a lot smoother than if they had to drive and leave their cars at the NEC stations.
6) I agree with Walter here, and I've been saying this for a while now, the sooner this gets done, the better it'll be in the long term. The people want it and its badly needed, especially on Weekends.

I went to that meeting in Ewing and asked about weekend service on a restored West Trenton Line. An NJT rep told me that when a new/revived service is planned, it's for M-F only, not for weekends, until NJT can see if there's a demand for it.

The same NJT rep told me that, after the draft EA gets the comment log attached to it, that's it (for now) because there's no funding for the project. She encouraged me to nudge any and all legislators -- local, state, and federal -- to pry loose some money for this.

Another NJT rep told me that any link between the West Trenton and Trenton stations would probably be via BRT, since the cost of building a light rail link would be between $35 million and $50 million a mile (factoring in all costs related to such a line -- including the cost of additional light rail trainsets).

Also from this meeting (my apologies if any of this is not new to you):

* Initial service would be 14 daily trains: 5 peak trains and 1 midday train in each direction, one morning outbound to West Trenton, and one evening inbound to Newark.

* WTL trains would make all RVL stops east of Bridgewater.

* The estimate is for 2,660 daily trips on the line, with 1420 trips being diverted from the Northeast Corridor and Raritan Valley Lines. 88% of these riders have destinations in the New York/Newark/Hoboken/Jersey City area. 1,000 auto trips/day and 240 bus trips/day would be diverted to the WTL.

* Capital cost is estimated at $219 million (in 2007 dollars).

* Annual operating cost is estimated at $15 million, while annual operating revenue is estimated at $2.9 million.

* And, for you architecture buffs, NJT is committed to restoring the existing Belle Mead station building. By the way, NJDOT is planning to move 206 so that the overpass would be further south of Belle Mead station. When that's done, a big chunk of the land to the east of the tracks (where existing 206 is now) would be used for parking at Belle Mead.

newarknj76 wrote:Here's an idea that I've thought about a few times. Why don't they run expresses on the old CNJ mainline and keep locals going to Roselle Park and Union? That way train service continues to serve those two stations, and NJT gets a dedicated line to the NE Corridor. Wouldn't the extra distance traveled be mitigated by the faster speeds and not having to make stops along the way?

One of the problems with the RVL in terms of capacity is its inability to handle overtakes, and without the ability for express trains to overtake locals, you lose a bunch of capacity when an express has to follow a local (with the timetable "headroom" that you have to allow behind the local). If some passing tracks were installed (a la Caltrain), or some triple-tracking applied in strategic locations, express and local service would make a ton of sense.

I'm glad to see NJT is paying attention to the potential reverse-direction ridership on the West Trenton line. While the constraints on scheduling up north in Bound Brook and Aldene mitigate against the kind of schedule co-ordination seen on the NEC at Trenton, I can't imagine that there won't be a fair number of riders going in both directions between the northern Philly suburbs and Central Jersey. Right now these people are driving, either the whole way or to Hamilton; giving them another option wouldn't be a bad move. The 70 daily transferees that the Draft EA predicts just seems low to me, given the 60,000+ AADT on the I-95 Scudders Falls Bridge, but of course IANACE.