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  • ALP-45-DP Usage/Service Patterns

  • Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.
Discussion related to New Jersey Transit rail and light rail operations.

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 #1419275  by EuroStar
 
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it seems the most appropriate one for my question.

Penn Station NY has got new LCD departure monitors and system. On that system train 6279 to MSU is announced as a train to Lake Hopatcong and train 6283 as a train to Hackettstown. Both of those trains do NOT go beyond MSU. 6279 is followed about 10 minutes later by 1011 which actually is a train to Lake Hopatcong which departs Hoboken. So maybe it is just a way to advertise the connecting service one could change pretty much anywhere between Newark Broad and MSU. 6283 is followed by 1085 which goes to Hackettstown. Unfortunately both trains follow each other about 30 minutes apart making any connection practically useless -- even the trip to MSU is too long (due to frequent station stops), adding 30minutes pf extra waiting time to get beyond there is pointless -- no sane commuter would do that. A few occasional travelers might consider it. And this brings us to the question: why has not NJT reshuffled the schedule to extend two of the morning peak hour trains from beyond MSU into NYP and two of the evening peak trains back out of NYP? Ridership beyond MSU is not great, but it ain't going to get any better without some better service given the competition of the buses from Wayne/Route 23. Direct service into NYP might help the ridership even if the trains still make all stops in Montclair. Or maybe the departure boards are sign of things to come with future schedule changes? And of course this is all possible because of the ALP45s which is why we are in this thread.
 #1419544  by TDowling
 
The LCD departure screens in psny are misleading if they say that the trains go where they do not go. Most people using the service are not necessary railfans amd dont care or know about connections. They just want to get where theyre going. Plus, I imagine that WORM territory is not going to see a spike in ridership anytime soon unless they make the trains express through Montclair.
 #1419992  by pumpers
 
Screenshots at about 6:10 PM Wednesday for posterity.
screenshot1.JPG
screenshot1.JPG (138.83 KiB) Viewed 8995 times
screenshot2.JPG
screenshot2.JPG (52.79 KiB) Viewed 8995 times
 #1420138  by time
 
Can the ALP-45-DP travel to Hoboken in all electric mode? I noticed they usually switch power modes from diesel to electric at Newark Broad Street. Wondering why.
 #1420143  by Backshophoss
 
Believe certain trains start beyond the catenary's reach,the safest point to do the change over is Newark/Broad Street.
Also the AL45DP's have the smallest fuel tank for commuter power, about 900 gallons of diesel fuel.
 #1420148  by ApproachMedium
 
its because they still havent fixed all of the power station problems from sandy, so they might run electric from broad street west to drover/MSU but they will run diesel broad street east to hoboken so they do not overload the substation thats not running at full capacity.
 #1421530  by EuroStar
 
pumpers wrote:Screenshots at about 6:10 PM Wednesday for posterity.
DepartureVision is not the same as the boards at Penn Station. Here is a somewhat blurry shot of the board from yesterday. The last line on the board lists 6279 as going to Lake Hopatcong.
So the question remains: why is that? Are they planning to extend direct NYP service west of Dover? Is this just advertisement of connecting service? Or is this a screw up (unlikely, how do you even come up with something like this not on purpose)?
 #1421543  by andegold
 
There are two old posts discussing similar irregularities with train 3177. It regularly (back in 2011) would show up on the main board as a Trenton train but if you checked the details in DepartureVision it would show properly as a Jersey Avenue train.
 #1421547  by EuroStar
 
It is very interesting (to me at least) that this has happened in the past. 3177 continued as non-revenue past Jersey Avenue and had an employee stop at Trenton. Whoever programmed the NYP board back then might have made an error when interpreting the employee timetable reading Trenton as a regular stop. The mistake here is of a different kind as I am quite certain that 6279 does not continue as non-revenue past MSU and there is definitely no employee stop at Lake Hopatcong. In any case this is misleading for any passenger who does not take the train frequently.
 #1422048  by time
 
ApproachMedium wrote:its because they still havent fixed all of the power station problems from sandy, so they might run electric from broad street west to drover/MSU but they will run diesel broad street east to hoboken so they do not overload the substation thats not running at full capacity.
Thank you for this answer. I knew it had to be something power related, but I just could not understand why they switched modes where they did. Now I'll need to find something else to ponder for a year and finally get the motivation to ask here. :)
 #1422380  by hovercat
 
ApproachMedium wrote:its because they still havent fixed all of the power station problems from sandy, so they might run electric from broad street west to drover/MSU but they will run diesel broad street east to hoboken so they do not overload the substation thats not running at full capacity.
That's actually not correct. The mode change is always supposed to be conducted at Newark Broad St. coming east because of clearance issues in the depot. The catenary wire hangs too close to the train shed so when the pantograph drops it creates an arch which could potentially burn down the wire. On the occasions where the mode change could not successfully be completed at Broad St., the train had to be spotted in the depot so that the engine was not under the train shed ensuring the pantograph could be safely dropped after the mechanical issues were rectified.
 #1422659  by time
 
So why not just leave the pantograph always up and do the switchover much further west? My impression is NJT would prefer to always run in electric mode for economic reasons.
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