Henry6; Now if we could only get car counts on the service maybe we can get a feel of how many cars damaged ?
You've got PATH services but very truncated...Newark to Journal Sq. to 33rd St....no Hoboken, no World Trade Center....haven't heard how long it will be. And here is what was just posted 7:30PM Fri 11/16 on NJTransit.com:
Trenton, NJ –The Christie Administration announced today that all but one NJ TRANSIT rail lines will be running full or modified service effective Monday, November 19. This includes the restoration of service along the North Jersey Coast Line, which suffered the brunt of the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy. Additionally, with the completion of repairs to a key Amtrak-owned electrical substation in Kearny that will generate additional power to the Northeast Corridor, NJ TRANSIT will be operating approximately 90 percent of its normal peak period service into New York Penn Station starting Monday morning. Main, Bergen County, Pascack Valley and Port Jervis Line trains will resume stopping at Secaucus Junction as a result of the additional rail capacity opened along the Northeast Corridor.
Updated schedules will be posted on njtransit.com by 3 p.m. Sunday, November 18.
“This is a major milestone in our continuing, post-Sandy recovery. The devastation wrought on the North Jersey Coast Line was the worst sustained throughout our system,” said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chairman James Simpson. “While we are not out of the woods and the recovery process continues, the restoration of this critical rail service is a major step forward for the Garden State.”
The restoration of service on the North Jersey Coast Line completes the full or partial restoration of all NJ TRANSIT rail lines. More than 30 miles of North Jersey Coast Line track sustained severe damage during the storm, including extensive rail washouts (no ballast under the tracks) between South Amboy and Bay Head. The River Drawbridge over Raritan Bay was severely damaged following a collision between two tugboats in addition to a record storm surge. The Morgan Drawbridge in South Amboy also sustained severe damage following a record storm surge and the impact from recreational boats and a cargo container.
“The restoration of NJ TRANSIT’s rail lines within 18 days of Sandy is a tremendous credit to the commitment, professionalism and the dedication of our employees,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein. “In this time of Thanksgiving, I would like to specifically offer our thanks to our employees for their service, as well as to customers for their patience and understanding during this difficult time.”
Effective Monday, November 19, NJ TRANSIT rail service will operate as follows:
Restored Service
University and New York will operate on a regular schedule. Limited shuttle
service between Hackettstown and Hoboken will operate on a special schedule.
Also effective Monday, November 19, NJ TRANSIT will adjust and refine its emergency trans-Hudson transportation plan to most efficiently match the available bus, rail and ferry resources with the needs of state citizens.
Starting Monday, new bus shuttle-to-ferry service and bus shuttle-to-train service will operate from selected stations along the Gladstone Branch of the Morris & Essex Lines to provide an alternate travel option for customers impacted by the ongoing suspension of Gladstone Branch train service.
In addition, bus shuttle/ferry services from several locations will no longer operate due to the restoration of NJ TRANSIT rail service near those locations.
New Gladstone Branch Bus Shuttle/Ferry Option (to Lower Manhattan)
New Gladstone Branch Bus Shuttle to Train Option (to Midtown Manhattan)
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Henry,
The good news for New Jersey is that we now have service on almost all train and light rail lines including PATH. However, I expect it will take a while before service is where it was before Sandy.
NJT has announced they will offer "regular" weekend timetable schedules for Port Jervis, Pascack Valley, Corridor, Raritan Vally, Morristown, and Montclair-Boonton lines. Earlier they hinted NJCL line service could be back next week but no mention of when Gladstone Line will be back. HBLRT and RiverLine light rail services are normal schedules but Newark Light rail is Penn Sta t Grove St modified and Penn Sta to Broad St. Sta. 30 minute intervals during rush/peak hours only. PATH still operating only Newark Penn to 33rd St. with no stops at Christopher St..
Still only running Newark-Harrison-Journal Sq.--Grove St---.Pavonia---9th St---14th St---23rd St---33rd St....no Hoboken, no Exchange St., no Downtown NY.
How is PATH doing?
Wed. 11-14-12 AM: LIRR is running shuttle diesel service on one track of the Long Beach line Long Beach to Lynbrook but still no service east of Riverhead. MNRR is in full service. Subway: Rt 1 open south to Rector St., Manhatten but R train still out of service from Canal St to Brooklyn...everything else in running shape. NJT put Hackettstown (3 trains) and Mt. Olive (1 train) to Hoboken and Montclair to NYP back in service this morning on modified schedule with some delays, especially from the western most end of the line. But most important is that an Amtrak news release with Amtrak and NJT signatures hypes hope of Kearney power plant to be up and running by Friday. Apparently it is not in as bad a shape as originally thought and tests are proving it capable of being put back in service. But again, note, the announcement came from Amtrak (posted on their news release tag on their website) and while jointly with NJT, NJT has not made the announcement as their ability to communicate with the public is still somehow, somewhat hampered. Even their website seems to be still lagging behind their announcements and operations. At any rate, the return of Kearney substation back to service will mean full power for both catenary and for signal system and points to more and more reliable services. NJT has been rumored to be looking at Bay Head Service (NJCL) of some kind by the weekend.
And Long Beach LIRR is back with hourly diesel shuttle trains to Lynbrook until they get the local sutstations fixed, hourly during the rush hours and every two hours in the middle of the day, no service yet on Sat. and Sun. I think this means there is at least some service on all LIRR passenger lines.
NJT has announced that Montclair-Boonton Line service will return Nov 14 with hourly serviced from Montclair to NYP or Hoboken....this includes 3 trains from Hackettstown and one from Mt. Olive (4 trains to Hoboken and back in the evening) with most Montclair originating trains going to NYP. This is even better than what I expected...but still hourly only.
NJT is rumored to have said Montclair-Boonton Line service should return early next week. This would give us more choices of schedules. But since next week is Thanksgiving week I will propose to take a RIDWITHMEHENRY trip the week of 11/26....so I've marked my calendar for Wed. 11/28. Itinerary not determined until we see what services and schedules are available. I would like to start the framework around Montclair Boonton to Spring Valley and back via Morristown side starting from as far west as practical and available. Probably leaving Binghamton no later than 6:30AM but no earlier than 5:30 AM. All interested please let me know at ridewithmehenry@hotmail.com or by return mail here. This is not a business but a fun thing...gas shared, everybody pays and buys own tickets from wherever they board.
NYCTA has moved twenty R-32 Budd-built all-stainless twice overhauled oldest subway equipment operating in North Americ cars via truck to the Rockaways, and as soon as they are set up and the all fixed facilities on the Island 100% they will inaugurate Rockaway Park - Mott Avenue (Far Rockaway) shuttle service.
This will:
1. Make the provision of the bus shuttle from Howard Beach A-train station a simpler proposition with fewer buses giving more frequent service and/or greater capacity.
2. Demonstrate to the Rockaway ressidence their commitment to restore regular service to the main part of Queens and to Manhattan as before Sandy.
LIRR schedule does not indicate it will be through the end of the year but until all repairs and equipment is up and running.which could last one week, one month, 6 months, or whatever. Manual blocking through the tunnels, the same thing: signals will be fixed as soon as they can.
Over in NJ this Tuesday morning, the same schedules in effect as were in effect yesterday. Delays seem to be fewer this morning.
LIRR announcement
http://www.mta.info/supplemental/lirr/WeekdaySchedules11-12-12.htm
There appears to be some indication that the reductions will continue for the rest of the year? evidently manual blocks will be in effect in tunnels 1 & 2 ?
The post 10PM postings may be because the information is going through the Governor's office rather than straight from NJT...only my speculation.
Leaves are a problem because NJT (and other rr's and agencies) have made them a problem by not (spending the money) keeping the ROW clear of brush and trees. One excuse is because the tree and bush line dampens noise to keep the NIMBYs quiet. Also by going with lighter weight cars and push pull rather than EMU's they don't have the power in one unit to pull a whole train through. Those factors combine for 90% of the problems.
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You are right about the 10 pm posting from NJT, Henry. There has to be a reason for waiting so long to post the news.
As for the leaves, well to say we can't deal with leaves on the tracks because it is too expensive is, I think, not realistic. After all every suburban homeowner deals with leaves.
I agree that we can't cut down every bush and tree within a mile of the railroad track.
Just read the Star Ledger and Morris Record stories as well as NJT's website. Info evidently went up after 10PM last night. A friend on the Yahoo NJT group says he was talking with a maintainer Sunday afternoon who didn't think the repair was made at Kearny to restart service. However, there is an hourly schedule from Dover posted in each Direction plus added trains to the Corridor from Trenton. I see PATH has also opened from Newark and Harrison to Journal Sq. and to 33rd St.
As for trees and leaves....yes the railroad has been there since the late 1830s with numerous changes in location of the right of way and its construction. And each time, all the trees and foliage is removed, cut back or otherwise changed. I don't remember any real problems the DL&W had from the 40's through the 60's but as time meandered through the 70's into the 80's and 90's, it did increase. There was little cutting of the trees and bushes along the right of way for two reasons: one, of course, it cost money to do so and two, it created a sound curtain between the railroad and the neighboring houses. Cutting and cleaning happened only if enough of the engineers complained about sighting along the way involving signals, hidden crossings, station platforms, etc. Slip sliding of wheels was the problem of the engineers and not management until the late 90's (and NJT was not alone, LIRR, MNRR, and SEPTA were also having the same experiences). Then management became concerned and adapted the practice of spraying the rails with a compound to reduce the slipperiness rather than remove the foliage cause. But also, the cars and equipment while bigger, also were lighter on each axle which also promulgated slippage. And not all the leaves are coming from trees on NJT property, the property owners along the ROW own the trees, too, and this causes all kinds of rights and legal questions. So, NJT can remove as much of the causes as they can but will still be left with the problem of the neighbors' trees. Is it too late to make changes in the neighborhood?
EDIT ADD: schedules on M&E are basic weekend schedules with train numbers picking up where leaving off in regular table with a little tweaking where needed and the addition of several Summit only trains. However, slippery rail from leaves and lack of service have been major headaches with one to two hour delays in the morning...not posted yet about the evening rush but there is a note that westbounds are not stopping at Short HIlls and passengers have to go to Summit and return on an E'bnd train! No weekend schedules have been announced either.
Newark City Subway Broad to Newark Penn is operating rush hour only, 30 minute headways. Will try later to pick up anything new NJT will post but I can't after 10PM when they seem to have made this morning's announcements...
It is good news, Henry, but not quite as good as I thought.
The Star-Ledger now reports delays of an hour or more due to fog and "slippery track conditions." There is no clarification of that. However, the Morris and Essex line runs through a lot of up scale beautiful tree shaded suburbs. These are among the first railroad suburbs in the country and over the years they have maintained themselves as attractive places to live. However, every year they face a problem. Leaves fall from the trees and lay on the tracks. Natural oils from the leaves coat the tracks as they are crushed by train wheels. The now oiled track is slippery so engines cannot gain adhesion.
Morris and Essex trains have been running for well over 150 year. It seems to me that in that amount of time a country that can afford space ships to Mars might spend the money necessary to learn how to deal with leaves in the fall. After all, these train are important to many thousands who need to get to work so they can pay their taxes for space research and a host of other things. However, the problem has never been solves and it happens every fall. It is always resolved in the same way. By ignoring it long enough the leaves all fall and it goes away until the next fall.
Here is a link: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/poor_track_conditions_lead_to.html#incart_river_default
Well it wasn't on the website when I last checked it at 9:45PM last night...but this is good news....for NJT. I still wish they were more forthcoming with information as to what happened, what has to happen, and what is happening.
Monday, November 12. NJT's Morris and Essex Line now up and running with limited (but reasonable) service between Dover and New York Penn Station. There is no stop in Seacaucus and no trains run to Hboken. There is still no service on the Gladstone Branch or the Montclair--Boonton Line.
NJT's announcement says the information was released Sunday evening. However, as of about 7 pm NJT was still showing the service was suspended. In any event it is now reported to be running.
PATH is now operating a regular NEWARKJ - Herald Sq. service, Harrison, Journal Sq. Grove St, Newport (used ot be Pavonia), 14th St. 23rd St., Herald Square, No service to WTC or Hoboken or 9th St. and Sherison Sq.
for pleople on crowded NEC NJT trains, getting off at Newark and geting a seat to Manhattan on PATH should be a treat.
NJT's Port Jervis and Main and Bergen lines have full day schedules with most trains returning in number but altered schedules including none stopping at Sec. Jct. Pascack Valley also back full schedule with no Sec Jct. stops. www.njtransit.com has all the details. High Bridge trains returning but not complete set; special Raritan Valley schedule in effect. No reports or predictions for the Morristown, Montclair Boonton nor NJCL lines.
Sunday, Nov. 11. New Jersey Transit Schedules are now available for Main/Bergen County and the Pascack Valley Lines. Weekend trains will end at Seacaucus but weekday trains will end at Hoboken.
There is still no word about the Morris and Essex and Montclair--Boonton Lines or the Broad Street Light Rail.
The R train tunnels are not yet running. Amtrak was supposed to open the two still closed bores Friday as well as the north bore under the Hudson. No announcement from Amtrak, LIRR or NJT about this as yet. However, while MNRR continues to run at full throttle except for New Canaan branch buses, LIRR continues bus service for the Long Beach branch. Service reported restored Riverhead to Greenport and modified schedule continues Speonk to Montauk as there is still consumer power outages out there. NJT has a note that Bergen and Pascack Valley service will resume Monday but as of this hour have not yet posted schedules; also High Bridge trains are to resume Monday but no schedule posted as yet. Supposedly with the second hole opened under the Hudson and the two under the East River, there should be the capability to handle full compliment of train on Amtrak, LIRR, and NJT which should bring big improvements in services on all three. Perhaps we'll learn more late Sunday. Subways are pretty well operating except for the 1 train south of Chambers St, the R train from Canal St. to Brooklyn and the A train from Howard Beach Blvd to Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach (express bus to Far Rockaway now from Howard Beach Blvd around JFK airport). N train joins the B, D, and F trains at Stillwell Ave., Coney Island...now if the Steeplechase would only open up we'd be in heaven!
As far as I can see, Mike, all East River tunnels are operating.
Here is a link to the restored service subway map:
http://alert.mta.info/sites/default/files/pdf/hurricane_recovery_map_bw_Nov10_N.pdf
Of the 7 subway tunnels under the East river, how many are operating?
"
"I wonder if the Broad St. line of the Newark City Subway is not running because there is no connecting trains at Broad St. so very low priority in regaining service....NJT has not explained itself, as I keep on saying....so we don't know what is happening or why."
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You certainly hit the nail on the head, Henry. With NJT all we know is what service has been restored. With unrestoried service there is no way to know when it will come back.
I hate to be a critic. After all, this is the worst natural disaster in recorded history for New Jersey. However, when I read that NJT cannot even provide departure information at NYP I wonder if NJT is so overwhelmed that panic has set in. For departures all they need is a person with chalk, a blackboard and a cell phone to connect with the dispatcher. I'm sure you remember when that is the way the Pennsylvania operated even in New York Penn Station.
I sure hope you are right about lack of service on the Broad Street Lightrail because there is not yet service to Broad Street Station. But I wonder if the explanation is as simple as that.
I wonder if the Broad St. line of the Newark City Subway is not running because there are no connecting trains at Broad St. so very low priority in regaining service....NJT has not explained itself, as I keep on saying...so we don't know what is happening or why. Another forum reports 10 locomotives with at least two of the 4500 class dualies and one MNRR unit are at M&E RR shops at Morristown but not known if any came in under their own power or if one did the dragging or if an M&E unit did the dragging; nor do we know where they were parked. Amtrak kept saying they would have the north bore under the Hudson and the two still flooded tunnels under the East River opened by Friday but have not seen or heard if it actually happened. If so, or if when, then more NJT trains can get into NYP meaning more can be run from Trenton and maybe Woodbridge can be restored,and the PJ/Suffern trains can stop at both Sec. Jct. and Hoboken and more trains can be added to that service.
MNRR seems to be in the best shape and supposedly running regular schedules; LIRR is up and running except Long Beach branch and east of RIverhead and with fewer but longer trains and different schedules...opening the other two E. River tunnels would help them with more service. Subway system is amazingly up and running even to Coney Island on the D, F, and B lines but not the N line. R train from Manhattan still not running nor the 1 train south of PATH.
Again, in all cases, fewer people are traveling because they can't get out of homes with no power or to work where there is no power...It's gonna be a while before we can redefine "normal".
The MTA and Metronorth are real success stories in restoring transit . New Jersey Transit seems to be still struggling with problems.
The Morris and Essex and Montclair--Boonton line are still not operating and are reported to have severe damage to the tracks. More puzzling is the lightrail between Newark Penn Station and Broad Street Station which is still not running. It s puzzling because some service has been restored on the Grove Street Line which is much longer and which uses the same terminal at Newark Penn Station. Finally, in today's Star-Ledger there is a letter from a customer who reports that last night (Friday, November 9) while there was service out of New York Penn Station the trains were shifted to different tracks and there was no indication of this on the departure boards and no NJT customer service representatives to direct people so commuters in the evening were scrambling just to find their trains home.
No doubt we will hear more about what is going on as time goes on. Here is a link to the letter:
http://www.nj.com/forums/transit/index.ssf?extlink?artid=20781
And its not just almost the whole subway system, it is also all of MNRR east of the Hudson except the New Canaan branch in CT. and all of the LIRR except the Long Beach branch and east of Riverhead. I temper with reduced schedules in effect on the LIRR as only two of the four tunnels have been opened under the East River. Amtrak has said that they planned on those two tunnels and the north bore of the Hudson tunnel to be opened "by Friday". With those openings, the LIRR will be able to run more trains as will NJT and Amtrak. But none of the railroads have announced plans. NJT could, for instance, increase the number of trains on the Corridor and reinstitute service from Woodbridge; possibly too, they could allow the Port Jervis/Suffern trains to stop at Sec. Jct. as well as go all the way to Hoboken; additionally they may even be able to run more trains to and from Port Jervis or Suffern, even mid day.
Another factor to be considered, as I noted in an earlier comment on the Subway traffic, is that there probably are fewer people going to and from work in the city right now as some have no homes to come from or jobs to go to. If I read what is happening it will quite a while until the entire Metropolitan Area is up and running at full strength. Until then, probably not as much transit service is needed.
I get a paper copy of the New York Times on the weekends, Henry and I read the fascinating article this morning. Anyone can google on the Times' to find their website. You can read up to 10 articles a month free; after that you must subscribe.
I found the detail about buses interesting. Where subways are not running MTA has been substituting buses. However, Buses hold about 75 passengers each while one train holds 1500 to 2000 passengers. Also, buses have caused a lot of traffic congestion. For MTA buses are at best a limited option.
Where I live (in Essex County) you pointed out NJT is providing buses for people who usually ride the Morris and Essex and Montclair--Boonton Line but I'm sure they have the same congestion problems.
It is pretty amazing that as of now almost the whole subway system is restored.
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