One little thing to be excited about going into 2021 at NYCT: it looks like the hegemony of diesel work locomotives is finally coming to an end.
In the NYC subway, we overwhelmingly use diesels to power work trains, as the third rail is switched off in work zones. The negative implications on passenger -- to say nothing of work train crew -- respiratory health should be self evident. nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-me…
Though other systems (for example, London) have used battery locos for over a century, NYCT has historically resisted this, and has bought overwhelmingly diesel equipment until very recently.
But this July, a contract was approved for diesel-battery locos, whose electric traction capabilities will allow minimization of diesel time. It's not perfect, but this certainly should help pave the way for a literal clearing of the air.
(I'd also be curious to know whether these electric traction locos would have higher power ratings than their diesel counterparts, as is true of comparably-sized locos on mainline railways. May help with the ever-present danger of work trains stalling out on steep uphills.)
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Thinking a bit about alignments for Phillipsburg-Allentown rail service (which is so, sorely needed). The route choice is surprisingly complex.
Phillipsburg-Easton is pretty easy -- you just follow the former CNJ ROW across the Delaware and Lehigh, and you get a stop just south of the downtowns in both Easton and Phillipsburg. Not perfect (you'd optimally run through the activity density), but workable.
From there on out things are a bit less pretty. You can continue following the CNJ, but that means you'll be under a cliff from the denser residential areas of Easton. Elevators and all would help, but I suspect that 10 min bus service would be much more effective in these nhbds
Always loved how clearly strong the PA influence is in Phillipsburg NJ's architecture/planning. The town has the mid-block alleys and gabled rowhouses that are so quintessentially E PA.
so many really interesting alleys in phillipsburg. this particular one a little bit of a 19th century 'disorganized wires' vibes.
Attached vs detached, but Trenton notably also has this sort of thing going on.
I really don't think there's any bit of railroad anywhere in the US that screams "electrify me" more than Metra's Suburban Branch of the Rock Island District.
With twelve stops in seven miles through relatively dense neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side, the line has the stop spacing of a subway, but is run with agonizingly slow-accelerating diesel equipment -- which also contributes to air pollution in surrounding communities
The line also faces little interference from freight traffic and is owned by Metra; this is one of (surprisingly many) places in the Chicago region where you could pretty easily make real regional rail-style improvements without running into freight railroad opposition
One little bit of tri-state rail obscura about by which I am fascinated is the Hospital Branch in Poughkeepsie.
After the bridge burned in '74 and the Maybrook Line to the east was abandoned in '80, customers up the hill in Poughkeepsie were only accessible by this funny little route, which involved a switchback and some steep grades
The line made it all the way through Conrail, but (sources conflict) either CSX or the town of Poughkeepsie was reluctant to continue its operation. Last train ran sometime btwn 1999 and 2001, and after an abortive attempt to make it into a short line tracks were lifted in 2005.
You may be thinking: 9 minutes to go from 3rd Avenue to E180!? That's great! It's not. @NYCTSubway seems to have used express runtimes with local stops interpolated in for 5 service on White Plains Road this weekend. Not the end of the world, but it sure won't help lateness!
It also looks like we've got some 30 second scheduled headways on Lex this weekend. Again, not the end of the world, but not great either!
Also, @NYCTSubway, I'm not sure what the backend changes that would be required to do this are, but would it be possible to look into making sure that every trip in the supplemented GTFS has a shape_id associated with it?
The LGA EIS has been torn to shreds already, but I just want to hone in on the reasons they chose for rejecting Alt 8B (N to LGA over 31 St and 19 Av) for one sec. They're....lol.
The formal reason for rejecting this alt is that it has the potential to disrupt infra during its construction. Specifically, the report writers are concerned about impacts to NEC service, and to sewer infrastruction.
The former line of reasoning has me perplexed. This is the detail they give on the potential impacts to the NEC, but folks, no new-build section of this route crosses the NEC! The NEC crosses the N just south of Ditmars; the new stretch of track would begin beyond it.