[Date Prev][Date Next]
[Chronological]
[Thread]
[Top]
Re: (erielack) Scanton Pax Service
Let me add my two-cents worth. The Scranton service proposals
plan to operate from Hoboken for a number of reasons. Some have
already been addressed.
1) Penn Station capacity: The crunch is rush hour, of course.
However, the ridership surveys done so far show that most of the
people who would ride are trying to get to places in Morris County
NJ like Morristown and Morris Township. The trains will take the
Morristown line to reach these areas, and most of the people using
them from PA will get off. The schedules will probably show these
trains as being allowed to operate ahead of the schedule eastbound
and people will be allowed to ride them in current NJT territory,
but their primary purpose will be to get people down from the
Poconos and western NJ. Given that, they don't have to go to NYC
on weekdays and add to the crunch. Schedules can be set to offer
a convenient across-the-platform transfer at Dover, or a less
convenient transfer at Newark possibly to an earlier train from,
for instance, the Montclair Branch (once the Montclair connection
is operating).
2) Locomotives: The Genesis 2 engines can't handle the trains
in the North River tunnels due to the grades, over 2% in both
directions. Remember, they are 3000-something horsepower in diesel
mode, but considerably less in electric mode. It's equivalent to
having a built-in electric switch engine. You'
d probably need two engines to get 6 cars through the tunnel at
speed. Then again, you might need two to get 6 cars up and down
the grades in the Poconos, which were helper districts in DLW days
and the passenger trains used multiple diesels back then. There is
talk of a Genesis 3 design, which would draw electric power from
the catenary, but it would be several years away at least. It
could end up just being an AC version of the Genesis 2, with low
power in electric mode; that doesn't gain anything. It would be
much more cost effective probably to CHANGE ENGINES at Dover, using
a pair of GP40PH-2's in diesel territory and an ALP 44 under the
wires.
3) Weekend service: Here's the demand (hopefully) for service
at Penn Station. Frequent (every two hours or so) in both directions
throughout the day, express (New York, Newark, Summit, Dover, then
all points beyond) with cafe cars. It could be offered when the
service starts just by changing engines at Dover...
- --
cleveland.Freenet is a mail-drop.
Gary Kazin, Rockaway, NJ
------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the erielack photopage at http://el-list.railfan.net
------------------------------