Re: (erielack) Erie Main / Graham Line

["Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin_@_yahoo.com>]

- --- A Samostie <quahog_@_sprint.ca> wrote: 
> Jog my memory here... what was the reason for abandoning the Erie Main
> through Monroe, Greycourt and Goshen?  Was the change initiated by CR,
> or by NJT/MTA?

New York state didn't want to pay for maintaining two routes.  More
parking was needed at the stations and there was no place to put it at
existing Main Line stations.  There were about a dozen grade crossings in
Middletown that tied up traffic whenever a train ran.

> Was Chester also a station stop?

Yes.

> Were there other intermediate stops?

Monroe and Goshen

> Was the Middletown station relocated as a result?

Yes - about 4 miles northeast.

> The Graham Line seems much longer and more sparsely populated.

It's about 8 miles more, but a much faster line - 70mph versus 55 with
speed restrictions on the old main.  Also NO grade crossings.

> Were Monroe and Goshen (fair-sized towns) just considered "acceptable 
> losses" by NJT / MTA, or did the commuter agencies oppose the change? 

It was done largely at New York's desire to only maintain one route.  The
grades on the old Main could not handle the freights (that's why the
Graham line was built), so Conrail (and the NYSW, on trackage rights)
could not be forced to run that way.  MTA say ridership growth by serving
new territory to the north, and I think they got it.

> Have passenger boardings at the new Graham Line stations risen or fallen
> as compared with the old Main Line stops?

There are large parking lots at Salisbury Mills, a 'new' station just
north of the Moodna Viaduct, and Campbell Hall, as well as the new
Middletown station which is near the junction of I-84 and NY 17.  There
are lots of cars on weekdays; ridership from Port Jervis and Otisville is
quite light.  I would say any ONE of them has more business than might
have been lost at Monroe, Chester and Goshen combined.  New York has
increased service by several trains daily as well as adding weekend
service about 10 years ago.  The biggest load, though, probably boards at
HARRIMAN, where the parking lot has something like a thousand spaces and
fills on weekdays.  These are people coming off NY 17 before reaching the
Thruway.



=====
Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey

http://www.geocities.com/gkazin/index.html

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