Lackawanna Coalition

advocating for rail passengers since 1979

Author: John Bobsin

  • Using SEPTA’s Senior Key Card

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    John Bobsin

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    Interstate Senior Fares? Seniors et al. can obtain a Senior Key Card valid for free riding in SEPTA within Pennsylvania. This leads to the question of just what seniors have to pay on SEPTA trains that cross the state line, to Trenton, West Trenton, and Delaware. (Side issue: once I met a Pennsylvania resident who…

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  • “Rush hour” at Bernardsville

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    John Bobsin

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    So we trekked over there to find out what was happening.  I wanted to find out whether the trains were really still terminating there (Yes), were they being parked somewhere farther west on the main line (No), or were they being sent back east to possibly delay the next train coming west (Yes). We arrived…

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  • Watches vs Transit

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    John Bobsin

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    This post started as an e-mail response to a transit e-mail list that somehow had a flurried discussion of wristwatches: German vs Russian vs American; relative quality and value, etc. We have had a lot of posts in the last few days about timepieces.  I have been struggling to figure out how the subject of…

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  • Report on Yesterday’s Adventures

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    John Bobsin

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    Mostly Fighting with Ticket Vending Machine We planned a fairly complicated agenda yesterday, around a visit to the N.Y. Botanical Garden holiday train show in the Bronx.  Read on. We needed to catch an early train, so we aimed for the 7:06 a.m. from Basking Ridge. With resurging ridership, the 30 or so free parking…

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  • Idyll in Jersey (Avenue, Main)

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    John Bobsin

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    Last Thursday Lynn and I had a leisurely lunch with an old friend at the Sakura Japanese buffet in North Brunswick.  It was a beautiful day with cloudless blue skies, and since the NJT Jersey Avenue station is only a 10 minute trip, we decided to check it out.   Jersey Avenue is, basically, an…

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  • Less Is More?

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    John Bobsin

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    A visit to the LIRR’s main concourse at NYP reveals that the LIRR’s only restrooms, and the dingy waiting room between them, have vanished behind a wall of plywood. (Not noticed: did we also lose that famous overhead structure said to be one of the last pieces of the old Penn Station?). A sign only…

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  • History of the Orange Branch

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    John Bobsin

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    According to the Erie RR operating timetable, the Orange Branch began at Forest Hill on the Erie’s Greenwood Lake Branch (on the portion where passenger service ceased once NJT completed the Montclair connection to the Newark Branch).  To elaborate a bit on the Newark Branch, AFAIK there is still freight service on the western (geographically…

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  • EWR Monorail, Station to Close May 1 for 75 Days

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    John Bobsin

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    Newark Liberty International Airport’s monorail system is showing its age, and it will shut down May 1 for a 75-day overhaul, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the transportation system, reported by Steve Strunsky in the Star-Ledger (April 9).  The monorail is the only way to get from…

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  • NJT Plans Safety Review

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    John Bobsin

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    In part reacting to the recent fatal train wreck on Metro-North Railroad, NJ Transit announced on April 8 that they would spend half a million dollars on an outside consultant to review NJT’s safety practices, according to media reports.  The railroad also plans a 17-member internal committee to monitor safety.  Investigations of Metro-North’s safety practices…

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  • PATH May Miss Safety Target

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    John Bobsin

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    Despite an ongoing weekend shutdown of World Trade Center service, PATH may miss its own safety program deadlines, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal by Ted Mann (March 21). The 45-weekend shutdown is needed, PATH said, to allow it to meet deadlines to install “positive train control” (PTC) technology by December, 2015. The…

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