Tag: Northeast Corridor


  • Two Unrelated Events at Penn Station on the Same Day

    Two unrelated events occurred almost simultaneously at New York’s Penn Station on Wednesday, August 27, although both were rail-related. One was the inaugural of the new Next Gen Acela equipment that Amtrak is now running between Boston and Washington, D.C., and the other was a news conference that featured Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Andy…

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  • Idyll in Jersey (Avenue, Main)

    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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  • On the Rails with the Coalition

    On Friday, May 20, folks from the Lackawanna Coalition teamed up with some folks from the Senior Citizens and Disabled Residents Transportation Advisory Committee (SCDRTAC) on an inspection trip on the Morris & Essex and Montclair-Boonton lines. We left from Newark Broad Street on the 2:16 P.M. Montclair-Boonton train and stopped in Dover for dinner…

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  • AmeriStar Rail: More Service on the NEC, Rail Plans for LaGuardia

    As we learned at our November, meeting, there could be a lot more trains on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC) with AmeriStar Rail’s operating plan (www.ameristarrail.com/impact). Chief Operating Officer Scott R. Spencer presented that plan to us, saying that the NEC is currently underutilized. The restructured plan for intercity trains would not affect NJ Transit (including…

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  • January Meeting Postponed

    The weather reports have gotten worse throughout the day, so the meeting originally scheduled for tomorrow evening has been postponed. The new meeting date will be Thursday, February 5th.  We plan to meet at the regular time and place, 7:00 at Millburn Town Hall.  If the conference room where we normally meet is not available, we will inform…

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  • Amtrak Reaches for Highest Speed

    All the talk is of high-speed trains, but NJ Transit commuters wonder whether they will ever benefit, as commuter trains with their many stops, long loading times, and terminal congestion delays seem to be bogged down in a 19th-Century era, often managing less than 30 miles per hour average end-to-end.  Still, it’s possible to run…

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  • Amtrak Sets Records on NEC

    A decade or so ago, airlines were the dominant players in the Northeast Corridor transportation market.  However, today air travel suffers from high fares, frequent delays, and time-consuming airport security checks; meanwhile, Amtrak offers its Acela premium service, on-line ticketing, and, importantly, workstation access; the result has been to tip the market share in favor…

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  • Aging Infrastructure Blamed for NJT Delays

    Aging infrastructure, and the lack of cash to fix it, particularly on the Northeast Corridor, are cited as a main cause of service delays on NJ Transit, according to reporting by Karen Rouse and Dave Sheingold of The Record (reported in the Star-Ledger,  August 8).  An NEC commuter is quoted as saying that conductors frequently…

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  • NJT Relaxes Some Weekend Bicycle Restrictions, but It’s Little Help on Our Lines

    New Jersey Transit announced on Monday, August 6th, that it would relax some of the weekend restrictions against the use of bicycles on trains, beginning on Saturday, August 11th.  The restrictions that went into effect in July prohibited bicycles on all inbound trains that would arrive at their terminals in Newark, Hoboken, or New York…

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  • Funding Increase Coming for Northeast Corridor; Benefits Our Trains, Too

    The New Jersey Legislature has authorized funding for Northeast Corridor (NEC) improvements of $35.7 million for fiscal year 2013—an 81% increase over the $19.7 million originally proposed by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.  The NEC line is important for rail riders in our area, because Midtown Direct trains on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton, and Gladstone trains use…

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