Responding to riders' complaints, NJ Transit has scheduled classes on customer relations for their train crews. NJT already has a similar program for employees in its bus division, according to reporting by Larry Higgs of NJ Advance Media and published in the Star-Ledger (Dec. 3). Lackawanna Coalition chair David Peter Alan was quoted in the article; Alan said that he saw operational problems as more important, but that  "I don't see how it hurts to have a refresher in customer service skills once and a while. Sometimes front line employees need a refresher. I'd give the crews high marks. I'd like to see the operational problems straightened out." NJT had a similar focus on employee training back in 2003 under then-executive director George Warrington, who called the campaign "back to basics."

See the complete article here.

There's no new trans-Hudson rail tunnel a-building.  Riders to Penn Station cope with a basement labyrinth. Portal Bridge is falling down.  But, by golly, the 46,000 daily riders on PATH who use the World Trade Center terminal will have a world-class station -- someday, even if it costs four billion dollars.  David Dunlap, reporting in the New York Times (December 3), details how this flashy but extremely expensive addition to New York's transportation scene came about. Meanwhile, 13 years after 9/11, PATH riders still cope with an inconvenient temporary station. The now-predicted $4 billion price is twice what was considered when the futuristic design was adopted ten years ago; Port Authority executive director Patrick Foyle says that the agency never would have gone forward with the design had they known how much the project would balloon. But a $4.55 billion Federal "pot" for lower Manhattan transportation improvements proved irresistible.  In contrast to the WTC improvements, PATH riders to the 33 St. uptown terminal number only ten thousand less than at WTC, and nobody's planning a new station for them; they just end up in the basement subway complex there. It's not even clear that PATH commuters will make much use of the new above-ground complex: it's turning out to be a high-priced shopping mall. The Santiago Calatrava-designed station was due to open in 2009; the famous architect, however, is exacting in his methods, and demanded expensive features such as column-free interiors and hard-to-source curvilinear steel pieces; luckily, an early design that envisioned a roof that could open was scrapped. The station could've been built more quickly if the No. 1 subway line, running underneath, could've been temporarily shut down, but that would've angered Staten Islanders who use it to access the ferry to their home. Constantly changing leadership, adjacent WTC projects that interfered with the new station's construction, and additional expenses to speed up the lagging project all took their toll. And attempts to limit the cost have seriously compromised the effect of Calatrava's design. Barring further setbacks, the station is expected to open in 2015.  PATH commuters may not appreciate the shopping mall, but at least they won't have to endure a lengthy detour to get to their jobs.

See the complete story here.

More one-seat rides into Manhattan from NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line moved one step closer to reality on November  25 when the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority agreed to transfer $910,000 in Federal congestion management and clean air funds to NJ Transit, according to reporting by Larry Higgs in the Star-Ledger (Nov. 26). The transfer of funds must still be approved by the Federal Transit Administration. If approved, NJ Transit would have the funding to provide additional through trains from the RVL to Penn Station on weekday evenings, a service improvement promised by NJT for November, 2014; NJT then withdrew the plan, saying funds were unavailable.  One-seat rides have been a major goal of the Raritan Valley Line Coalition for more than 15 years.  Without the service, riders are forced to endure a transfer at Newark Penn Station, involving climbing stairs; often, the connecting trains into New York are crowded and seats are hard to find. In recent years, NJT has taken delivery of dual-mode locomotives which can operate both on non-electrified lines such as the RVL, and also into Penn Station, where diesels are prohibited; these units make the one-seat ride technically feasible, once funding and scheduling obstacles are surmounted.

NJ Governor Christie may have killed the Access to the Region's Core (ARC) trans-Hudson rail project years ago to save the state's taxpayers from unexpected future bills, but ARC costs are not totally dead. A part of the ARC project was NJ Transit's acquisition of 1.89 acres of land between Hoboken and Weehawken, for use in tunnel construction. The land owners, Mary and Carol Franco, have disputed the value of the land, originally set at $1.35 million when NJT condemned the land in 2010. The land is currently used for industrial purposes, but the owners maintain that it is much more valuable for residential construction, with its views of the Manhattan skyline, according to reporting by Larry Higgs in the Star-Ledger (November 13). Months after NJT took title to the land, a Hudson County jury set a value of $8.15 million on the property, and the legal battles began and still continue.  NJT's board this week approved an additional $150,000 in legal costs, on top of $310,000 already allocated, to continue the battle.  Whatever price NJT eventually pays, the land may still be useful to NJT, according to NJT Executive Director Veronique Hakim, who said that NJT hadn't determined a final use.  But Lackawanna Coalition Legislative Director Joseph Clift, quoted in the article, said that the property might be used in future Hudson River tunnel projects, as an access point for tunnel-boring machines and as a ventilation site once any future tunnel is complete.

Read the complete story at:

NJ Transit OKs funds for land fight

Recently, Amtrak announced that its two Trans-Hudson (and two of  four trans-East-River) tunnels are in bad shape and will need to be shut down for a year each for permanent repairs. This has led to a slew of scare headlines warning of a commuter nightmare, and often referring to NJ Gov. Christie's cancellation in 2010 of the "ARC" tunnel project, which would have built two new trans-Hudson tunnels for NJ Transit.  Paul Mulshine, writing in his opinion column in the Star-Ledger (Oct. 7) and online, explodes the myth of the impact of ARC's demise: "Even if (ARC) had gone ahead, Amtrak would still need new tunnels to get its trains across the river," Mulshine writes, noting that ARC would not have gone to Penn Station at all but to a new NJ Transit-only station, which Sierra Club's Jeff Tittle dubbed "Tunnel to Macy's basement," a reference to its proposed location under 34 Street, a block from Penn Station.

So, says Mulshine, ARC was not a solution to the aging tunnels at all.  Current reports, he notes, tend to blame Gov. Christie for the ARC cancellation and today's maintenance headaches; but Mulshine says it's more appropriate to blame Christie predecessor Jon Corzine, who went ahead with an inadequate design in haste; " . . . so Corzine would look good for re-election," according to Tittle, quoted by Mulshine. Better yet, says Mulshine, blame former New York Gov. George Pataki, who, according to Martin Robbins, architect of the original ARC plans, got into a "turf fight" with then NJ Gov. Christie Whitman, and Pataki led New York to put the kibosh on access to Grand Central Terminal, a key part of the original ARC design.

What to do now? Mulshine says Amtrak's grand "Gateway" plan would cost money that Amtrak doesn't have, but says there's a better idea: the single-tunnel approach championed by Lackawanna Coalition Technical Director Joe Clift. Clift estimates the single-track approach would only cost about $1.5 billion; Mulshine notes that that's the same amount that the Port Authority plans on spending on extending PATH service to Newark Liberty International Airport, already served by NJ Transit (and Amtrak).

Mulshine says to go ahead with Clift's single-tunnel plan; "Problem solved - assuming the New Yorkers finally let us have access to their precious island."

Read the complete story at:

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/10/whats_arc_got_to_do_with_it_chris_christies_critics_are_wrong_on_rail_tunnels_mulshine.html

The Lackawanna Coalition opposed the final ARC plan for the same reasons Mulshine describes: no access to Penn Station (or to Grand Central either). The Coaltioni believes that the single-tunnel approach described by Joe Clift is a practical way to move forward quickly, relieving congestion and at the same time providing backup in case of a commuting catastrophe should an existing tunnel need to be taken out of service.

An Amtrak engineering report on damage to Amtrak's six tunnels which lead to Manhattan from New Jersey and Long Island recommends that four of the six tunnels, including the two that lead to New Jersey and are used mostly by NJ Transit, be taken out of service for an extended period to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy flooding. The report was obtained by WNYC and reported by Kate Kinds on the air and on WNYC's Transportation Nation website. The tunnels themselves are structurally sound, the report says, but damage to the track bed and electrical systems require taking each tunnel out of service for up to a year. Amtrak reportedly accepted the report's recommendations but said it would not take either of the Hudson tunnels out of service until a new tunnel is built, which would take ten years even if funding can be found for it. Without the new tunnel, taking one trans-Hudson tube out of service would force reductions in weekday service of up to 75%, crippling commuter traffic.  Weekend service is already limited by ongoing plans which allow one trans-Hudson tunnel to be taken out of service each weekend.

NJ Transit issued a press release saying that it is too early to predict the impact on NJT customers, and pledging to work cooperatively with Amtrak. WNYC noted that the issue is likely to "rip the scab" off of NJ Gov. Christie's 2010 cancellation of the "ARC" trans-Hudson tunnel project, which could have been completed as early as 2018.

Read the complete story and listen to the radio report at:

http://www.wnyc.org/story/amtrak-tunnels/

The story was also reported by Patrick McGeehan in the New York Times (Oct. 2):

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/nyregion/repairs-to-new-york-tunnels-will-limit-rail-service.html

A long-contemplated extension of the PATH system to Newark International Airport is now envisioned for completion in 2013; construction will start in 2018, according to Port Authority documents reported by Steve Strunsky for NJ Advance Media (and published in the Star-Ledger and other papers, October 1). The authority has issued a request-for-proposals to manage the project, and expects to award the management contract by the end of 2014. The extension is expected to cost $1.5 billion, but cautioned that the project schedule is not firm.  Although the decades-old expansion of Newark Airport originally provided space for a rapid-transit line serving the airport's terminals, the proposed PATH extension would not reach the terminals; rather, it would apparently end adjacent to the New Jersey Transit airport station, also used by Amtrak, and customers would complete their journey to the terminals using the existing Airlink monorail system.  Still, the extension would provide travel options not currently available, and presumably would provide more regular service than the current rail service, which depends on stops made by trains serving the regular lines of the two railroads.

Read the complete story at:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/construction_of_path-newark_airport_extension_to_start_in_2018.html 

How often should suburban trains run to prove attractive to riders?  Many services in New Jersey run hourly off-peak, and service is even less frequent on some lines. Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut reminded constituents on September 24 of the state's promise in 2012 to operate trains on the New Haven commuter line at least half-hourly, and said the state is moving forward to fulfill the promise, according to reporting by Alison Leigh Cowan in the New York Times (Sept. 25). The commuter service is operated by Metro-North Railroad under contract for Connecticut; Metro-North will add three inbound and four outbound trains to the timetable, effective November 9; reporting was not clear, but it appears that the seven new trains will be midday on weekdays; weekend service was also to be improved, including more trains for the Waterbury branch, which has relatively infrequent service. Said James Cameron, founder of Commuter Action Group, "They're moving to subway-like intervals that everyone has kind of dreamed of.  You won't need a timetable. You'll just go to the train station and there'll be a train along."  Meanwhile, commuters complain about choking congestion on Interstate 95, which parallels the rail line, and train slowdowns caused by lowered speed limits after several Metro-North accidents, including the fatal crash at Spuyten Duyvil on the Hudson line in December, 2013.

Read the complete story at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/nyregion/malloy-says-rail-service-in-connecticut-will-expand.html

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has released a $32-billion, 227-page capital program, but how it might be funded remains unclear, according to reporting by Emma Ftizsimmons in the New York Times (September 25). $22 billion of the plan is to buy new subway cars and buses and make other NYC Transit improvements; $4.3 billion for new technology such as countdown clocks and advanced fare collection systems; and $5.5 billion for the next phase of the Second Avenue Subway construction project and for the Long Island Rail Road's East Side Access plan, which will bring LIRR trains into Grand Central Terminal. Notably, the MTA included in its capital plans for the first time a scheme to allow some MTA New Haven Line trains to travel over the Hell Gate Bridge and terminate at Penn Station in Manhattan: a kind of "west side access" where none has existed. The plan would involve constructing four new rail stations in the Bronx for the new Penn Station service, deemed feasible once some LIRR trains are rerouted to Grand Central, freeing up platform and track space at Penn Station.

See the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/nyregion/in-mta-capital-budget-a-reappearing-cash-gap.html