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Buses Replace Pascack Valley Line Trains

Posted by
on June 3rd, 2011 at 3:25 pm

For those Metro-North Railroad customers who ride the Pascack Valley Line, please be aware that buses will replace some trains during midday hours during the week & all weekend from June 4th until June 26th. Here are the complete details:

Beginning Saturday, June 4 and continuing through Sunday, June 26, buses will replace Pascack Valley Line trains between Spring Valley and Secaucus Junction on weekdays from approximately 8:45 AM until 3:30 PM and each weekend beginning with the 12:45 AM Hoboken departure Friday night/early Saturday and continuing through the 12:45 AM Hoboken departure Sunday night/early Monday.

During this 22-day period, NJ TRANSIT personnel will upgrade several grade crossings and perform maintenance.

Buses will operate between Spring Valley and Secaucus Junction, where connecting rail service to/from New York and Hoboken will be available.

Buses will operate in local and express segments (except the 12:45 a.m. departure on weekends, which will be served by one bus making all stops).

On Saturdays and Sundays while busing is in effect, all Metro-North customers from Spring Valley, Nanuet and Pearl River may use their monthly/weekly commutation passes for travel on Metro-North’s Hudson Line between Tarrytown and Grand Central Terminal.

IMPORTANT: Certain Secaucus-bound buses may operate up to 10 minutes earlier than scheduled train departure times on Saturday and Sunday mornings. See bus schedule below for details.

Every effort will be made to maintain train connections at Secaucus, but they cannot be guaranteed.

Customers should allow an additional 30-60 minutes travel time.

Customers traveling locally between outlying stations on the Pascack Valley Line may need to travel to Secaucus and then transfer to an outbound bus to reach their destination. There will be no direct connection between the different bus segments.

To avoid delays, Pascack Valley Line customers may wish to travel via the Main/Bergen County Line.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.

For more details visit njtransit.com

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 05-31-11

Posted by
on May 31st, 2011 at 1:11 pm

I have just updated the Service Diversions by removing all of the weekend work that wrapped up earlier today. The planned work for this week & beyond in some cases has been moved to the forefront.

I suggest printing out a copy before heading to your destination. If you have an internet capable handheld device, you can use it to access the mobile version of this site. The next update will be sometime on Thursday or Friday after I received the planned weekend diversions from the MTA directly.

As always, stay safe & have a wonderful week.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

Sunnyside Rail Hub To Be Overhauled

Posted by
on May 31st, 2011 at 12:43 am

If you have ever rode Amtrak or especially the LIRR through the Sunnyside area of Queens, you would notice how many of the trains tend to crawl through at a snail’s place. This bottleneck mainly stems from older switches & functions that could use a serious upgrade. If the MTA has its way, these desires will become a reality.

The agency plans to use a federal government grant to cover $295M of the projected $368M cost for upgrading the Sunnyside rail hub. Mark Morales of the New York Daily News has more in this report:

Details are emerging about an MTA plan that recently got federal funding to ease congestion at a transit bottleneck in Sunnyside.

Work on the Harold Interlocking – a cluster of signals, switches and tracks at the Sunnyside Rail Yards used by three rail road companies – is slated to start next year.

New tracks, faster track switches, new signal towers and demolition of existing structures are all part of the project, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority plan.

The agency was awarded a chunk of the $2 billion available in federal high-speed rail grants earlier this month.

Local and federal transportation officials are banking that the upgrade will increase ridership on all three lines that use Harold Interlocking – the Long Island Rail Road, NJ Transit and Amtrak.

“This project will disentangle a choke point that serves nearly 800 trains a day, dramatically improving the reliability of train service for Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak customers,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan told the Daily News.

The Harold Interlocking has been targeted for overhaul because it has been a traditional bottleneck.

New tracks built there would allow Amtrak to bypass the already crowded junction and help the rail line shave minutes off its trips to and from Boston, officials said. The LIRR will also cut down on delays since it won’t be sharing the tracks with Amtrak.

To cover the $368 million price tag, New York State got a $295 million grant, with the MTA footing the rest of the bill.

Click here to read the complete report.

This is fantastic news as I find the ride on the LIRR between Penn Station & Jamaica to be extremely painful. It seems to be the part of the trip that always drags. I have lost count of how many times I have been on a train, especially heading back to the island & feeling like I was on it for at least 30 minutes. I then look out the window & notice we have not even reached Jamaica yet. This stretch alone makes me do anything to avoid taking the railroad when possible.

On the financial side of it, having the MTA foot very little of the overall bill is a win for an agency that is already cash strapped & currently does not have enough money to cover the final few years of its Capital Program.

In terms of a Sunnyside station, I agree with Community Board 2 Chairman Joe Conley that it would help the community economically in the long haul. I find it is one of the few neighborhoods in NYC that is a hidden gem in terms of accessibility & cost. If you throw in a LIRR station, it would only help bring it more into the spotlight. Hopefully the agency will have enough money to consider this addition to the project.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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Service Diversions 05-26-11

Posted by
on May 26th, 2011 at 3:20 pm

I have just updated the Service Diversions with the latest planned work for the upcoming weekend, next week, & beyond (in some cases).

As always, I suggest printing out a copy before heading to your destination. If you have an internet capable handheld device, use it to access Transit Blogger’s mobile site.

While out traveling, if I notice or hear any changes, I will update them on the twitter feed so don’t forget to follow @TransitBlogger today!

The next update will be at 5:01 AM Monday when all weekend work will be removed.

xoxo Transit Blogger

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0

NYC Transit Memorial Day Service Info

Posted by
on May 25th, 2011 at 3:13 pm

Lastly here is the service plan for NYC Transit buses & subways for the Memorial Day holiday weekend:

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, MTA New York City Transit buses and subways, MTA Bus, Long Island Bus and MTA Staten Island Railway will operate on a Sunday schedule. Subway customers are reminded to use the A Train, C Train, D Train or Q Train instead of the B Train and the J Train instead of the Z Train. In addition, on Sundays, some subway routes are shortened:

• J Train trains run between Jamaica Center and Chambers Street

• M Train trains run between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue-Broadway

• Q Train trains run between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue

• 5 Train trains run between Dyre Avenue and Bowling Green (days) and East 180th Street (overnights)

xoxo Transit Blogger

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