New Double Decker Trains For New Jersey Transit

[admin]

When I left New York following The Israel Day Concert, I was delighted to be able to ride on one of New Jersey Transit's new new double decker train. I didn't even know they had one. They're just like the ones in Israel except they are designed in the style of New Jersey Transit.



New Jersey and Israel have a lot in common. They are both about the same size and have Socialized public transportation (They also both have a state TV station. Israel has The Israel Broadcasting Authority Channel 1 and New Jersey has The New Jersey Network, NJN, which is similar to PBS.). Although JTF is opposed to a socialized economy, the good part is that the whole state has one train system and it is highly efficient. The same with both countries and buses although Egged in Israel is selling off some bus lines to private companies. The train system is unified throughout both states and you can buy one ticket to continue wherever on the system. Israel's tickets are all electronic and work like a metrocard works on the subway in New York except you feed it into the turnstile and then it spits it out rather than you swiping it.

Also, the new Trenton Train Station looks very similar to the new Israeli train stations. The exterior looks like Jerusalem stone.

[Nic Brookes]

Very interesting.

[דוד בן זאב אריה]

Amazing Yacov.

[takebackourtemple]

   Double decker trains are the trend for trains today. The LIRR has been using them for diesel operation for about ten years now. The MARC has been using them for a while. The Coaster in Southern California and TRI rail in southern Florida use double deckers. Septa and NJT have used single level coaches mostly because of clearance issues. The NJT double deckers barely fit through the tunnels going into Penn Station and Suburban Station is too low for them.

[takebackourtemple]

   Septa probably should upgrade their equipment, but one advantage they have is the ability to run variable length trains. It is easy for them to run trains with as little as two cars because they use MUs. The problems with newer MUs is that each car has to be classified as a separate locomotive and this creates a bureaucracy in terms of the process of deeming them railworthy by the FRA. MUs are used frequently for stop and go operations such as subways. Longer distance trains usually have a single locomotive pulling four to eight cars.

[takebackourtemple]

I believe it stands for Multiple Unit, but don't remember for sure. With MU's, each car has an engine and pulls its own. Last time I took NJT, about half of the train sets where MU and the other half were Push-Pull. I'm sure you've noticed the huge engine cars in the front and back. Sometimes with freight, you will see four engine cars and 100 load cars.

[cjd]

I believe it stands for Multiple Unit, but don't remember for sure. With MU's, each car has an engine and pulls its own. Last time I took NJT, about half of the train sets where MU and the other half were Push-Pull. I'm sure you've noticed the huge engine cars in the front and back. Sometimes with freight, you will see four engine cars and 100 load cars.

This is a great thread what with ever higher fuel prices the railroads are doing business like they haven't seen in years. Here on Long Island they still have a few lines that use the older style diesel electric trains. They seem to be able to haul quite a bit but the speed is just not as good as the all electrics. It seems that they have overcome this to some extent by having a train that generates its own electricity when its on the sections of the line where the tracks are not electrified and this has greatly improved service. I used the LIRR for the first time in years when I went to the Israel day Pariad a few weeks ago and found the service to be good but getting to the train itself was inconvenient. What is needed in the city and in the suburbs is an extensive monorail system like the one that is now in use at JFK Airport. Picture something like that going down the middle of the Long Island Expressway and think how many cars something like this would take off the road each day. If people had local places to park in the suburbs to catch the link and good connecting surface transportation in the city to get to local destinations on a timely basis something like that would be a great success. I was amazed at just how fast and efficient that airport monorail system is and what surprised me is no one runs it it controls itself.

[takebackourtemple]

Here on Long Island they still have a few lines that use the older style diesel electric trains.

Sometime around 2000 they phased out their diesel fleet.

The DE/DM30's are relatively new. The old diesels were much louder and smoke from the cab car would stain the tops of the car black. I tried to find a photo of one of these sets with the black tar on top but couldn't. People didn't like the old diesels and many had to take showers after getting off of them because they were so dirty.

The DE30's were originally intended to operate completely in electric mode when electricity was available, but the units had a problems of catching on fire so electric mode is only reserved for the tunnels. Most of the time these units don't even go through the tunnels.

The Long Island Railroad is the busiest railroad in the nation. They are so crowded, that they don't have enough room to accommodate more trains through the tunnels during rush hour.

 What is needed in the city and in the suburbs is an extensive monorail system like the one that is now in use at JFK Airport.

   This is a tough one because existing subway track already exists. While the existing system is old and not as efficient, some cities have problems where there are different modes of transportation and things aren't compatible with each other. Still, switching over to the monorail would be great if it could be constructed over the LIE since right of ways are nearly impossible to acquire. What is interesting about the JFK monorail is that it uses a linear accelerator motor and has less moving parts that can break.