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| Jersey Central Terminal...Aldene Plan a 1967 failure https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28396 |
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| Author: | Higherspeedrailnow [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Jersey Central Terminal...Aldene Plan a 1967 failure |
Liberty State Park.....Jersey Central Terminal I just returned from a Amtrak trip to New England the Northeast. One of my stops was at the JCL-RDG-B&O terminal in Jersey City. This was my first time back since the night of 1967 when I was on the last car of the last train out. A couple of things, I noticed. There is a milepost zero where it should read one??? Liberty Street ferry terminal should be milepost zero. Right? It also was not a reproduced CNJ post since they were iron and of a different design. And two sided. The other distance was from Phildelphia.This also was Baltimore and Ohio's eastern rail terminal. I did not see anything on the B&O here.????? (I see alittle reinventing history here. Like the DL&W car painted JCL.) Since now we all should know the Aldene plan is a failure.It's time to put a rail connection back in the terminal.(they can still build the seven billion dollar??? trans Hudson Rail Tunnel with no conveinent connections to other rail services) I suggest a light rail stub running down the JCL right of way to the light rail line. A light rail stub would tie this waterfront terminal with Hoboken and Path (H&M). There also seems to be money for light rail. This with the high speed ferry routes would be a excellent alternative to Penn Station and a dead end station only under 34th street. Is it seven stories under the street? Let's undo the failure of Aldene. Putting light rail into the terminal would also save the Bush train shed, which is in need of repairs. |
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| Author: | steamtown observer [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 5:50 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Jersey Central Terminal...Aldene Plan a 1967 failure |
My calendar must be off. It says yesterday was November 1st but it must be April 1st instead. |
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| Author: | robertjohndavis [ Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Jersey Central Terminal...Aldene Plan a 1967 failure |
Take this to any of the CNJ boards and you will find many who agree. I used to. Not any more. The Aldene Plan did what it needed to do. And I can only imagine what the cost would have been to maintain the Newark Bay draw for commuter rail! Rob |
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| Author: | ctjacks [ Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Jersey Central Terminal...Aldene Plan a 1967 failure |
Having grown up along the CNJ in Westfield in the 1970s, here are my thoughts: Keep in mind that the Aldene Plan involved more than just closing the Jersey City terminal. The CNJ also had its rolling museum of ferry boats to maintain, and had the Newark Bay drawbridge, and had all the stations in between, such as Elizabethport. Had the CNJ been required to keep all this operating it is likely commuter rail service would have ended altogether not long after 1967, which is what I think many people thought was the likely outcome in any event. I think most people at the time thought the ability to do an all-rail trip to Manhattan was a big improvement over having to take ferries, and I think they still do today. Where the Aldene Plan never did, and still doesn't, live up to expectations is in two areas: for one, the lack of a single-seat ride into Manhattan, and for two, the slow overall trip into Manhattan. For many years, not only did people have to change trains in Newark, but they had to walk downstairs and back upstairs to make the train change. While that has gotten better over the years, still, the overall trip time from Westfield or Cranford into Manhattan is over an hour. From nearby Elizabeth it is more like 25 or 30 minutes. Again, that has gotten better recently when a faster connection near NK tower was opened, but it still faster to drive to Elizabeth from Cranford or Westfield and take the train from there. What the Aldene Plan should have done, and still can, and this has been debated for years, is to move the connection to Elizabeth directly on the NEC and to electrify the Raritan Valley line. There was, and still is, plenty of real estate in Elizabeth to do so. And doing so today would remove passenger trains from the clogged Conrail line between Aldene and NK. Back in 1967 this would have required electrifying all the way to Phillipsburg, but today the line only runs to High Bridge. NJT has electrified lesser ex-EL lines in recent memory. Chris. |
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