Late Friday Links 12/20

Happy Friday everyone! Now that I’m on break, my schedule has greatly improved and quite a few articles are scheduled the next couple of days so make sure to check every morning.Here  are a good couple of articles for your commute home:

• Drunk Driver On Tracks At Elmont

I didn’t have time to make a post on this; but I have failed to mention this. A brooklyn man somehow managed to drive an SUV onto the railroad tracks at Elmont- UBS Arena.

• NJ Transit Rail Strike in January Possible Dates

I haven’t talked about New Jersey Transit recently, so I thought I’d mention it. There are rumors of a possible rail strike in January.

• MTA Board Approves Chargers

The MTA board has approved a deal to replace the aging DE and DM30ACs. I’m personally saddened by this, as these are my home locomotives, but it’s a very worthwhile investment as these cars are aging and becoming extremely unreliable.

• 2025 SMEE Replacement - MTA

The New York City Subway also announced they’ll begin “replacing” the R62, R62A, and R68 cars in 2025, however, I doubt that.

I hope everything will run smoothly this weekend, as it’s an important one, and I’m hoping the loads won’t be too bad. If you got on vacation today, like me, I hope you enjoy your week (s) off.

'Middleseatphobia'

There it is… the little seat that couldn’t. The dreaded middle seat. Walk down just about every single train, rush hour or not, tons of standees, or no standees, and you’ll see just about every seat but the middle seat filled.

Photo: MTA LIRR

If your most people, like me, you’ll have no problem sitting in the end seat (not that the window seat isn’t much better, but also not that it matters since you can’t see out the window!), but if asked to stand or sit in the middle seat, most people will choose to stand. If you sit in this dreaded seat, your squished in between two other people, have no armrests, and if one of the people next to you is smelly, loud, et cetera, then it could mean a hell of a ride for you.

On the LIRR & MNR, the middle seat is only on the MU equipment (M7s, M8s, M9s), as it’s a 3-2 seating arrangement,  and on the Shoreliners and C3 equipment, the bodies are narrower so they can only fit four seats per row. 

The main reason for these seats is because of ADA requirements. Because of all the ADA required things for accessible riders, which is a very good thing, but also means that they have a significant reduction in seating capacity meaning they had to include the middle seat.

An almost (or more) uncomfortable seat is the facing seats, for the reason of it being impractical to have all seats per car facing the same way as some prefer to sit one way versus the other, and therefore they have to meet somewhere in the middle of the car. However, these seats are annoying because their very cramped and the legroom is abysmal.

Photo: The LIRR Today

What makes this whole “Middle seat” situation even worse is when the LIRR calculates ridership numbers, and more importantly, standee numbers, they calculate loading percentages, assuming that every seat (including the middle seat is filled). So for the vast majority of the LIRR & MNR’s rush hour trains, the standee counts are all screwed up and because of this, the LIRR thinks it’s fine to run less then 12 cars on those trains and everyone will allegedly have a seat.

But the truth is, walk down any rush-hour train, and chances are, only a couple of middle-seats in an entire 12 car consist will actually be filled. I think to help fix this issue, the LIRR should only factor window seats and end seats into their calculations, maybe including one or two middle seats per pair. Because the number of “end seats” and “window seats” tallys up to 144 seats per M7 pair, and that number excludes the 51 middle or facing seats that people will avoid, and the 16 fold-down seats that also are avoided (though not in as high contempt as the middle seats)

As it turns out, ‘Middleseatphobia’ (or whatever you’d prefer to call it) is a real thing among LIRR & MNR commuters, and the fact that people would rather stand then sit their pretty much proves my point. In a perfect world, the LIRR & MNR would try to base their equipment rotations and loading factors better on the seats that are actually used, not just the ones that exist.

Also, before I go, happy last day of work or classes before the holidays!

LIRR & MNR Holiday Service 2024

We are now officially less then a week from Christmas Day! However, with Christmas comes the craziness, and it’s difficult to keep track of everything the LIRR & MNR will do for the Holidays, especially with the long break we’re afforded this year!

Friday, December 20, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• On Thanksgiving Eve, the LIRR will operate on a normal WEEKDAY schedule. Train #14, the winter version of "The Cannonball" will run. However, no additional extra trains will be provided.

Metro-North Railroad:

• A handful of AM/PM peak trains will be combined (i.e the 7:08 am from Tarrytown and the 7:09 from Croton-Harmon will be combined into a new train departing Croton-Harmon at 6:56am) or annulled (i.e the 7:03am super-express from Poughkeepsie).

Saturday & Sunday, December 21 & 22, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• Normal weekend service, possibly expect tad bit of crowding for people travelling.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Normal weekend service, extra shopper’s specials will operate.

Monday, December 23, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• Normal weekday service, with normal fares in affect, possibly expect tad a bit of crowding for people travelling.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Normal weekday service, with same changes as on Friday, 12/20.

Christmas Eve - Tuesday, December 24, 2024:

• Normal weekday service, with same changes as on Friday, 12/20.

Christmas Day - Wednesday, December 25, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line

Thursday & Friday, December 26-27, 2024:

• Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.

Saturday & Sunday, December 28-29, 2024:

• Normal weekend service, normal fares apply.

Monday, December 30, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Normal weekday service, same changes as Friday, 12/20.

New Year’s Eve - Tuesday, December 31, 2024:

Long Island Railroad:

• Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.

The LIRR has made timetables outlining the additional service that can be found here.
13 additional westbound extras have been added to the schedule on New Year’s Eve. On the Port Washington Branch, a new train #441, will depart Port Wash at 7:08pm, make all stops to Great Neck, Bayside, Woodside, and Grand Central at 7:49pm. The other extra Port Washington train, #343, will depart Port Washington at 8:40pm make all stops to Bayside, before Woodside and Penn Station at 9:25pm.

On the Babylon Branch, the LIRR has interestingly added an additional westbound train, #151, which will depart Babylon at 5:16 pm and will run just a measly 3 minutes before the westbound #263 to Grand Central, which makes all stops along the branch and Lynbrook before Jamaica and Penn Station, with this one making all those stops but Lynbrook. The second additional westbound, #199, departs Babylon at 6:29pm, makes all stops to Rockville Centre, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 7:38pm.

On the Montauk Branch, the LIRR has added an westbound, titled #51, which departs Speonk at 6:47pm, makes all stops to Babylon, before Jamaica, and Penn Station at 8:53pm.

On the Port Jefferson Branch, heading westbound, the LIRR has added a relatively impressive 4 additional westbound runs with the first one titled #1597 departing Huntington at 6:00pm and making all stops through New Hyde Park, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 7:01. The second additional westbound, #1697, which will depart at 7:18pm, and will make all those same stops, however will run to Grand Central and arrive there at 8:33. The third additional extra is much more interesting, as #663, will depart Port Jefferson at 8:01pm make all stops to Hicksville, Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena (most likely for the concert), Jamaica, and Penn Station arriving there at 9:58pm. The final westbound extra will depart Huntington at 8:54pm, make all stops to New Hyde Park, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 10:01pm.

Finally, on the Ronkonkoma Branch, the first westbound extra, #1995, will depart Ronkonkoma at 5:15pm, make all stops to Hicksville except Pinelawn, Mineola, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 6:36pm. The second extra, #1997, will depart Ronkonkoma just 3 minutes after #2065 to Grand Central does, crazy! This train will make all stops to Hicksville, followed by Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Penn Station at 8:24pm. The third extra, #2095, will depart Ronkonkoma at 7:41pm, make all stops to Hicksville, Mineola, Elmont-UBS Arena, Jamaica, and Grand Central at 9:09pm.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line

New Year’s Day - Wednesday, January 1, 2025:

Long Island Railroad:

5 additional eastbound trains have been added to the schedule early New Year’s Day. On the Port Washington Branch, the first new extra, #6432, will depart Grand Central Terminal at 12:39am, and make all stops to Port Washington getting there at 1:26am. The second extra, #6334, will depart Penn Station at 2:19am, and again, make all local stops to Port Washington getting there at 3:05am.
On the Babylon Branch, the first eastbound extra, #6232, will depart Grand Central at 12:46am, then it’ll make Jamaica, Rockville Centre, and all stops getting to Babylon at 2:00am. The second eastbound extra, #6136, will depart Penn Station at 1:19am, make Jamaica, Rockville, and all stops to Babylon arriving there at 2:35am.

 
On the Montauk Branch, the eastbound extra, #6030, will depart Penn Station at 1:42am, make Jamaica, Rockville Centre, and all stops to Speonk, getting there at 3:54am.

 
On the Port Jefferson Branch, first of all, #6602 (the 1:10am from Jamaica to Port Jeff) will get an added stop in Elmont-UBS Arena at 1:22. The first fully-additional eastbound extra, #7632, is scheduled to depart Grand Central at 12:59am, make Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Huntington. The second fully-additional extra, #7502, will depart Penn Station at 1:34am, make Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Huntington, arriving there at 2:27pm. The fourth fully-additional extra, #7534, will depart Penn Station at 2:04am, make Jamaica, Elmont-UBS Arena, New Hyde Park and all stops to Huntington, getting there at 3:12am. The fifth and final extra, #6692, will depart Penn Station at 2:29am, make Jamaica, New Hyde Park, and all stops to Port Jefferson, getting there at 4:29am.

 
And finally, on the Ronkonkoma Branch, the first extra, #7936, will depart Penn Station at 12:31am, make Jamaica, Mineola, Hicksville, and all eastbound stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn. The second eastbound, #8090, will depart Grand Central Terminal at 12:33am, make Jamaica, Elmont, Mineola, Hicksville, and all stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn. The third, fourth, and fifth eastbound extras, #7938, #7902, and #7940 all depart Penn Station, make Jamaica, Elmont, Mineola, Hicksville, and all stops to Ronkonkoma besides Pinelawn at 12:55am, 1:09am, and 2:00am.

Metro-North Railroad:

• Holiday schedule, off-peak fares in affect all day. Metro-North has released a Holiday schedule for all of it’s lines, Hudson Line, New Haven Line & Harlem Line

Thursday & Friday, January 2-3, 2025:

• Normal weekday service, normal fares apply.

Saturday & Sunday, January 4-5, 2025:

Normal weekend service, normal fares apply.The timetables can easily get very confusing this time of year, with remarks all over the place and so many holidays to choose from, however, I attempted to summarise it as accurately and efficiently as possible. However, I strongly urge you to check the real schedules as well, because I could’ve made some mistakes!

Friday, December 20th and Monday, December 23rd could be a bit hairy loading-wise in the early afternoon as many people will choose to go home early, however, especially for the latter, I don’t expect loads to be too bad.Luckily, Christmas is on a Wednesday this year, which brakes things up a bit. Some people will call it quits early Friday afternoon, however others, might leave early and go in for a while on Monday, some more on Tuesday, others might work later on Friday in hopes of getting out earlier on Monday, et cetera, so there will be some heavier loads earlier in the day, however, I expect not too many people will even go in on Friday because people work from home so much these days.

There is a chance of snow this Friday, which me personally I’d love to leave school for the long break with snow falling, that would be a great start to my week off.

It’s not uncommon, especially this time of year, to see some extra trains hitting the rails and picking up the people that cannot squish into the normal trains.

On New Years Eve, the LIRR will normally put up a show of extras, same for Metro-North. The LIRR will normally operate a hodgepodge of extra trains, including dual-modes from Speonk and Port Jefferson for those folks willing to freeze their rear-ends off in Times Square to watch the ball drop, or to go to other concerts that night. Last year, the WB run from Port Jefferson actually made an added stop at Elmont-UBS Arena, the first ever time for a diesel train to stop there! These extras will almost all hang out in West Side Yard during the festivities, before turning around and heading back out to Long Island. Of these trains, train #6092 is easily the most notable of these, this train, departs Penn Station, then stops at Jamaica, Rockville Centre, then makes all local stops to Speonk. That’s 23 stops! The most any LIRR train makes any year and most likely it’ll run again this year however it’s too soon to tell. I feel bad for the crew of that train as they must have absolute fatigue by the time they get to Speonk, and they don’t fiddle with the running times between the closely-packed Babylon-branch stations so the slowly-accelerating DMs have a tough-time and oftenly have been reported to run late. Now, I haven’t been up at 1am, so, I can’t speak for it, but I’ve heard that the loads on this train isn’t too bad, unlike you’d think, as people will hop on earlier trains.

I will be flying out on December 23rd to go to Michigan to visit family, and I’m hoping to work on a huge upcoming project i’ve been working on for many months now while I’m travelling. However, because of this, I won’t be looking at holiday loads as much until I return home.

In conclusion, while I think the LIRR is going a little bit crazy on New Year’s Eve, as I’ve noticed that not as many people go into the city on New Years as previous years, I definitely think that this is more like how all of their holidays should look like. In the meantime, I have quite a few amazing posts coming up in the next following days, and I also hope to get a lot of stuff typed up during my vacation.

May the rest of your year be merry, warm, and safe, no matter where you stay. All the best from Tri-State Rail NOW.

New York Rail Trivia 12/17 (Round 1)

You may have noticed that in the last week I’ve been putting out a lot of “general posts” (more general posts that can be put out at anytime and aren’t really about current events).

I’ve decided to try something different today; making a Google form with trivia questions to test your knowledge on things related to New York Rail.

The Google form consists of 7 questions, and a control-number to check your scores on Friday afternoon.

Good Luck!

I better go now as my train is reaching it’s final destination, but make sure to check back on Friday afternoon around 6pm to see how you did!

The LIRR's Darkest Day

Today, December 7, marks the 31st anniversary of one of the LIRR’s darkest days. On December 7, 1993, the 5:33pm LIRR mainline train from Penn Station bound for Hicksville was soon to be making its routine station stop at Merillon Avenue when Colin Ferguson opened fire on the train’s passengers. By the time he was stopped by the other passengers, six people were dead and nineteen were injured. When the train made it to Merillon Avenue, passengers began to spill out (many people in the adjacent cars didn’t know what was going on until Merillon Avenue). 

Luckily, an off-duty police officer who was picking up his wife apprehended Ferguson when the train reached Merillon Avenue. The incident occurred on M3 pair #9891 and #9892, and after the incident these cars were held out of service for years, before re-entering service and these cars are still roaming the rails these days, despite the M3s thinning out.

Traditionally, wreaths are placed at Merillon Av
around this time of year in memory of those who 
died.

As of recently, all of the train's crew is still alive, but all but the engineer have retired.

Legend has it that Ferguson, after boarding the train at Jamaica, waited until the train crossed over the border into Nassau County out of respect for then-outgoing Mayor David Dinkins and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. During his trial, Ferguson insisted on defending himself and he cross-examined the very victims he injured himself. Luckily however, at the end of the trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 315 years and 8 months to life in prison, and he's not eligible for parol until August 6, 2309, so most likely he'll never see the light of day again.

If you'd like to learn more about this terrible tragedy, the wikipedia article is an excellent source of information.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of this event, a documentary has also been made telling the story of the victims and families. If you'd like to see it, they have released it recently opposed to a DVD, so you can see it here

In conclusion, I think it's important to remember this event due to it's significance and for those Long Islanders, it's the worst crime on Long Island. Rest in peace to all that died on that terrible day.

Railroad or Rail Road?

So here's a question that I've always traditionally been tripped up on, what is the official spelling of "railroad" for LIRR and MNR? It's similar to the Berenstain Bears affect where it's sometimes known as "railroad" while other times it's "rail road".

What makes this even more interesting is the MTA normally refers to the LIRR as The Long Island Railroad, but rather refers to Metro-North as Metro-North Railroad, making this whole situation even more out of the ordinary. 

While both terms are socially acceptable, in this case, it's technically correct to say Rail Road for LIRR and Railroad for MNR.

And more facts on the name, It's worth remembering that the Long Island Railroad (oops Rail Road) is the single longest-running Class 1 rail operation that is still operating in it's original name in the United States. So, it could be considered the longest running railroad, which is pretty cool considering it's also the busiest! 

So, if one day, you feel like leaving out the space of the LIRR's name, just remember that "rail" and "road" is two separate words when it comes to the LIRR!

11th Anniversary of 12/1 Spuyten Duyvil Derailment

If you live in New York or even the United States, you probably remember the unfortunate incident that many people woke up to 11 years ago. On Sunday, December 1, 2013, Metro-North Hudson Line #8808, the 5:55am from Poughkeepsie that violently derailed just north of Spuyten Duyvil station. This train was a through-train that made all stops to Ossining, then Tarrytown, Harlem-125, and Grand Central Terminal.

              

Crazily, all seven cars and the locomotive of that maxi-bomb set derailed and some even came dangerously close to the water!

In the end, four passengers were killed and 60 were injured, making this the worst MNR incident in history.

From the beginning, the press hounded the scene. As usual, they weren't accurate one bit to the point where they said that there were cars in the water, but there's no shortage of breathtaking photos of the equipment sprawled across the right-of-way.

It's story time and let's start at the beginning. It all started at 5:55am when train 8808 left Poughkeepsie and made the traditional (i.e not Breakneck Ridge nor Manitou) for Croton-Harmon, then stopped at Ossining, and Tarrytown. After Tarrytown, the next scheduled stop was Harlem-125th St, except it never got there. The train was traveling south on The Hudson Line, on track 2, and as it approached the curve just north of Spuyten Duyvil, it toppled off the tracks and began barreling toward the Harlem River.

It's important to note that the curve has been there since the days of New York Central, and the tracks run along the river in most cases, so there are quite a few decent curves in fact some are much worse.

The speed limit in this section of track, CP 10, is 30 mph, but reports from the trains event recorders report the train was going 82 mph when it flicked off the tracks.

According to the NTSB, the throttle was set to idle six seconds before the locomotive derailed, and the train dumped (i.e "dumped the air" or began emergency braking) five seconds before the locomotive derailed.

So, I think it's relatively obvious what's involved with the physics. The train was going way above the speed limit, therefore, it derailed, like physics dictates.

So, why was the train going 82 mph? Well, we got to talk about the engineer, William Rockefeller, a 15-year old Metro-North veteran. So, he had recently begun doing morning shifts after doing afternoon shifts, a change he later told investigators he had made reluctantly. This required him to leave his home in Germantown, approx. 27 miles north of Poughkeepsie, at 3:30am for work! To make sure that he had adequate rest for his shift the following day, he had gone to bed at 8:30pm the following night. On the day of the crash, he had arrived at work on time, after which he bought a cup of coffee and a hard roll, he then filled out the paperwork and attended a standard safety briefing. The main conductor, Michael Hermann, who in his limited time working with Rockefeller praised his "very smooth" handling of the equipment. 

Now, like I had said earlier, everything went fine until about 1.5 miles north of Riverdale station, when Rockefeller should have begun to slow down for the curve, but he later said this: 

"I don't know how to explain it... it was sort of like I was dazed, you know, looking straight ahead, almost like mesmerized. And I don't know if anybody's ever experienced like driving a long period of time in a car and staring at the headlights in front of them, and you get almost like a hypnotic feeling of staring straight ahead ... I was just staring straight head" 

Rockefeller, largely unhurt, got out and began aiding passengers. Linda Smith, who had boarded in Beacon with her sister to go see a choral performance in Lincoln Center, was one of those 61 injured souls, as in the incident she had become trapped under seat cushions and unable to move.

The New York City Fire Department sent over 125 firefighters to the scene to assist in rescue

but EMS workers were delayed as they waited for the third rail to be de-energized. As a result of the incident, all service on The Hudson Line was suspended, but Amtrak trains picked up service by 3pm. All the cars were righted back onto the rail and were towed to Highbridge and Croton-Harmon yards for further inspection by the NTSB.

On Wednesday, December 4, limited service was restored on The Hudson Line, using combined trains in order to make this possible.

Here are some photos from the wreck from a variety of sources:

I think these photos really shed light on this disaster, and while I don't have the time to analyze it any further, you can definitely read up on it on Wikipedia.