(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on December 16.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit rail commuters won’t have to worry about delays this winter when the drawbridge that carries trains to Manhattan across the Hackensack River opens for passing barges.
The Coast Guard has agreed to a 90-day test program designed to curtail bridge openings during peak commuting hours.
Riders on 424 trains on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Corridor and Midtown Direct lines were forced to sit through delays when the bridge opened 141 times in 2003.
During the 90-day test, river traffic will be directed through the area before and after peak rail travel times. The Coast Guard also did the same thing back in the spring during an initial test that dramatically cut the number of rail delays between March and May.
Officials said the Coast Guard and NJ Transit may make the practice permanent depending on how things go during the next three months.
Ferry takeover floated
NJ Transit would gain the authority to operate commuter ferries, under a bill being proposed by Assembly Speaker Albio Sires (D- Hudson).
At present, the agency’s regulations do not allow it to run ferries — a fact that has complicated the state’s response to the possible bankruptcy of NY Waterway, a private company whose ferries carry 32,000 riders a day one-way between Manhattan and New Jersey.
The Legislature does not resume session until January and so Sires’ proposal, if adopted, would not take effect until long after mid- January, which is when NY Waterway has warned it might have to shut down.
The company stopped running ferries from Newport in Jersey City earlier this month and has warned it would close one of its busiest and most costly routes — the one from Hoboken Terminal to Pier 11 near Wall Street — on Dec. 31.
Light-rail suit costs rise
The legal bills on NJ Transit’s River Line construction lawsuit keep piling up.
The agency’s board of directors yesterday approved a $2.19 million increase in its contract with the law firm of Sills Cummis Epstein and Gross, boosting the total to $9.09 million.
NJ Transit hired the law firm to defend it against a lawsuit by the company that built the light rail line between Trenton and Camden. The company, Rail Group LLC, contends NJ Transit owes it $100 million on top of the original contract because of delays and extra work.
The River Line already has cost NJ Transit $1 billion, for construction and interest on the debt payments.
Pascack Valley sidings
Riders on NJ Transit’s Pascack Valley Line will finally get rail service on weekends and during off- peak periods.
NJ Transit’s board yesterday approved construction and engineering contracts to start building “sidings” — which are basically railroad passing lanes — on the Pascack Valley Line.
The Pascack Valley Line is a one-track operation, which means trains cannot operate in two directions at the same time without sidings, allowing them to pass each other.
Stops on the Pascack Valley line include Hoboken, Hackensack, Oradell, Montvale and Spring Valley, N.Y.
The $20 million project is scheduled to be done in 2007.
Anti-leaf system works
For the second straight autumn, NJ Transit’s Aqua Track rail cleaner prevailed against the scourge of wet leaves.
Rail officials spent $420,000 to buy Aqua Track in response to the nightmare of November 2002, when oil from fallen leaves made the tracks slippery and caused delays on 226 commuter trains.
Aqua Track uses two high- power pumps that spray the slick oil off the tracks, allowing trains to maintain the traction needed to ascend inclines.
Last November, the first during which Aqua Track was in use, there were 51 slippery-rail delays, officials said. This year, the number dropped even lower, to 26 delays.