(The following story by Larry Higgs of Gannett New Jersey appeared on the Asbury Park Press website on November 20.)
NEWARK, N.J. — Electric locomotives almost two decades old have been the backbone of electric rail lines such as the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast and the Morris and Essex lines and have run up 1 million to 1.5 million miles. Now NJ Transit officials have decided it’s time to rebuild them.
The board of trustees yesterday hired Interfleet Technology of Philadelphia for $2 million to inspect them and recommend technical upgrades.
The overhaul is estimated at $48 million.
NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles said it is cheaper to keep the locomotives than to buy new ones.
“It’s a judgment call,” Sarles said after the meeting. “We know the condition of the locomotives, and it makes more sense to rebuild them.”
During the summer, NJ Transit opted out of rebuilding a fleet of 17-year-old Comet III rail cars and elected to spend $67 million to acquire 45 more multilevel rail cars. Officials said replacing 49 older cars, which would have cost $1 million each to rebuild, was a more cost-effective solution.
The locomotive rebuilding is one to 1 1/2 years away, Sarles said.
Rail advocates at the meeting had a suggestion for the agency: Give the locomotives more power to get trains up to speed more quickly.
“If it is technically feasible, improve the pickup,” said David Peter Alan, chairman of the Lackawanna Commuter Coalition. “More pickup means less dwell time in stations. Trains would reach speed more quickly and ease congestion.”
Board member Kenneth E. Pringle, who is also the mayor of Belmar, agreed that upgrading the locomotives is “a true concern.”
The board also heard concerns from James T. Reilly of Middletown about the ongoing ridership projection studies for the proposed Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex rail line.
“This study fails to answer the question of how much traffic (the MOM line) will get off Route 9,” Reilly said. “You don’t need further study to reach a decision.”
NJ Transit has been working with representatives of the three counties to determine how much additional ridership would be generated if MOM trains use the proposed second Hudson River tunnel to New York instead of terminating in Newark.
“We’ve been working with the counties to re-evaluate (rider) demand,” Sarles said.
That information should be released to counties in the next “few weeks,” Sarles said.
The findings would affect factors such as design of the proposed rail line, parking requirements, station size and equipment needed for trains, Sarles said.
That information would be used in the larger study to write the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the MOM line, he said.
Still to be decided is which of three proposed MOM routes will be selected by NJ Transit: a route that begins in the Lakewood area and runs north to connect to either the North Jersey Coast line in Red Bank or Matawan, or to the Northeast Corridor line in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick. A route will not be selected until after the DEIS is done.