According AMNY Newsletter, Amtrak is evaluating a plan to extend three trains a day to Ronkonkoma, Long Island. They would be through trains from and to Washington, thereby offering a one seat ride for passengers going to or from Long Island. In addition to Ronkonkoma, trains will stop in Hicksville and Jamacia. The service probably would be Northeast Regional trains.
Through running AT LAST! This, not building neighborhood-wrecking stub tracks to the south, is the better approach to greater capacity.
Especially useful in summer.
While Sam Turvey can be a bit heavy-handed about the subject, the discussions at ReThinkPennStationNYC include a careful rationale for the different potential routes for through-running.
For those like Euclid who want to make a splash designing bold new solutions for things like emergency braking: the single great enabler for practical through-running is a third-rail shoe arrangement that reliably works with both overrunning and underrunning contact across gaps.
6 trips probably would need only a few engines modified. If so the service could start soon.
Are those new scheduled trains, or will Boston be losing 3 round trips?
Amtrak has 21 NEC regional trains on most days from Washington to NYC. Seven of them go on to New England stations, which indicates that Amtrak could just extend the run of three others for the Long Island stations.
It’s a little more complicated than that: the extension to Long Island will require either third-rail or diesel-catenary dual-mode power, neither of which Amtrak owns. To my knowledge all the regionals now operate with ACS64s.
An engine change (probably to a Genesis P32DM) defeats much of the purpose of through-running as a demonstration. New Jersey Transit has ALP45DPs that could handle the service, but Amtrak would have to lease them and provide any additional equipment to allow operation; one of the historical issues with through-running has been the split between NJT and MTA/MNCR (the precedent of the service over ex-EL to Port Jervis might be extendable).
I suspect Amtrak is aware of the locomotive issues and will find a suitable solution. At this point, however, they are studying the idea. It is not a done deal. At the end of the day the idea may not be workable. But it is refreshing to see Amtrak doing a little out of the box thinking. It is not something government agencies are noted for.
Under the present set of circumstances, Amtrak best not rely on any additional funding for this smart project.
I grew up in Amityville, Long Island and I sure recall seeing Tuscan red Pennsylvania coaches passing through town now and then so they must have had through coaches 60-65 years ago.
This is from memory. The Long Island Railroad was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1900 to 1966, I believe. During the summer months the Long Island Railroad’s Cannonball, which was a posh train that ran from NYC to the Hamptons, had parlor cars. I believe they were heavy weight cars from the PRR.
I lived in New York City from 1964 to 1972. I rode the Cannonball once, but I did not have the money to ride in a parlor car. That was way above my pay grade.
You understandably missed a real treat.
Trains with parlor cars, trains with bar cars, trains pulled by GG-1’s: there was something special about East Coast trains in those days that we Ohioans could only envy.
As I recall, in 1972, between New Haven & NYC, the PC commuter fare was $3.35, the Amtrak coach fare was $5.65 and the parlor car about $8.80 (IIRC).
I’m glad I was a wastrel a few times and splurged; a lifetime’s worth of a happy memory. There’s a lesson in that.
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Trains had an article about the Cannon Ball in the early '60s (I remember the ‘gurgling, rocking RS3s’) which would likely have useful information…
“a one seat ride”
On Amfleet?
Pulled by LIRR locomotives out of NY Penn? Third-rail power to Sunnyside, then diesel? They can supply HEP to Amfleet?
If not that, then how? Amtrak’s GE’s were designed to run on either kind of third rail? But they too would switch to diesel east of Sunnyside?
The Cannon Ball was pulled out of NY Penn by DD1s until 1950 or 1951. After that it was out of Hunterspoint Avenue.
The ‘easiest’ approach to run ‘tests’ would be with something like an ALP45DP, under catenary out to Sunnyside, then over on the track running SE to meet the LIRR where it crosses around Fresh Pond Junction. This was the route the PRR passenger trains to the German steamer piers north of Bay Ridge followed. Diesel where not under the wire, whether or not there is third rail
To my knowledge the dual-modes don’t drop or interrupt HEP when changing modes, although it would be easy to assess by taking the Manhattan Direct train on the Raritan line.
In theory – very dumb theory – you could use a Genesis or perhaps a DM30* to handle the LIRR part and extend the existing third rail in the North River Tunnels far enough to start the engine, then run to Newark or Philadelphia or some logical turn or transfer point… it could even be Secaucus Junction/Lautenmund if layover capacity can be arranged. The principal point is as much to treat NYP as a short-stop way station to avoid expen$ive and fruitless stub tracks as it is to tap new potential one-seat riders.
*If they had had a train from Princeton Junction to East Hampton when I was staying at a house on Lily Pond Lane, I’d have ridden it regularly…
If this actually becomes reality, it would occur in 2030 at the earliest. Would not happen until the Airo sets are built, delivered, tested and accepted by Amtrak. So don’t worry about how Amfleets would have to be modified. Then you have to convince the LIRR riders that this will not interrupt regular service (~every 30 minutes to Ronkonoma, 4 trains/hour to Hicksville). This still doesn’t help in the summer for service to the Hamptons; the Cannonballs run on Thursday and Fridays non-stop from Penn to the Hamptons.
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This is all correct – I had thought the original report was for trial running of three train pairs per day to see where problems with the logistics might be when the bidirectional Airó sets become available.
As additional information: