Friday, June 20, 2025
MTA inventing new ways to fail with battery locomotives
For reasons apparent to no one the MTA, instead of either investing in electrification or using standard EMU technology, is paying Siemens to invent a battery powered locomotive. Truly bizarre.
There are multiple superior, proven train options that can handle the different types of electrification on PSA. Improving connectivity between Midtown West, the Bronx, and Southwestern Connecticut is only possible with the right trains, but battery locomotives will condemn new Bronx riders to slow, unsatisfactory service, and worsen existing service on the New Haven Line. Furthermore, the rationale for acquiring new trains is inscrutable, given that the MTA already purchased M8s for PSA.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Trains in Europe vs US
Long story short, the European network is optimized for passengers, the US network is optimized for freight, and ours probably works better for us.
Labels: trains
Monday, December 14, 2015
Rollsigns and the 10 train
Oops.
As is evident from the green 10 bullet, at one point in developing the rollsigns on the R62 and R62A cars, the MTA reserved this route designation for the Lexington Ave. line. The agency never assigned the 10 to a route, but it’s safe to assume it would have served to differentiate today’s 5 trains. Perhaps the 10 could have been used for Nereid Ave.-bound East Side IRT trains.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Penn Station? Why build a new one, when we don't need the old one!
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Snowpocalypse Roundup
Peter Woit - we're all wusses. Second Avenue Sagas - WTF Mate, why are politics driving transit decisions? And a look at the worst snowstorm in NYC history, when the trains kept running just fine for the most part.
Labels: New York, trains, trends
Tunnels under the Pelham train station
Not the Metro-North one, but the NYNHH one. I know this isn't a train blog, but what the hey, it's right by where I used to live. Looks like that line's been there since 1873.
The Branch Line now serves freight and Amtrak trains. The commuter tunnel long since has been filled and closed. There seems to be no visible remnants of the tunnel, with one possible exception. Approximately where the tunnel stairs would have been entered, the curb along Manor Circle is cut away as if to allow easy access. This cutaway remains today.
