Archive for the ‘commuter rail’ Category
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
MTA officials were too busy tailgating with NJ Transit officials at Penn Station New York today to notice the significant and glaring error in their all important press release.
The press release, meant to announce the beginning of both LIRR/MNCR+NJT joint-ticketing to the Meadowlands and direct Metro-North New Haven line service to Secaucus, is only successful with the former. That’s because the press release GOT THE DATE WRONG of the first direct New Haven line train!!!!
In addition, Metro-North will be introducing a new direct service from major New Haven Line stations to the Meadowlands (via Secaucus Junction) for football games starting at 1 p.m. From there, shuttle trains will bring fans directly to the new Meadowlands Station and the game. Metro-North New Haven line direct service begins as the regular season kicks off on Sunday, September 13 with the NY Giants/Washington Redskins game that starts at 1 p.m. [Emphasis added]
Good job, MTA. Way to go.
You see, the 9/13/2009 game actually starts at 4:15 PM, thus making it ineligible for direct New Haven line service. The correct start date of direct New Haven line service is Sunday, September 20, 2009, when the New York Jets host the New England Patriots with a 1:00 PM kickoff.
In case the MTA goes and corrects the press release, below is a screen shot with the offending material highlighted.
UN believable
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, lirr, Long Island Rail Road, Long Island Railroad, meadowlands, Metro-North Railroad, MNCR, MNR, mta, new jersey transit, NJ Transit, njt, penn station, train
Posted in commuter rail, delays | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
UPDATE: DepartureVision is actually online and working for possibly all stations in the system. Go here, click on a station, and then add “-mobile” after the “tid” part of the URL. Source: Railroad.net NJ Transit Rail forum
—————————–
New Jersey Transit has announced the trial implementation of real-time train arrival / departure boards available to mobile-internet users for the Secaucus Junction train station. It is being called DepartureVision™.
Using a mobile phone or device with internet capabilities, you can now see the upcoming arrivals / departures for the upper and lower levels (separately) of the Secaucus Junction station, including the scheduled arrival time, track assignment, and train status (on-time, 7 minutes late, etc.). A cool feature is that clicking on a train’s arrival time brings up a list of all the stops that train will be making after Secaucus Junction. Quite importantly, and as noted in the press release:
Customers who use the new Meadowlands Rail Line to travel to and from football games or major events will be able to check their Secaucus connections from Giants Stadium.
Score!
To see a large screen shot of what DepartureVision looks like, click the image below.
DepartureVision for the Upper Level of Secaucus Junction - click to see a higher resolution image
For much more information about this great new service, read the Customer Notice.
I hope this trial is very successful, and leads to DepartureVision being made available for all train stations in the New Jersey Transit rail system.
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, meadowlands, new jersey transit, NJ Transit, njt, secaucus, Secaucus Junction, Secaucus Transfer, station, train
Posted in commuter rail, delays, railfanning | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
You can now buy and use a single train ticket to ride from stations on the Long Island Rail Road all the way to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey, home of Giants Stadium, a new football stadium to be named later, and the Izod Center (as well as the Meadowlands Racetrack and the unfinished Xanadu).
But be careful – even though New Jersey Transit will be running trains to the Meadowlands for events other than Giants and Jets football games, the LIRR thru-tickets are only “officially” valid for football game days. This may have something to do with the fact that, as the LIRR notes, you must show your rail ticket at the fare gates at Secaucus Junction, instead of feeding it through the turnstile, since the LIRR ticket stock does not have the magnetic stripe like the NJT ticket stock.
Read all about this LIRR/NJT joint ticketing initiative here: http://mta.info/lirr/pubs/TrainToTheGame/. That LIRR web page even features a nifty diagram of part of Penn Station, to help people make the LIRR -> NJT transfer. The other part of the graphic is an extremely simple route diagram of the rail service. You can see them below:
Click to see a bigger version
Oh, and Metro-North is doing the same thing. Even though they are running direct trains from the New Haven line to Secaucus Junction on the days of Sunday 1 PM games, you can also buy a joint ticket from any Metro-North station that you can use to get all the way to the Meadowlands. You will of course need to get from Grand Central Terminal to Penn Station New York in order to board a New Jersey Transit train to Secaucus. The brochure linked to in my recent post on this topic explains things in much much greater detail.
P.S. And no, you can’t buy an LIRR ticket from Penn Station New York to the Meadowlands. I know, because I tried it this evening. Would have been (pointlessly) cool though, in a railfanning kind of way.
Update: Here’s a good Newsday article on the topic of the joint-ticketing.
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, lirr, Long Island Rail Road, Long Island Railroad, meadowlands, Metro-North Railroad, MNCR, MNR, mta, new jersey transit, new york city, NJ Transit, njt, penn station, train
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Metro-North Railroad has created a new brochure to explain their part of the direct service that they are planning to run with New Jersey Transit this fall. It is admittedly a complicated task to convey all of the options and nuances that they are trying to get across, but I think they did an okay job. The brochure is linked from a new web page Metro-North put up for this service. You can also download the PDF directly from this link: http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/SchedPDF_vWEB_Brochure.pdf
Edit: This brochure, in all its glossy printed glory, is available in the information boxes next to each of the upper level tracks at Grand Central Terminal, as of yesterday, August 19, 2009.
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, meadowlands, Metro-North Railroad, MNCR, MNR, new york, NJ Transit, njt, penn station, train
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 20th, 2009
NJ Transit, the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, and the Port Authority of NY & NJ hosted an inaugural ride to the opening ceremony of the new Meadowlands Rail Station today. The inaugural train departed Hoboken at 1:25 PM, then departed Secaucus a few minutes late at about 1:45 PM, and arrived at the new Meadowlands station at 2:00 PM. Below are many of the photos I took during the day. Click on the thumbnail image to view the full size photograph.
Governor Jon S. Corzine, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, and New York Giants co-owner John Mara rode the train from Secaucus (as far as I can tell, because I didn’t see them board at Hoboken) and then spoke at the opening ceremony after. Various other politicians and officials were also present.
After the speeches, Governor Corzine cut the ribbon, symbolically opening the station for service.
The station itself is basic but nice.
Some people would like to see the line loop around the sports complex, but for now it unceremoniously dead ends.
At 3:00 PM, the inaugural train returned to Secaucus and Hoboken.
Revenue service to the Meadowlands Rail Station begins this Sunday for the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final match at 3:00 PM at Giants Stadium. The first train leaves Hoboken at 11:30 AM.
Official NJ Transit press release about today’s events: GOVERNOR CORZINE LAUNCHES RAIL SERVICE TO THE MEADOWLANDS
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, meadowlands, new york city, NJ Transit, njt, station, train
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | No Comments »
Monday, July 20th, 2009
A ribbon cutting ceremony and inaugural train ride to the new NJ Transit Meadowlands Rail Station is taking place today.
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, meadowlands, new jersey transit, NJ Transit, njt, train
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | No Comments »
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
new escalator goes here
Walking past the construction site Monday, I saw that a door was open, allowing me to see and photograph (with cell phone camera) the empty space where a staircase once was, and where an additional escalator will hopefully soon be.
Then, that evening, I saw an escalator being delivered to Penn Station. As you can see in the photo above, not only is the old staircase gone, but the old escalator is gone too. So I’m not sure if this delivery is of a new escalator, or maybe of the old, but possibly refurbished, escalator. In any event, hopefully this moves the project along. I’m getting tired of wincing every time I see people struggling to carry large suitcases down the stairs (when there are clear signs pointing to other entrances with escalators).
escalator delivery - 30 minutes or it's free
Tags: amtrak, entrance, escalator, new york, new york city, new york penn station, nyc, penn station, penn station new york, psny
Posted in commuter rail | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
As I first posted two week ago, NJT rail service to the Meadowlands will begin on July 26, 2009. New Jersey Transit made the official announcement of this today.
An excerpt:
NJ TRANSIT ANNOUNCES OPENING DATE FOR NEW MEADOWLANDS RAIL SERVICE
Rail service to major Giants Stadium events begins July 26
July 8, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWARK, NJ – NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Richard Sarles today announced the official start date for rail service to the Meadowlands Sports Complex, which will provide a new, convenient travel option for customers via Hoboken Terminal or Frank R. Lautenberg Station at Secaucus Junction.
Rail service to major events at Giants Stadium will launch Sunday, July 26, for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final championship soccer match.
“The startup of rail service to the Meadowlands Sports Complex is great news for New Jersey residents because it will be easier than ever to avoid roadway congestion and take our convenient public transportation system to world-class sporting and entertainment events,” said Governor Jon S. Corzine.
Though the official announcement was made today, NJT’s FYI monthly customer newsletter jumped the gun and announced it back in June.
Tags: giants stadium, meadowlands, meadowlands sports complex, new jersey, new jersey transit, nj, NJ Transit, njt, secaucus
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
I’m not sure when the following webpage went live, but it seems it was at least during or before March 2009. But no matter, SEPTA now has a webpage that clearly states that photography was not and still is not prohibited. Furthermore, this SEPTA Photography Guidelines webpage makes clear that amateur photography is not restricted in any way in terms of needing a permit or needing to call ahead.
From the webpage:
SEPTA welcomes photographers and artists. In return, we simply request they use common sense and courtesy to others in pursuit of their pictures. [Editor: I really don't see SEPTA (employees and police) "welcoming" photographers. What a load of bull.]
…
While photography is permitted in clearly defined public areas of the SEPTA system, it obviously cannot be permitted in any manner that would interfere with the safe movement of people or operation of vehicles.
Photography is obviously prohibited in any area of the SEPTA system that is not accessible to the general public. [Editor: This is a pretty funny thing for them to say, considering that photography has OBVIOUSLY been legal this whole time, while up to now many photographers have been harassed and told otherwise by the police and employees.]
While the law permits photography of private citizens in public places, common courtesy would have photographers request permission of people before taking their pictures, especially close-ups. [Editor: This was a nice touch, since so many people are misinformed on this topic.]
Worldwide terrorist attacks against public transportation facilities in recent years has required a tightening of security procedures at all SEPTA facilities. Security experts consider photographing and sketching public transportation facilities as possible pre-indicators of terrorist activity. [Editor: UH, which security experts? Because plenty know that openly taking photographs with a large, visible camera is likely the LAST thing a terrorist would do.]
While this unfortunate reality has not resulted in a prohibition of photography, SEPTA Transit Police and other law enforcement are under orders to question anyone taking photographs or sketching transit facilities. [Editor: Here's where they confirm that photography never was illegal.]
But as always, remain alert and stay safe when you’re out there photographing. It’s unlikely that the SEPTA police and employees who have been mistaken this whole time about the legality of photography are going to suddenly wake up and realize their error. Many probably know they are wrong and don’t care. They feel threatened by photography so they lie and harass instead of doing their jobs.
Tags: photography, septa
Posted in bus, commuter rail, railfanning, safety, subway | 4 Comments »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
An article in The Star-Ledger has revealed that New Jersey Transit’s train service to the new station at the Meadowlands Sports Complex will begin on Sunday, July 26, 2009, for the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final match.
In other interesting news contained in the same article, the New York Giants have a connection to the new movie “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″:
Lastly, the Giants invited us to a screening of “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ at their practice facility this afternoon with about 40 of the players. The film, which comes out June 12, was co-produced by Giants co-owner Steve Tisch.
Tags: football, Giants, Jets, meadowlands, Metro-North Railroad, NJ Transit, njt, station
Posted in commuter rail, railfanning | 1 Comment »
