Maybe they want to give First Class passengers a better and quieter ride?
Between Byford's day job of his inability get to Avelia out for revenue service while accepting delivery of 6 of them all dressed up and nowhere to go, or document what's wrong with them, then defying mananagement commiserating with the Rethink knuckleheads including tearing half the tracks out of Amtrak's own NYPS, playing train with NJT & LIRR, further displaying Train Daddy's inpetitide, I think he has shortened his tenure at Amtrak.
I'm reasonably sure Byford, and a host of others know what is up with the Aveila sets, what entity has them parked and why they are sitting around. Indeed, just because they were removed from the factory premises, does not mean they were accepted.
No use of stub tracks 1 through 4,
No NJT trains operate through the East River tunnels in the rush hour peak LIRR direction (AM west, PM east),
You are dealing with both station slots and tunnel slots under each river.
So, you want to add more, useless stub end tracks, that will create congestion?
Sunnyside yard has finite capacity, and it has been reached as it is. BTW, Rethink also wants Sunnyside yard demolished and moved to the Bronx. A tunnel slot is 3 minutes, 20 trains per hour.
LIRR East Side Access slots that have been freed have been transferred to Metro North for their Penn Station Access for New Haven line trains. They will operate in and out of Penn Station and West Side Yard just as though they were LIRR trains. Those station and tunnel slots belong to MTA. There will still be no place for NJT trains in East River tunnels in the peak direction of the LIRR.
As I said, nobody is proposing doing a thing east of Seventh Avenue. Forget about tunneling across Manhattan at a billion dollars per avenue block (and that rule of thumb number is from 15 years ago) and then out to Queens. Given how long things take here, that would take another 30 to 50 years if they were to start tomorrow.
All of this was analyzed when Gateway was designed over a decade ago. There is no more just do this or that.
Let's work backwards. Gateway was designed over a decade ago, and a LOT of things have changed. One of the things we need to do is think LOOOONG term and create an infrastructure with a vision that can accommodate future growth and technology. With this level of building, the vision should be 50-100 years down the road. It shouldn't be "ESA" is for LIRR, "Gateway" is for NJT, "PSA" is for Metro North and Amtrak piggybacks on the scraps of all of the projects. Even if the railroads aren't regional, the projects should be able to benefit the entire Northeast.
Hybrid trains are available now. Even right now, Siemens has offered and is perfectly capable of building a trainset that offers AC/DC and diesel propulsion. Years down the road, perhaps they will have third rail shoes that they can change on the fly. After all, years ago, a lot of tap changers were manual. Now, they change on the fly, which allowed the Midtown Directs to enter NYP.
Regarding improvements east of Seventh Avenue, they started years ago. One of the first was redesigning JO interlocking to allow a few simultaneous routes and of course the best (and biggest) projects is ESA and redesigning Harold and F. Part of that project that most people forget about is the high density signal system that will increase capacity in the East River tunnels in the same manner that increased capacity in the North River tunnels. That project has largely been sidelined because they need to refurbish the East River tunnels. That is **supposed** to start within a year. I believe Line 2 is going first, and when they complete the work, there will be additional capacity. Indeed, one of the long term goals(for some reason) is for Amtrak to travel out to Long Island. That is going to be during peak hours.
As for Metro North, they are indeed planning to bring the New Haven Line trains into Penn but they are also looking to establish through running with the Hudson Line. The plans for the Empire Connection to reach 15 track in Penn is complete and waiting for someone to implement them.
I would also like to point out (as I have to others) that Sunnyside Yard was once the biggest yard in the country, and it is indeed at capacity during the day. While it may be at capacity right now, there is PLENTY of room for expansion. The entire area by the old 68 spur is largely unused, except for a bit of track equipment. It wouldn't take much to remove all of the garbage and remnants of yesteryear and restore some of the tracks. Indeed, the area between LIRR's new layover yard and Amtrak's territory will be filled in with tracks in the next few years, to accommodate the new intercity trains. Someone just has to make the decision to do it.
The bottom line is there is always a reason to do nothing or maintain the status quo. Sometimes, there are good reasons to maintain the status quo, However, if you're building a massive piece of infrastructure, you should think leaps and bounds ahead. Tearing down buildings to build a glorified shed to store trains for part of the day shouldn't be a long term goal. The goal should be to keep things as fluid as possible. Amtrak has a long term goal of through running too. When the new intercity trains start arriving, you may see them do quick turns in the stations. As an example, WAS-ALB. ALB-BOS, MTR-WAS. In the next year or so, you may see a HAR-SPG train with the existing fleet. Turns or through running in the station would reduce the peak slots through the East River Tunnels.
Therefore, I believe through running shouldn't be summarily dismissed. Dwell times in NYP have dropped over the years. With the 7th Avenue, 8th Avenue, West End and Moynihan exits in full operations, the platforms clear in minutes.
Reading my above post, you'd think I'm a fan of MoveNYC's proposal. I'm actually not, but it isn't infrastructure related. I believe the infrastructure limitations can be overcome if the proper people open their minds and wallets to commit to the future.
I'm open to being flamed, but I'm against through running of the commuter services for this reason:
. Service planning between two complex and delay prone railroads with all their constraints and schedule changes for engineering work between LIRR and NJT would become impossible. Their schedules are anything but constant. LIRR is constantly tweaking and shifting western terminals of their trains.
Even without through running, the delays on one railroad can ripple through the region, impact other railroads. Commingling the equipment through the various agencies is a recipe for disaster. It's hard enough for them to right their own ship when their own railroad is afflicted with a service disruption. Imagine if the wires are down on Amtrak and a host of NJT trains eventually that become LIRR or Metro North trains are stranded. Imagine a LIRR train getting into a grade crossing collision, and the equipment that is needed for through running is stuck behind it.
I think that is too big of a risk because the money comes into play. Someone once mentioned if one agency took over, it would eliminate these problems. I mentioned that it worked like a charm for Conrail, and that is how we ended up with these state agencies. That way, they can be accountable for their budget, their passengers, their operation instead of it being piecemeal....kind of like Amtrak.
I can't imagine the three states agreeing on costs or allocations to make through running and equipment manipulations probable.....for now. That may change and if it does, and since there is heavy investment in these projects, we should have the infrastructure in place to enable the operation.
