Quote:
Originally Posted by mrnyc
lol i know - i dont take this as a good move. i hope 'tracks' stays, but i bet it gets the boot too. hope not!
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Change in midtown Manhattan is inevitable. The loss of a bar or a few bars in the bowels of Penn Station is nothing compared to what the residential neighbors of the Manhattan West or the Hudson Yards developments are going through now.
Maybe I'll have to take the LIRR into Penn and wonder around to take a bunch of photos...
The link below has a recent, minuscule sample of the increasing demands being placed on the bowels of Penn Station. In this case, Asbury Park, (NJ) area residents trying to get single-seat rides to/from NY Penn via NJ Transit dual-mode locomotives. For those not familiar with NY Penn, operating diesel locomotives are banned from NY Penn and the tunnels leading to it. In the old days, this meant changing between electric and diesel trains at Jamaica, NY or Newark Penn station, etc. DM locomotives make it more convenient to take the train to/from NY Penn and, AFAIK, boost ridership on these lines. NJT also shares Amtrak's two tunnels under the Hudson River; the construction of Amtrak's Gateway tunnels (2 more) would help relieve congestion, allow upgrades, etc. on the 2 existing Hudson River tunnels which have been in service for ~104 years. The construction of the concrete casing "place holder" for the future multi-billion Gateway project is one of projects ongoing in the Hudson Yards project...
However, I hope these NJT trains are longer than the single car length shown in the photo.
Quote:
COALITION RALLIES TO REQUEST YEAR-ROUND DIRECT TRAIN SERVICE
WEEKEND, HOLIDAY 'ONE SEAT' RIDES WILL RUN JUNE 28 - SEPT. 1
By Jill Bartlett
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http://asburyparksun.com/coalition-r...train-service/
AND July's Harper's magazine (pay wall) has an article on "The lost glory of America's railroads" which of course loops through NY Penn Station, but uses the short Empire Connection tuunnel under the LIRR's WSSY/"Hudson Yards"
Quote:
21st Century Limited
The lost glory of America’s railroads
By Kevin Baker
We start in darkness. After fighting our way through the dingy, low-ceilinged, crowded waiting room that serves as New York City’s current Pennsylvania Station, we pull out through a graffitied tunnel that follows one of the oldest roadbeds in America. Freight trains once clattered along open tracks here, spewing smoke within a few dozen yards of the mansions along Riverside Drive and attracting one of the most dangerous hobo encampments in the country, before it was finally all buried beneath a graceful park in the 1930s. Today, we emerge into sunlight for the first time in Harlem, following a route up the glorious Hudson River, past Bear and Storm King Mountains, and the old ruined Bannerman castle on Pollepel Island.
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http://harpers.org/archive/2014/07/2...ntury-limited/
"Advertisement for the NY Central" via Harpers.org.
Someplace along the east bank of Hudson River, with the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background, I assume. The broke NY Central merged with the broke Pennsylvania RR in the 1960's and went bankrupt, etc. Note the 4 tracks along the Hudson in the old ad.