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Putnam line restoration?


metsfan

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What about the trail that has been constructed over a good portion of it?

 

Yes, there is that, however i believe the ROW is wide enough to accommodate both. It's not like the trains are going to be traveling very fast if they are light rail, or even trolly bus. I'm pretty sure it's all still intact legally for rail service.

 

I am hugely into trails and biking/walking them, i live across the street from a 1700 acre state park, if there was a ROW and they wanted to restore service and it meant losing one of the trails, i'd be ok with it.

 

- A

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Also, with this, a re-activated harlem line (the full length past current active terminus) could be beneficial, as well as a east-west route that connected eventually to MBTA on old new haven tracks, and then the tappan zee proposal could tie in the whole thing into NJ, drastically cutting down travel times.

 

This paired with robust zoning restrictions to promote towns and cities involved to work within current footprints will help contain sprawl.

 

- A

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In reality if a light rail system is to be successful I read that it needs to be less then 12 miles long to have a good enough waiting time. The most a light rail station could be placed apart is 1 mile. It could work like this have a light rail line run 12 miles with a station placed 1 mile apart from each other till it completes it's run. Then have people transfer to another line on the same route for 12 miles with stations placed 1 mile apart from each other. In total that would be 5 different light rail lines to complete 60 miles.

 

It would be like this:

 

Red Line:0-12 miles

Blue Line:12-24 miles

Orange Line:24-36 miles

Purple Line:36-48 miles

Gray Line:48-60 miles

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Light rail has 2 different subtypes, there's the trolly/tram/streetcar/LRV type light rail, which is what most of the US's systems utilize, then there is higher speed "main line" light rail which can go 80 mph and can be diesel or overhead line, 3rd rail is usually out due to most systems street running on certain stretches, and the truck faring (the piece that covers the trucks flush to the body) complicating things. I think main line light rail, running on FRA regulated "heavy rail" tracks would work. This compromise would allow a lower initial cost, but allow freight to run off-hours on certain stretches, and if the line demands it, you could later convert the signals to have regular heavy rail passenger equipment run on it.

 

As far as distance, main line light rail typically runs more frequently than its heavy rail counterpart, i think there should be local and express, and keep express service on friday and saturday, when people might want to make plans for an outing or a school trip. If main line light rail were adopted for this concept of a re-activated northern segment, you could look at the last practical timetables, compare them to say the HBLR and RiverLINE, (as both run on former inter-city passenger lines) and work out who pays for stations and what they look like, maybe have each station be a little different, but all having some element that gives a nod to its NYC heritage.

 

If it's kept a rail ROW but served with with trolly bus, i feel it should use articulated vehicles, concrete road surface with signals to allow higher speed operation, eliminate as many grade crossings as possible, and where not possible have 2 sets of crossing gates, one like 25 feet back with textured road surface etc and one like 7 feet from where the ROW actually crosses, this way there's less of a chance of an incident.

 

In either case i think feeder bus routes would be beneficial, modify existing bus routes where they exist to allow easy access in both directions.

 

At the current terminus you could have a small yard/depot off to one side with buffers etc separating the 2 parts, and a walkway between. Ideally the in service vehicles would stop on opposing sides of a platform, similar to HBLR at hoboken terminal. I think there is space for this

 

Any thoughts on those ideas?

 

 

- A

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I've biked the southern part of the ROW, you can't have pedestrian/bicycle traffic and rail traffic there. Not enough room.

 

The same holds true for at least parts of the northern portion. Years ago I was involved with fire and ems in one of the northern communities of Westchester County and often had to take ambulances and fire vehicles on the trail. Being there is barely enough room for an ambulance and bicycle side by side, a train and bike would not fit.

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  • 5 weeks later...

As a current resident of northern westchester on the Putnam border, I can tell you it will never happen. Google "north county trailway". Thats the ROW of The Old Put.

Completely dismanteled and paved over :D

Nice bike trail though! Keep in mind it was single-track so not all that wide.

 

It's a shame too. I think with the huge amount of people who moved to this area since it shut down, it would generate revenue once again. It runs right down the center of the county between the Harlem and Hudson lines. For people like me, you have to go quite a few miles east or west to pick up one of these lines.

 

I happen to live a stones throw away from the old Baldwin Place stop which, ironically, had a spur to Goldens Bridge which is where I now drive 15 mins to each day.

 

There is a great book on The Old Put by local guy Joe Schiavone. When it came out he did local presentations where he talked about the line and showed some home movies and pictures. It came with a DVD back then with awesome footage of STEAM still running on the Put as well as the last diesel to ever run. Dont know if it still comes with that.

Also he released a 2nd volume, though I cant image what else is in it. The first one was quite comprehensive.

I'd share some of that video but I suspect it's copyrighted stuff.

 

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&q=joe+schiavone+the+old+put&aq=0p&aqi=p-p1g3g-o1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=87dedf703ab49d09

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Nice bike trail though!

 

Very nice! Last time I was on it, there was a bout of uncooperative weather and it still wasn't continuous. I think the discontinuity was around Mile Square Road and Tuckahoe Road...it was right near the Thruway I believe. Not sure what municipality that was.

 

Has that been made continuous since?

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I think with the huge amount of people who moved to this area since it shut down, it would generate revenue once again.

 

It would not generate enough revenue to warrant starting it up again. The two lines that Metro North has complete control over (keep in mind the New Haven Line is controlled by CDOT), don't generate enough fare box revenue for the up keep. If they did they wouldn't be eliminating trains and raising fares.

 

Let's just say for the sake of argument that this line was operational today. I would foresee it being comparative of those that live in Danbury choosing to drive to Southeast every day for their commute. Those folks have a considerably longer drive than the short Baldwin Place to Goldens Bridge drive. They chose to do so because of the frequency of trains that run back and forth to Southeast are greater than compared to the few that run to Danbury.

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