ExpressRail

ExpressRail is rail network supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and railyards for transloading has been overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which works in partnership other public and private stakeholders. As of 2014, three ExpressRail terminals were in operation with the construction of a fourth underway.

Various switching and terminal railroads, including the Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX) on the Chemical Coast Secondary connect to the East Coast rail freight network carriers Norfolk Southern (NS) and CSX Transportation (CSX).[1][2] Overall, the entire Express Rail system handled 433,000 containers in 2012, about 12 percent of the port’s total container volume.[3] In the year period ending October 2014 the total amount of TEUS of Intermodal containers handled at the port included 391,596 rail lifts.[4]

Terminals and operations

Elizabeth Marine Terminal, Chemical Coast (now known as the Garden State Secondary), and the New Jersey Turnpike

ExpressRail Elizabeth

The Elizabeth Marine Terminal (40°40′54″N 74°09′02″W / 40.68155°N 74.1505°W / 40.68155; -74.1505), located on Newark Bay in Elizabeth, New Jersey has the oldest and largest ExpressRail facility, opened in 2004. Originally started by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) it is now operated and managed by subcontractor Millennium Marine Rail. a joint venture of Maher Terminals and APM Terminals, the major lessees and operators at the container terminal .[3][5][6]

The terminal consists of 18 tracks.[1][6][7] It originates 2-4 trains a day seven days a week:[8][9] It originates CSX Q159 and L159 to Syracuse-DeWitt Yard, CSX Q167 to Chicago-Bedford Park, NS 23M to Chicago-Global I and NS 25V to Chicago-Landers and terminates CSX Q112 and L112 from Chicago-Bedford Park and NS 22V from Harrisburg.

ExpressRail Newark

The Port Newark Corbin Street Yard lies on the Chemical Coast line, between the docks and the New Jersey Turnpike

Port Newark (40°41′38″N 74°09′26″W / 40.6937949°N 74.1572903°W / 40.6937949; -74.1572903), lies north of the Elizabeth Marine Terminal, on Newark Bay in Newark and handles containers and roll-on/roll-off shipping of automobiles. The intermodal yard consists of two tracks for loading of containers.[1] It originates CSX Q163 and L163 to Syracuse-DeWitt and terminates CSX Q114 and Q162 from Syracuse-DeWitt.[9]

In conjunction with installation of three new rail-specified, rubber-tired gantry cranes ExpressRail Newark is being expanded from two to four, doubling the rail track to 10,000 feet, and adding a new fly-over bridge. Work is expected to be completed in 2015.[10]

In addition to containers, Port Newark is a major import/export center of automobiles using roll-on/roll-off operation between ship and rail.[11] The adjacent Doremus Avenue Auto Terminal I & II is owned by Conrail and serves CSX and NS trains. The yard occupies 87 acres and has ten unloading tracks and ten holding tracks to serve multilevel autorack cars.[12][13][14][15][16]

ExpressRail Staten Island

Staten Island Railroad (foreground) to Howland Hook travels the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge over the Arthur Kill and connects the Chemical Coast.

The Howland Hook Marine Terminal (40°38′21″N 74°10′52″W / 40.6390858°N 74.1811125°W / 40.6390858; -74.1811125) is located at the mouth of the Arthur Kill at Newark Bay on Staten Island, a borough of New York City. Its ExpressRail facility consists of six tracks which connect to the adjacent Arlington Yard, from which trains travel over the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to connect to the Chemical Coast line at Elizabeth. Staten Island does not originate or terminate trains, but cars from the terminal are attached onto other trains.

The North Shore branch of the Staten Island Railroad was originally opened in 1860 and was operated by the Baltimore and Ohio between Cranford, New Jersey and the Saint George Terminal. Passenger service on the North Shore Branch ended in 1953. In 1985, B&O successor CSX sold it to Delaware Otsego and rail freight service was continued until 1991.[17] Freight service on the western North Shore Railroad right-of-way (ROW) at Howland Hook was revived in 2005.[18] For the first time in 16 years a train crossed the bridge on October 4, 2006, a single locomotive which would take on switching duties.[19] Rail at the marine terminal was reactivated in 2007 with the completion of the single-track Chemical Coast connector.[20][21]

ExpressRail Port Jersey

Port Jersey and the adjacent Greenville Yard (40°40′44″N 74°04′24″W / 40.67892°N 74.0734°W / 40.67892; -74.0734) are located on the Upper New York Bay in Jersey City at the border with Bayonne and served by the National Docks Secondary.

The yard is site of New York New Jersey Rail, LLC which operates the last remaining car float operation in New York Harbor, which was originally part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Hudson Waterfront operations. Freight cars are barged across the bay to the Bush Terminal Yard and the 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn. Since the 2010 takeover by the PANYNJ extensive work to improve the cross-harbor system has been undertaken, though it was set back due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The New York City municipal solid-waste management policy includes reducing trucks-trips by hauling waste by barge-rail transfer.[22][23][24][25] In 2010, the PANYNJ purchased the yard with the intention to upgrade the car float operations, build the barge-to-rail facility, and develop dock-side rail-lift transloading facilities.[26][27] In 2011, the PANYNJ contracted HDR, Inc. as primary design consultant.[28] In September 2014, the PANYNJ announced funding for the major redevelopment of the Greenville Yard, to include a new rail container terminal. About 10,000 feet of working track, 32,000 feet of support track and switches, along with infrastructure to support rail-mounted gantry cranes, will be constructed for the ExpressRail terminal, which will initially support 125,000 container lifts a year. The PANYNJ will also build two new rail-to-barge transfer bridges, purchase two new car float barges, each with 18 rail car capacity, and buy four new ultra low emission locomotives, replacing antiquated units. Of the project’s $356 million cost, $320 million will be paid by the agency with the remainder coming from stakeholders. The new facility is expected to become operational in July 2016.[29][30] The New Jersey Department of Transportation allocated more than $87 million for 2014-2017 fiscal budget for the project and other related word, including land acquisition.[31]

Funding

The project began with an initial investment of $600 million by the PANYNJ. As of 2014, the cargo facilities charge (CFC) was $9.80 for every 40-foot shipping container passing through the port. The charge replaced a user fee of $57.50 per container that used the rail system in March 2011. The intention was to encourage use by spreading and lowering the cost. [32]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Local Rail" (PDF). PANYNJ. Retrieved 2014-12-11.
  2. ↑ "The Port Authority ExpressRail System". PANYNJ. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  3. 1 2 Strunsky, Steve (January 27, 2014). "Port Authority weighs selling ship-to-rail operation". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  4. ↑ "Loaded Containers in TEUs and Total ExpressRail Lifts by Month". PANYNJ. October 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  5. ↑ "Company Overview of Millennium Marine Rail, L.L.C.". Business Week. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  6. 1 2 "Port of New York and New Jersey Rail Expansion Program" (PDF). PANYNJ. May 2006. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  7. ↑ "Millennium Marine Rail". Millennium Mariner Rail. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  8. ↑ "Norfolk Southern Intermodal Terminal Information - Elizabeth Marine Terminal". Norfolk Southern. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  9. 1 2 "PA Railfan Train Symbol Database". Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  10. ↑ "PORT NEWARK CONTAINER TERMINAL GEARS UP FOR SUPER POST-PANAMAX CRANES Arrival of three super post-Panamax cranes to improve Port Newark Container Terminal’s capacity" (PDF) (Press release). Ports of America. April 30, 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  11. ↑ Belson, Ken (September 23, 2011). "Far From the Factory, Adding Final Touches". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-12-23.
  12. ↑ Automotive Group and Automotive Operations & Damage Prevention. "Norfolk Southern Auto Distribution Facility Guide" (PDF) (Press release). Norfolk Southern. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  13. ↑ "Conrail Shared Assets Operation (CSAO)". http://centralnjfan. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  14. ↑ "The Nation’s Leader in Automotive Import & Export Trade FAPS, Inc. 58 Year History". FAPS. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  15. ↑ "Port of Newark". World Ports. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  16. ↑ "Vehicle Shipping and Processing". PANYNJ. Retrieved 2014-12-21.
  17. ↑ "GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES REACTIVATION OF STATEN ISLAND RAILROAD SERVICE" (Press release). PANYNJ. Apr 22, 2004. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
  18. ↑ "North Shore Alternatives Analysis Study (NSAA)". MTA. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  19. ↑ Young, Deborah (October 5, 2006). "Riding the rails into the port's future". Staten Island Advance.
  20. ↑ "STATEN ISLAND RAILROAD: CHEMICAL COAST LINE CONNECTOR" (PDF). American Association of Port Authorities. June 14, 2007. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
  21. ↑ "Mayor Bloomberg Officially Reactivates the Staten Island Railroad" (Press release). City of New York. April 17, 2007. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  22. ↑ Urbina, Ian (October 7, 2004). "City Trash Plan Forgoes Trucks, Favoring Barges". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
  23. ↑ "Jersey City to get $10 million up front, $250,000 annually under settlement for waste transfer station". NJBIZ. 7 October 2014.
  24. ↑ "Not so fast on that Jersey City garbage transfer station, Port Authority says". NJ.com.
  25. ↑ "Port Authority Board Approves Purchase and Redevelopment of Greenville Yards, Including a Barge-to-Rail Facility to Take Trucks off the Road" (Press release). PANYNJ. May 18, 2010. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  26. ↑ Melissa Hayes (May 17, 2010). "Port Authority to purchase Greenville Yards in Jersey City". Jersey Journal. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
  27. ↑ "Greenville Yard-Port Authority Marine Terminal – Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) – ExpressRail Port Jersey – Phase I Project Authorization – Early-Action Pre-Construction Work" (PDF) (Press release). PANYNJ. October 20, 2011. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
  28. ↑ "Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Hires HDR to Rehabilitate Greenville Yard" (Press release). HDRINC. November 11, 2011. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
  29. ↑ "Port Authority Board Approves Major Redevelopment Of Greenville Yard To Improve Cargo Movement In The Port (190-2014)" (Press release). NJDOT. September 17, 2014. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
  30. ↑ "New York-area port authority to build rail transload facility, improve cross-harbor car float system". Progressive Railroading. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
  31. ↑ "Greenville Yard and Lift Bridge – State-of-Good-Repair" (PDF). North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
  32. ↑ Rinde, Meir (April 20, 2015). "Moving Cargo at NJ Ports Will Take Much More Than Container Ships". Retrieved 24 April 2015.

External links

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