# NJ Transit ordering new equipment



## jis (Dec 13, 2018)

NJ Transit is ordering new equipment to replace its entire remaining single level rolling stock. It includes Multilevel Power Cars to create triplet EMU units putting them together with cab cars.

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/commuterregional/for-njt-another-rolling-stock-innovation/


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## AutoTrDvr (Dec 13, 2018)

jis said:


> NJ Transit is ordering new equipment to replace its entire remaining single level rolling stock. It includes Multilevel Power Cars to create triplet EMU units putting them together with cab cars.
> 
> https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/commuterregional/for-njt-another-rolling-stock-innovation/


Well, they need to get rid of those Arrow III cars, anyway.   They were around in my childhood.  Then again, I even recall the older Lackawanna  "green relics."




The bigger question being, from wence commeth the $$$???


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## jis (Dec 13, 2018)

From the State of NJ increased gas tax among other things. They have the funding for placing the first round of orders which they are in the process of spinning up.


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## cpotisch (Dec 13, 2018)

jis said:


> NJ Transit is ordering new equipment to replace its entire remaining single level rolling stock. It includes Multilevel Power Cars to create triplet EMU units putting them together with cab cars.
> 
> https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/commuterregional/for-njt-another-rolling-stock-innovation/


Can a single MLV power car do even a half decent job pulling/pushing two or more other cars? And why did they not order any powered cab cars? That way each consist wouldn't be limited to an absolutely minimum of three cars. :huh:


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## Mystic River Dragon (Dec 13, 2018)

"NJ Transit is reclaiming its position as a national leader in transportation,’’ said Executive Director Kevin Corbett.

Huh? :wacko: 

Double-deckers are nice, but NJT has a long way to go before it is a leader in transportation. Starting with cleaning filthy trains, getting trains to run instead of being cancelled, and run on time for the ones that do run, get the snarky conductors (not all of them; many are very nice and professional) to learn how they should act on the job, get the people not behaving themselves out of a certain train station that I will not name, stop the water leaking and pouring onto the platform at that same train station, and (the toughest part) get NJ commuters to not throw their trash on the floor, talk loudly on their phones in the quiet car, or be rude in general.

Whew. I think I just used up my NJT rant allotment for a week. But a national leader? Really?


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## cpotisch (Dec 13, 2018)

Mystic River Dragon said:


> "NJ Transit is reclaiming its position as a national leader in transportation,’’ said Executive Director Kevin Corbett.
> 
> Huh? :wacko:
> 
> ...


Does said unnamed train station happen to be in the only state capital east of the Mississippi to not have a ViewDiner named after it?


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## jis (Dec 13, 2018)

cpotisch said:


> Can a single MLV power car do even a half decent job pulling/pushing two or more other cars? And why did they not order any powered cab cars? That way each consist wouldn't be limited to an absolutely minimum of three cars.


From my recollection from a discussion we had with Steve Santoro about five or six years back when NJT initiated this idea originally, they did not want to add power equipment to cab cars because they are already significantly heavier than trailers.

The power cars are 3000HP, which means a three car unit would have 1000HP per car. That is already significantly better than a 10 car push pull used today, and even more so because a 12 car train would have 12 powered axles instead of just 4 in equivalent current push-pulls. This should provide significantly better net tractive effort, which is what accelerates trains faster, and reduced wheel slippage.

As for minimum three cars, except for the Princeton Dinky, I can’t think of anything else that NJT runs that under normal circumstances is less than three cars.


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## Mystic River Dragon (Dec 13, 2018)

cpotisch said:


> Does said unnamed train station happen to be in the only state capital east of the Mississippi to not have a ViewDiner named after it?


Good guess  ! Your prize is a trip as far away from that station as you can possibly go  !


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## Thirdrail7 (Dec 15, 2018)

jis said:


> From my recollection from a discussion we had with Steve Santoro about five or six years back when NJT initiated this idea originally, they did not want to add power equipment to cab cars because they are already significantly heavier than trailers.
> 
> The power cars are 3000HP, which means a three car unit would have 1000HP per car. That is already significantly better than a 10 car push pull used today, and even more so because a 12 car train would have 12 powered axles instead of just 4 in equivalent current push-pulls. This should provide significantly better net tractive effort, which is what accelerates trains faster, and reduced wheel slippage.
> 
> As for minimum three cars, except for the Princeton Dinky, I can’t think of anything else that NJT runs that under normal circumstances is less than three cars.


It is a pretty bold plan. If it comes to fruition, it can free up some locomotives. This could help the Raritan Valley passengers as they would now be able to assign additional AlP-45s to their rush hour trains. This would help them haul more cars to assist with transferring passengers at NWK, possibly allowing a rush hour one seat ride.



Mystic River Dragon said:


> "NJ Transit is reclaiming its position as a national leader in transportation,’’ said Executive Director Kevin Corbett.
> 
> Huh? :wacko:
> 
> ...


I think you missed the point. Additionally equipment, no matter what kind it is, will help most of the things you listed above. If you have enough equipment, you can take additional time to clean the trains. If you have additional equipment, you won't have as many cancellations.  That will lead to nicer passengers, which would lead to conductors not being as snarky, since they wouldn't bear the brunt of the public's wrath.

All of this will assist in NJ reclaiming its position as a national transportation leader. It won't stop people from being people and more equipment leads to more train, which leads to more congestion, which leads to delays, but it is a start.


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## Thirdrail7 (Jan 10, 2019)

Hardly a surprise:

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/its-official-bombardier-signs-with-nj-transit-for-multilevel-iii-contract/



> *Bombardier Transportation made it official, announcing it has signed a contract for 113 Multilevel III commuter rail cars with New Jersey Transit worth as much as $669 million.*
> 
> The historic order includes options and for as many as 886 additional cars.
> 
> ...


886 additional cars? That is a lot of equipment!


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## Acela150 (Jan 10, 2019)

On a side note it says that CRRC placed a bid, didn't congress put a temporary ban on CRRC from bidding on anything in the US?? 

I've heard that CRRC will seriously undercut bids to win contracts. Not sure how true it is though. I'm well aware that Septa gave them their contract for Bi-Levels. Personally I think that was a huge mistake and that they didn't learn from the HUGE Rotem debacle. And it seriously seems like they'll never learn when it comes to the rails. It's been said that Septa is a bus company trying to run a railroad. Which IMO is true.


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## jis (Jan 11, 2019)

The NJT bidding process predated the Congressional ban. Anyway, NJT did not accept the bid. I am inclined to believe that CRRC would have screwed things up worse than Bombardier. [emoji57]


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## B757Guy (Jan 11, 2019)

Glad to see they plan to upgrade equipment, but long term, this will be a moot point, unless the tunnel and Portal Bridge issues are corrected. The tunnel itself is a few short years away from needing a complete overhaul, which will limit the number of trains into Penn Station to maybe less than 10 an hour?


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## Thirdrail7 (Jan 11, 2019)

B757Guy said:


> Glad to see they plan to upgrade equipment, but long term, this will be a moot point, unless the tunnel and Portal Bridge issues are corrected. The tunnel itself is a few short years away from needing a complete overhaul, which will limit the number of trains into Penn Station to maybe less than 10 an hour?


Not necessarily. This new equipment will hold far more passengers per train and can actually pass between the two different electrified territories, making it flexible.  That would help if tunnels slots decreased.


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## B757Guy (Jan 12, 2019)

Thirdrail7 said:


> Not necessarily. This new equipment will hold far more passengers per train and can actually pass between the two different electrified territories, making it flexible.  That would help if tunnels slots decreased.




Great! I didn't realize that.


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