# Secaucus transfer



## Morris&Essex (Dec 23, 2003)

Hi everyone,

I'm just curious if anyone has made a NJTransit transfer at Secaucus yet. I saw almost no coverage of the opening on the news or in the newspaper. (I guess with the Saddam capture, it got pushed out of the news a bit.) In fact, the one news report I saw on TV only showed an Acela Express passing through!? :blink:


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## AlanB (Dec 23, 2003)

El,

Yup, I've been through it once. Although that was back during the soft opening, when they were doing weekends only. I haven't been back since they opened it full time.

It's a very nice station and I'm sure that it will see considerable use. However, in typical NJT fashion it's also way overbuilt. This station is strictly a transfer point; you can't get to this station (with one exception) except via another train. This means that the average person will spend no more than 15 minutes max, and most will only spend around 5 minutes.

Therefore, why did we need expensive marble floors, a huge customer service area, way overbuilt capacity wise bathrooms, and other things like that. Better to have saved the money for other NJT projects like double tracking the Pascack Valley line, electrifying the Raritan line, or maybe getting started on the Lackawanna Cutoff project.

Additionally NJT apparently needs to work on building their consists better. I've got a friend who rides the Bergen line to work every day. He told me that the very first day of service on Monday, the conductor made an announcement that anyone wishing to disembark at Secaucus Junction needed to walk up to one of the two front cars.

Now considering that this was a seven-car train, my friend thought that it was rather odd that they would only platform two cars. After all the station was built to handle 12 car trains. Well while my friend was not disembarking there, he got his answer when the train pulled into the station.

Apparently NJT in their infinite wisdom had build a consist where the last 5 cars on the train were all Comet I cars. Comet I cars don't have traps and therefore one can't get off the train at a high level platform. If one walks down the steps of the car, one finds the platform chest high. So you would then have to pull yourself up onto the platform. Additionally the doors are not high enough for a high level plat, so one would have to crawl thought he gap between the plat and the top of the door frame.

A 7 car train full of rush hour commuters and only two cars, both at the head end no less, are capable of being used at the station. Go figure. :blink: You've got to wonder who thought that one up.  My friend said that it took close to 10 minutes to detrain everyone at that stop who wanted to get off.

As for that Acela, I guess that reporter can't tell the difference between an Amtrak train and a NJT train. :unsure:


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## battalion51 (Dec 24, 2003)

Then again a large part of the public just recognizes a train as a train Alan. For example in an A&E special about the Crash of the City of New Orleans they had shots of AEM-7's in there, something any good railfan would raise an eyebrow to. However the public at large wouldn't even blink.


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## AlanB (Dec 24, 2003)

battalion51 said:


> Then again a large part of the public just recognizes a train as a train Alan. For example in an A&E special about the Crash of the City of New Orleans they had shots of AEM-7's in there, something any good railfan would raise an eyebrow to. However the public at large wouldn't even blink.


It's true B51, that much of the general public might not know the difference or even care.

However since the general public depends on the media to both inform and to some extent educate them, the media should be far more careful to get these things right. After all if the media keeps showing the wrong pictures for the company or the story, then the public will never learn.

Showing the wrong things can actually cause trouble for people, as someone who sees an Acela Express in a NJT story, and has never taken the train before, might just board an Acela in Newark thinking that they are really boarding an NJT train.


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## Morris&Essex (Dec 27, 2003)

Thanks, Alan

I've been meaning to try it via Main line from Clifton to my job in Morris County. I'll have to remember to sit at the head end.


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## AlanB (Dec 27, 2003)

ELNewBranch said:


> Thanks, Alan
> I've been meaning to try it via Main line from Clifton to my job in Morris County. I'll have to remember to sit at the head end.


Well just make sure that the car you pick can service high level plats. Most do, but not all and there is no guarentee where you will find those old cars.


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## Viewliner (Dec 28, 2003)

As Alan Said, your best bet would be the cab car, furthest from the locomotive, all Cab Cars on NJT are built to accomodate High-Level Platforms. That's provided, the crew has the cab car open. I know from experience only the First Few Cars are opened at first, then the move back as the number of passengers rises. There may be other cars mixed in as Alan said, but the Cab Car is a guarentee. I thought NJT was supposed to be retiring the Comet I's soon, now that we have the Comet V's.

And who knows, maybe once they do retire them, Hoboken can get High-Level platforms as well.


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