Viewliner said:
Okay, Now I'm confused. The NJT Page doesn't say for sure that they would or wouldn't electrify it, as this is only a proposal.
Click
Here for the NJ TRANSIT Page on this.
The map also seems to show an extension of the line (to Hackettstown)further confusing me.
Click
Here. for the map.
As if it could ever make it to Chicago, or see Amtrak Service (Wishful thinking) I think it would/should stop at [under this propsal]:
NYP
Newark Broad Street
Maplewood or Summit
Dover
Mount Pocono or East Stroudsburg
Scranton
(the further...)
4-5 Years isn't so long off, so I guess assuming you're right.
Also if you check the NJT Page one other candidate project is to Electrify Diesel Lines.
First of all, my feeling is that any further extension of electrification beyond Montclair & Great Notch on the former Boonton Line should go to Dover. Remember that the now Montclair-Boonton Line and the electrified ex-DL&W Morristown Line merge once again (after splitting at Roseville Ave in Newark) at Denville. Thus diesel trains that run west of Montclair run under the wires once more between Denville and Dover, where the Morristown Line's electrification ends. So they would only have to electrify up to the junction in Denville.
But as I and someone else from this board saw in person a few weeks ago, electrification might be possible, but double tracking the line to support more frequent service would be difficult without relocating fairly new parking lots and platforms and other things that would block a second track.
One major point in the discussion of the restored service to the Poconos over the Lackawanna Cutoff is that it has not yet been decided who will be the operator. One assumes NJ TRANSIT because they do own the tracks as far as Port Morris, and could operate this as an extension of their existing service on the Morristown Line. AMTRAK has been suggested as another operator, because of the distance involved. While no doubt some commuters would befefit from it, New York City area to Scranton is "intercity", isn't it?
What has been almost surely decided is that such a service will have Hoboken as its eastern terminus, which would rule out dual mode locomotives, and any further electrification over the Cutoff, unless as has been mentioned there is an engine change. I don't think a time-consuming move would be initiated in this day and age. Amtrak just got rid of their engine change in New Haven for most of their trains, and NJT did so on the NJCL.
Stations within New Jersey? I would say Hoboken (unless dual-mode locomotives are used), Newark-Broad, Summit (because it already has high-level platforms and is a transfer point for the Gladstone Branch), Morristown (large town and popular stop), Dover (high-level platforms, end of electrification, possible train change point for Hackettstown service and Montclair-Boonton Line).
The train won't ever return to Chicago over the remnants of the Erie Lackawanna. However, it very well could be extended into New York State's Southern Tier. New York State is looking at rail service to Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, Ithaca. etc. The route via the Cutoff and Scranton has been proven to be the better of two routes --- the other being an extension of the existing service to Port Jervis basically running parallel to Route 17/I-86.
