Rail freight transportation in New York City and Long Island
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

From the start of
railroading Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
in America through the first half of the 20th century,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and Long Island were major areas for rail freight transportation. However, their relative isolation from the mainland United States has always posed problems for rail traffic. Numerous factors over the late 20th century have caused further declines in freight rail traffic. Efforts to reverse this trend are ongoing, but have been met with limited success. The
New York and Atlantic Railway The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) is a short line railroad formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, a public commuter rail agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An af ...
currently operates all rail freight on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s rights-of-way in Long Island. CSX Transportation also operates within New York City, as do several
shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...
s including a
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
across the harbor.


History


Early days

In part because of its easily accessible harbor and its canal connections to the interior, New York City and its surrounding area early on became the largest regional economy in North America. As railroads developed in the 19th century, serving New York City market was vital, but problematic. The Hudson River, a mile-wide (1.6 km) estuary near the city, a section also called the North River, presents a formidable barrier to rail transportation. As a result, most railroads terminated their routes at docks on the New Jersey shore (''see'' 1900 map). Ferries brought rail passengers to and from the city, while
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
barges carried freight cars across the Hudson—on the order of one million carloads of freight per year. One exception was a
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
line on the east bank of the Hudson that extended into
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
for freight service. The
West Side Line The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...
, as it was called, brought freight cars to docks, warehouses and industries along Manhattan's west shore. Its southern portion included the
High Line The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Opera ...
, a grade-separated viaduct that replaced the street-level railroad tracks on what was then known as " Death Avenue". In the early 20th century, the Hudson barrier was surmounted by tunneling for passenger rail—and with the construction of the
Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Author ...
in 1927, the
George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United S ...
in 1931, and the
Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned Ne ...
in 1937—by creating fixed crossings for automobiles and trucks as well. Trucks could deliver freight anywhere in the city without requiring a railroad siding. The rail tunnels required electric propulsion, limiting their use for freight. A rail freight tunnel from Staten Island to Brooklyn was proposed, but never completed. Rail freight traffic east of the Hudson that did not cross by barge had to go north some distance to cross the river by bridge. The first rail crossing of the Hudson was the
Poughkeepsie Bridge The Walkway over the Hudson (also known as the Poughkeepsie Bridge, Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, Poughkeepsie–Highland Railroad Bridge, and High Bridge) is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York ...
built in 1888. The New York Central crossed just south of Albany, New York, where it continued west paralleling the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
to create the
Water Level Route The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
which competed with the Pennsylvania Railroad's more direct route that had to cross the Allegany Mountains. Even though the Poughkeepsie Bridge was closer to the city, it was less used.


Post-World War II

The peak of rail freight came during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, when New York industries, including the
Brooklyn Navy Yard The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend ...
, worked around the clock to support the war effort. After the war, the
Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...
was built, along with many
inland waterway A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel (e.g. boats) to pass safely. Such a navigable water is called a ''waterway'', and is preferably with few obstructions against d ...
s, both competing with the railroads. The rail industry went through widespread consolidations and bankruptcies.
Containerization Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...
revolutionized shipping. The Port Authority developed the
Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
on Newark Bay. Piers in Brooklyin and Manhattan declined in usage and were abandoned. The 1980 Staggers Rail Act largely deregulated the U.S. railroads. The railroads de-emphasized "retail" railroading—movement of one or a few rail cars from a shipper's siding to a destination siding—in favor of long unit trains for bulk commodities, such as coal and ore. General cargo shifted to intermodal movement, first trailers on flat cars (TOFC),
intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
s on flat cars (COFC), and then double-stacked containers, loaded on special
well car A well car, also known as a double-stack car (or also intermodal car/container car), is a type of railroad car specially designed to carry intermodal containers (shipping containers) used in intermodal freight transport. The "well" is a depresse ...
s. Much manufacturing shifted to Asia, particularly Japan and China, leading to a sharp increase in international container movements. Industry developed highly efficient
logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
based on strategically located
distribution center A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to co ...
s, often serving an entire metropolitan area with a single center. Goods in long distance containers, whether shipped by rail or sea, typically must be unpacked at a distribution center outside the city before being sent to an end destination, such as a retail store. Heavy industry migrated out of the city. The Navy Yard closed in 1966. The
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and t ...
across the mouth of the harbor opened in 1964, allowing truck traffic to bypass Manhattan on the way to Long Island. The
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...
merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the
Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...
in 1968, which then went bankrupt in 1970.Pinkston, Elizabeth (2003)
"A Brief History of Amtrak."''The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service.''
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Congressional Budget Office)
The Poughkeepsie Bridge was closed after a fire in 1974 and has since been converted to a pedestrian and bicycle path. The 60th Street Yard in Manhattan was sold and redeveloped as the Riverside South apartment complex, while the 30th Street Yard was converted into the
West Side Yard The West Side Yard (officially the John D. Caemmerer West Side Yard) is a rail yard of 30 tracks owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. Used to store commuter rail trains operated by t ...
storage facility for Long Island Rail Road trains. The West Side Line was last used for freight in 1982 and then converted to passenger use as
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
's
Empire Connection The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...
in 1991, with the portion south of
Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...
abandoned and later converted into the
High Line The High Line is a elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Opera ...
, an elevated pedestrian park. The numerous car float operations across New York Harbor shrank to a single cross harbor barge line, the New York Cross Harbor Railroad. It merged with a trucking company, then ran into financial difficulties and sold its cross harbor operation to
New York New Jersey Rail, LLC New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroad that operates the only car float operation across Upper New York Bay between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by t ...
, which was subsequently purchased by the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...
.


Attempts to revive rail freight in the City and Long Island

Starting in the late 20th century, government officials have sought to increase the amount of freight to New York City and Long island that arrives by rail. To this end, several private and public sector initiatives have been undertaken: * Construction of the Hunts Point Market in 1962, with extensive rail facilities connected to the
Oak Point Yard The Oak Point Yard is a freight railroad yard located in the South Bronx, New York City. The yard is owned by CSX Transportation, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and for trai ...
* The State of New York's $375 million "Full Freight Access Program" to allow cars with higher, TOFC clearance (but not double-stack) to reach Queens and Long Island, including construction of the Oak Point Link and the
Harlem River Intermodal Yard Harlem River Yards (also known as Harlem River Yardthe Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
. The link opened in 1998. The Harlem River Intermodal Yard was intended to handle intermodal containers but none were ever lifted there. Instead, it is being used for loading containerized trash onto trains for remote disposal. * The restoration in 2006 of freight rail service to Staten Island via the
Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Rai ...
at a cost of $72 million. * The
ExpressRail ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has bee ...
System, a $600 million investment in improved intermodal rail facilities at the container terminals on the west side of the Upper New York Bay and Newark Bay in New Jersey, and on Staten Island. The last yard of the project, next to Greenville yard, opened on January 7, 2019. * The grant of a concession in 1997 to a private short haul railroad, the
New York and Atlantic Railway The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) is a short line railroad formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, a public commuter rail agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An af ...
, to handle all rail freight on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s rights-of-way. * The rebuilding of the
65th Street Yard The 65th Street Yard, also Bay Ridge Rail Yard, is a rail yard on the Upper New York Bay in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Equipped with two transfer bridges which allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto car floats, the last ...
, a rail yard at the Brooklyn shore with two car float bridges that allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto barges, by the City and State in 1999 at a cost of $20 million. The car float bridges remained unused until 2012 because of financial disputes between the city and NYCHRR, which used bridges at the former Bush Terminal at 50th Street, instead. The 65th Street Yard was restored by the Port Authority for use by New York and New Jersey Rail, which it acquired in 2008. * The use of $4.8 million of
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
funds to rehabilitate an NY&A rail spur at Enterprise Park at Calverton (EPCAL), an industrial park located at Calverton, Long Island. * The acquisition of the New York and New Jersey Rail cross harbor car float operations by the Port Authority in 2008 for $16 million. The Port Authority then acquired the New Jersey Greenville Yard in 2010 and awarded a contract for its reconstruction as a rail to barge facility in 2011. The authority's board authorized $118.1 million for the overall project. The State of New Jersey has budgeted $89 million in its 2012 budget to bring the Greenville Yard and Lift Bridge to a State-of-Good-Repair. * The opening, in September 2011, of
Brookhaven Rail Terminal The Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT) is a truck-train trans-load facility in Yaphank, New York on Long Island. The 28-acre initial site was built with $40 million in private funds and opened on September 27, 2011. It is projected to take 40,000 l ...
(BRT), a privately financed $40 million, 28-acre transload facility. It is projected to take 40,000 trucks off Long Island roads and transfer 1 million tons of freight a year by 2016. The terminal includes three tracks for construction material, such as
lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
,
asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...
and
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
, and six tracks for merchandise, such as flour and
biodiesel Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat ( tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil ...
. Plans to expand the yard have generated community opposition. * Rehabilitation and reactivation of the
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) is an intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located along the Upper New York Bay, between 29th and 39th Streets in the Sunset Park and ...
(SBMT) along the Bay Ridge Channel in Sunset Park in late 2012. The terminal includes a 77-acre roll on/roll off automobile import and processing facility at the 39th Street pier, and an 11-acre, recycling facility for the city's plastic, metal and glass waste stream at the 30th Street pier. Both facilities are served by newly built rail connections to the 65th Street yard. * Construction in 2014 of a transload facility for vegetable oil, food products and construction material at NYA's Wheel Spur Yard along Newtown Creek near Long Island City. NYA expects the facility to support replacement of the nearby
Kosciuszko Bridge The Kosciuszko Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge over Newtown Creek in New York City, connecting Greenpoint in Brooklyn to Maspeth in Queens. The bridge consists of a pair of cable-stayed bridge spans: the eastbound span opened in April 2017 ...
. The NYA also received permission from the LIRR, which owns most of the tracks on which NYA operates, to handle cars weighing up to , the top load limit for railroads in the eastern U.S. The previous LIRR limit was . * New York City's 2006 municipal solid waste plan. Under the plan, most of the city's non-recyclable solid waste is placed in intermodal containers and transported by rail to disposal sites. Some of the containers are loaded onto rail cars in the city, while others are first moved across New York Harbor by barge to transfer stations in Staten Island and New Jersey.


Status


Routes

As of late 2013, most rail freight to New York City moves over lines on the west side of the Hudson and is unloaded in New Jersey, where it is brought by truck to the city. Railroad freight cars that enter the City or Long Island do so via
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, or Staten Island.


The Bronx

The main mainland rail connection to New York City and Long Island from the national rail network is via tracks on the east bank of the Hudson. CSX Transportation freight trains from the west cross the Hudson on the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, 140 miles (230 km) to the north at Selkirk. From there to Poughkeepsie the two-track line, known as the
Hudson Subdivision The Amtrak Hudson Line, also known as the CSX Hudson Subdivision, is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation and leased by Amtrak in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs from Poughkeepsie north along the east shore of the Hudson River ...
, is owned by CSX but is leased to Amtrak. Amtrak runs 28 trains a day on this segment. South of Poughkeepsie, the Hudson Line widens, first to three and then four tracks, becomes electrified with third rail. This section is owned by Metro North Commuter Railroad. CSX runs four road freight trains a day on this line with an average of 75 cars per train, the equivalent of 900 trucks. Just north of the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, the Hudson Line connects with the Oak Point Link, which acts as a replacement for the decommissioned Port Morris Freight Branch in addition to connecting the Harlem River Intermodal Yard and the
Oak Point Yard The Oak Point Yard is a freight railroad yard located in the South Bronx, New York City. The yard is owned by CSX Transportation, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and for trai ...
. The Oak Point Yard, the largest rail yard in New York City, directly serves local industry and the Hunts Point Market and also connects to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line to Boston, which is used by the
Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, ...
to haul crushed stone to Long Island. Freight trains to Long Island move from the yard over the
Hell Gate Bridge The Hell Gate Bridge, originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or the East River Arch Bridge, is a steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City. Originally built for four tracks, the bridge currently carries two tracks of Amtr ...
to the New York and Atlantic yard at Fresh Pond Junction in Queens. As part of the deal to create the Oak Point Link, the Canadian Pacific Railway was granted trackage rights over the Hudson Line and the link, but Canadian Pacific currently allows CSX to haul its traffic in exchange for hauling CSX traffic on another route. Since 1997, the New York and Atlantic, a
short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that oper ...
, has had the concession to provide freight service over the tracks of the MTA's Long Island Rail Road, the largest commuter operation in North America. The NY&A carries about 20,000 carloads a year, including lumber, paper, building materials, plastic, aggregates, food products, and recyclables, over 269 route miles. As of 2011, it has seven transload facilities, in Brooklyn, Queens, Farmingdale, Hicksville and Yaphank. Clearances along the LIRR prohibit double-stack operations.


Brooklyn

The sole remaining
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
operation in the area,
New York New Jersey Rail New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroad that operates the only car float operation across Upper New York Bay between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by t ...
, carries railroad cars from the
Greenville Yard Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was la ...
in Jersey City to Brooklyn, where cars either go to local customers or are picked up by the New York and Atlantic and moved over the
Bay Ridge Branch The Bay Ridge Branch is a rail line owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway in New York City. It is the longest freight-only line of the LIRR, connecting the Montauk Branch and CSX Transporta ...
to Fresh Pond Junction. In 2004, when it was still run by a public company, New York Regional Rail, it carried 3400 carloads (a carload being one loaded rail car), charging between $250 and $1,500 per carload, and estimated that it needed to handle in excess of 4200 carloads per year to be profitable. The operation, now run by the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...
, began using the
65th Street Yard The 65th Street Yard, also Bay Ridge Rail Yard, is a rail yard on the Upper New York Bay in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Equipped with two transfer bridges which allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto car floats, the last ...
in Brooklyn in July 2012 and hopes to increase annual traffic from 1600 carloads to 23,000 by 2017. On September 17, 2014, the Port Authority announced that it was funding a major redevelopment of the Greenville Yard, to include a new container terminal, two new rail to barge transfer bridges, two new
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
barges, each with 18 rail car capacity, and three new KLW SE10B ultra low emission locomotives. In November 2017, the first of the new barges was delivered. The second was delivered in December 2018.


Staten Island

Staten Island has a short, direct connection to the national rail network. Trains enter from New Jersey by way of the
Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge The Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Railroad Bridge is a rail vertical-lift bridge connecting Elizabethport, New Jersey and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island, New York, United States. The bridge was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Rai ...
, which was reopened in 2006. They serve the Staten Island Transfer Station at
Fresh Kills Landfill The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island. The landfil ...
, which handles
municipal solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste ...
for the borough, and the refurbished,
Howland Hook Marine Terminal The Howland Hook Marine Terminal, operating as ‘’’GCT New York,’’’ is a container port facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey located at Howland Hook in northwestern Staten Island, New York City. It is situated on the east ...
. The latter has a new intermodal rail yard and can handle 425,000 containers a year. It is part of the Port Authority's
ExpressRail ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has bee ...
system and is served by the Staten Island Railroad with a connection via
Conrail Shared Assets Operations Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail ( reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Area ...
Chemical Coast to both CSX and
Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
.


Rail share of freight

Measured by ton-miles, about 40% of freight in the United States is moved by rail. However thare are significant regional variations. In the west, 65% of freight moves by rail, while in the north-east only 19% moves by rail.p. 14 Much of U.S. railroad freight consists of heavy commodities that are not significant in the New York economy, for example coal is 44% of total national rail tonnage. Intermodal tonnage is only about 8.9%. In addition to highway and rail, cargo arrives in New York City by air, barge and, of course, ship, the port being the largest on the East Coast of North America. A major source of freight leaving the City is trash. The closing of the
Fresh Kills Landfill The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island. The landfil ...
in 2001 forced the city to transport its waste material to distant sites. New York City's Solid Waste Management Plan calls for each borough to ship its own trash, the Bronx and Staten Island using rail directly and the rest of the city using barge to rail. The
Panama Canal expansion project The Panama Canal expansion project ( es, ampliación del Canal de Panamá), also called the Third Set of Locks Project, doubled the capacity of the Panama Canal by adding a new lane of traffic allowing for a larger number of ships, and increasin ...
, which opened in 2016, was expected to bring more container traffic from Asia directly to the Port of New York, instead of coming via the railroad "
Land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea leve ...
" from U.S. West Coast ports. The Port Authority has spent over $1 billion to raise the deck of the
Bayonne Bridge Bayonne Bridge is an arch bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull and connecting Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island in New York City. It carries New York State Route 440 (NY 440) and New Jersey Route 440. It is the sixth-longes ...
to allow the larger New Panamax ships that now use the expanded canal to reach its existing container terminals in New Jersey, and has spent $235 million to buy a portion of the former
Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY) was a U.S. military ocean terminal located in the Port of New York and New Jersey which operated from 1967 to 1999. From 1942 to 1967 the site was the Bayonne Naval Drydock. The site is on Upper New Yor ...
, which is not obstructed by the Bayonne Bridge.


Proposals to increase freight rail use

A number of proposals have been put forward to increase the share of rail freight movement within the City and Long Island: * Construction of an intermodal rail-to-truck yard at a site in the West Maspeth section of Queens. The location is near the intersection of
Interstate 278 Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New Yor ...
and Interstate 495. The project has received intense opposition for neighbors concerned about increased truck traffic on local streets that lead to the highway interchange. A City University of New York (CUNY) study pointed out that "no current demand for a containerized truck-rail facility has yet been demonstrated" in part because intermodal containers generally must be unloaded at major distribution centers, few of which are located on Long Island. The study also noted that standard double stack rail equipment is too wide to run on tracks where
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
is used, as it is on much of the Long Island Rail Road's passenger routes. * Construction of a transload facility at the former Pilgrim State Hospital. This project has also been stymied by local opposition, though Governor Paterson vetoed a 2008 bill that would have killed the project by incorporating the site into a nearby state park. The same CUNY study, commissioned by the state after the veto, concluded that "there is an immediate demand for bulk service"—rail-shipped commodities such as building materials, plastics, paper, and food—that was unmet due to a lack of transloading facilities on Long Island. It identified 12 additional candidate sites besides Pilgrim State, including the
Brookhaven Rail Terminal The Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT) is a truck-train trans-load facility in Yaphank, New York on Long Island. The 28-acre initial site was built with $40 million in private funds and opened on September 27, 2011. It is projected to take 40,000 l ...
that has since opened. * Rebuilding parts of the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx, already a major rail freight destination, to facilitate greater rail use. The market received a $10 million grant in 2012 for this purpose. * Construction of a double-stack-ready Cross Harbor Rail Tunnel from Greenville, New Jersey to Brooklyn, at a cost estimated in 2004 at between $4.8 and $7.4 billion, depending on whether one or two tracks are provided. The Port Authority is preparing a new environmental impact statement for the project, which has come under criticism because of its high cost (all the US freight railroads combined spent $10.7 billion on capital expenditures in 2010), modest projected impact on overall truck traffic (around a 5% reduction) and potential impact on local communities, such as West Maspeth. * Building a new container port on Brooklyn's Sunset Park waterfront with a rail link to the proposed tunnel. Brooklyn currently has a container operation at Red Hook, but it has no rail connection. (Sea access to Brooklyn is not obstructed by the
Bayonne Bridge Bayonne Bridge is an arch bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull and connecting Bayonne, New Jersey with Staten Island in New York City. It carries New York State Route 440 (NY 440) and New Jersey Route 440. It is the sixth-longes ...
.) A proposal would use right-of-way that now carries freight, including the Bay Ridge Branch, to build a new Triboro RX passenger service connecting the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, potentially limiting use for rail freight.


Freight NYC

In July 2018, the
New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...
announced a $100 million plan called ''Freight NYC'' to improve the flow of freight into and out of New York City. The plan's rail component includes: * Constructing up to four new transload facilities in Brooklyn and Queens * Constructing more passing sidings * Supporting the Port Authority's Cross Harbor Freight Program (CHFP) * Supporting the Metropolitan Rail Freight Council (MRFC) Action Plan aimed at increasing rail freight service to locations east of the Hudson The Freight NYC plan also includes a marine component that would build more barge terminals and an effort to support greener trucking.


Impact of electronic commerce

The rise of electronic commerce, coupled with faster delivery services such as Amazon Prime, has increased truck traffic throughout the area and has led to demand for more warehouse space within the city. At least some of these warehouses are being located near rail terminals, including Amazon's Staten Island facility which is a short distance form the New York Container Terminal and Arlington Yard.


Active freight rail yards in New York City and Long Island

Active freight rail yards in New York City and Long Island include: *
65th Street Yard The 65th Street Yard, also Bay Ridge Rail Yard, is a rail yard on the Upper New York Bay in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Equipped with two transfer bridges which allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto car floats, the last ...
– Brooklyn shore, reopened in 2012 after being refurbished for cross harbor
car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
, which connects to
Greenville Yard Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was la ...
in New Jersey. *
Arlington Yard Arlington Yard is a freight yard located on the North Shore Branch right of way of the Staten Island Railway in Staten Island, New York, United States. It lies west of the former Arlington station, east of Western Avenue, and north of the St ...
– Staten Island, small yard servicing the island *
Brookhaven Rail Terminal The Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT) is a truck-train trans-load facility in Yaphank, New York on Long Island. The 28-acre initial site was built with $40 million in private funds and opened on September 27, 2011. It is projected to take 40,000 l ...
– facility for bulk commodities, in eastern Long Island *
Harlem River Intermodal Yard Harlem River Yards (also known as Harlem River YardHunts Point Terminal Market – the Bronx, largest food distribution center in New York * Industry City – Brooklyn shore, used for car float operations * Fresh Pond Junction – Queens, main freight yard on Long Island, hub of NY&A * New York Container Terminal – Staten Island, includes an intermodal rail yard *
Oak Point Yard The Oak Point Yard is a freight railroad yard located in the South Bronx, New York City. The yard is owned by CSX Transportation, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and for trai ...
– Bronx, largest freight yard in the City, owned by CSX * Pine Aire Yard – Farmingdale, owned by NY&A and used to serve industries along the LIRR Main Line * Wheel Spur Yard – Queens, reopened NY&A transload facility in Long Island City used for vegetable oil, food products and construction material.Wheelspur Rail Yard in LIC Back in Operation
Mitch Waxman, Brownstoner, April 16, 2015
The New York City Subway system has many other rail yards, but, with two exceptions, these are not connected with the national rail network. The two railroads with direct connections to the New York City Subway are the
South Brooklyn Railway The South Brooklyn Railway is a railroad in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is owned by the City of New York and operated by the New York City Transit Authority. Its original main line ran parallel to 38th Street from the Upper New Y ...
and the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch.


See also

*
New York Connecting Railroad The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Railway, Providence a ...
*
Rail transportation in the United States Rail transportation in the United States consists primarily of freight shipments, with a well integrated network of standard gauge private freight railroads extending into Canada and Mexico. Passenger service is mainly mass transit and commute ...
*
Timeline of Jersey City area railroads __NOTOC__ For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater (the Northern end of the line along the Hudson River), South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east of ...
*
Transportation in New York City The transportation system of New York City is a network of complex infrastructural systems. New York City, being the most populous city in the United States, has a transportation system which includes one of the largest subway systems in the wo ...
* Vision 2020: New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Flickr New York Rail Marine group
with photos of marine and allied shore rail freight operations * {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200125182452/http://www.freightrrofnyc.info/ , date=January 25, 2020 , title=Industrial & Offline Terminal Railroads of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx & Manhattan Rail transportation in New York (state)