New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroad that operates the only

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), 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 i ...

operation across

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...

between

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

and

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned 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 (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

, which acquired it for about $16 million as a step in a process that might see a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel completed. Since freight trains are not allowed in

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's North River Tunnels, and the Poughkeepsie Bridge was closed in 1974, the ferry is the only freight crossing of the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

south of the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, to the north of New York City, in a process known as the Selkirk hurdle. It is the last remaining car float operation in the

Port of New York and New Jersey The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York metropolitan area, New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. It includes the sy ...

. The railroad operates in two divisions, the Marine division and Port Jersey Rail division. Its switching operations on the New York side include a short spur north to

Bush Terminal Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic Intermodal freight transport, intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn ...

which runs through the Brooklyn Army Terminal complex and then through the center of First Avenue in Sunset Park. This spur is the last example of active

street-running A street running train is a train which runs on a Railway track, track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being ref ...

rail operations in New York City.

Operations

The Port Authority owns Greenville Yard in Greenville, Jersey City, where it connects with Class I railroads

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

and

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

, which jointly operate Conrail Shared Assets Operations' North Jersey Shared Assets Area. On the

Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, Dyker Heights to the east, the Nar ...

end, 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, Brooklyn, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Equipped with two transfer bridges which allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto car ...

connect to the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

's freight-only Bay Ridge Branch, which is operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway, and the New York City Transit Authority's South Brooklyn Railway. The 4 mile barge trip across the harbor takes approximately 45 minutes. The equivalent trip by truck is 35–50 miles.NYRR 10-K SEC filing for 2003
/ref> As of 2012, the NYNJ system moves approximately 1,500 rail cars across the harbor per year. Port Authority officials suggested that the system can transport as many as 25,000 cars annually. NYNJ replaced two

EMD GP38-2 The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier EMD GP38, GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 1 ...

with three low-emission locomotives from Knoxville Locomotive Works in Tennessee for $5 million. As of July 2015, the system had moved about 4900 rail cars year-to-date.

History

From 1983 to 2006, the operation was known as the New York Cross Harbor Railroad . Earlier predecessors include the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Company, Bush Terminal Railroad, New York Dock Railway, and New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

operations at Bay Ridge and Greenville. In 1999 the city of New York rehabilitated the larger

for car float operations with two transfer bridges. It was not turned over to NYCH because of a dispute over money owed the city. NYCH continued to use the single transfer bridge at Bush Terminal instead. In 2002, New York Cross Harbor Railroad revenues from railroad operations were $1,685,899. It had 48 active customers, with shipments of cocoa from docks in Brooklyn as its largest line of business. It also operated a trucking service and offered shipside and dockside service for receipt or delivery of various types of cargo, such as oversized steel beams. NYCH ceased to exist in 2006; a new company, Mid-Atlantic New England Rail, LLC of West Seneca, New York, bought the railroad and renamed it New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (NYNJ). The city of New York purchased the company two years later. 65th Street Railyard in Brooklyn - New York New Jersey Atlantic

65th Street Railyard in Brooklyn - New York New Jersey Atlantic

The Port Authority began working with government agencies in New York and New Jersey to bring NYNJ to a state of good repair. This includes emergency work to stabilize the transfer bridge structure in Greenville, repairs to the transfer bridge and track infrastructure in Brooklyn, and procurement of ultra-low emissions locomotives and a new 30-car rail barge. In May 2010 the Port Authority announced that it would purchase Greenville Yard and build a new barge-to-rail facility there, as well as improving the existing rail car float system. The barge-to-rail facility is expected to handle an estimated 60,000 to 90,000 containers of solid waste per year from New York City, eliminating up to 360,000 trash truck trips a year. The authority's board authorized $118.1 million for the overall project. In December that same year the NYNJ purchased the 2.4 mile Port Jersey Railroad to improve its access to shippers in the Greenville port area. In November 2011 the Port Authority hired HDR, Inc. of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

to rehabilitate Greenville Yard. Work included rehabilitating the railyard and waterfront structures, including a rail barge and transfer bridge, demolishing two other bridges, designing a new barge and two new bridges, and adding 10,000 feet of track. In July 2012 NYNJ began operating out of the 65th Street Yard. Initial cargo included apples, home heating oil, new automobiles, and scrap metal. The railroad north along First Avenue was refurbished and new tracks laid to support operations at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, including an automobile import pier and a new municipal recycling plant. On October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

caused major damage to the Greenville facility, undermining the transfer bridge gantries and sinking one of the car floats. The 81-year-old gantry structures were ultimately demolished. The working float bridge at Bush Terminal was transferred by barge to Greenville, where it was re-designated the Greenville Pontoon Bridge. Service was restored in late December, after 52 days of intensive reconstruction. On September 17, 2014 the Port Authority announced that it was funding a major redevelopment of the Greenville Yard, to include a new

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 ...

container terminal servicing the Port Jersey Global Marine Terminal. The Port Authority would also build two new rail-to-barge transfer bridges, purchase two new

barges, and buy four new ultra low emission locomotives In November 2017, the first of the new barges, ''NYNJR100,'' was delivered to NYNJ. Built by Metal Trades, Inc., the four-track barge can carry up to 18 rail cars of length, with up to 2,298 long tons (2,335 tonne) of cargo. The second barge, ''NYNJR200,'' was delivered in December 2018. An older, 14-car barge, the ''278,'' is still in service. The new ExpressRail container terminal opened January 7, 2019, with four tracks out of eight operational. The remaining four tracks were opened on June 17, 2019. In July 2017, the Port Authority announced a $35 million study to build a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, suitable for freight. If built, the tunnel would eliminate the need for the NYNJ ferry.

References

External links

New York New Jersey Rail Official WebsiteNew York Rail Marine photo pool on Flickr
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York New Jersey Rail Llc New Jersey railroads New York (state) railroads Railroads on Long Island Ferry companies of New Jersey Ferry companies of New York City Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Railway companies established in 2006 Switching and terminal railroads Rail freight transportation in New York City Port of New York and New Jersey Water transportation in New York City Train ferries

Operations

History

See also

References

External links