Rail-Car Float Plans Advance in NYC

New York City officials have sought for years to obtain improved and direct rail freight service to the four boroughs that lie east of the Hudson River. They have said they want to increase rail volume and reduce some truck congestion — and air pollution — on the four highway crossings into New York. And now an investment of $20 million is buoying their expectations.

“For too long we have suffered from over-reliance on trucks to move our freight, with serious consequences to our economic vitality and quality of life,” said Michael G. Carey, president of the New York City Economic Development Corp. “By putting a rail-car float system into operation on the Brooklyn waterfront, we could potentially divert approximately 2 million tons of freight a year from truck to rail and eliminate tons of air pollutants annually.”

Currently, the city’s only direct steel-wheel link to the rest of the country west of the Hudson River is the CSX Transportation line that runs north from the city on the east side of the Hudson. To move freight to and from New York, CSX must haul rail cars along one bank of the Hudson 155 miles north to Selkirk, N.Y., near Albany, and then back the same distance on the other side of the river.

Rail freight may, however, be floated a short distance across the river by tug boat and rail barge from the terminal at Greenville Yard in Jersey City, N.J., to the rail facility at 51st Street in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn that is operated by the New York Cross Harbor Railroad.

For the full story, see the Oct. 16 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.