With the completion of the remaining storm damage repairs, the new timetable restores the pre-storm schedule of last summer.
"Metro-North trains returned to a full schedule of 26 daily trains and 14 trains on Saturday and Sunday on November 28," said MTA Metro-North President Howard Permut." At that time, we announced that, some train schedules had to change to allow repair work to continue. Now all repairs affecting train service have been completed and customers will see that the new Port Jervis timetable returns all trains to pre-storm schedules. We have fulfilled our commitment to resume our pre-storm service."
Some changes to look for include:
- Inbound trains (to Hoboken and New York-Penn Station) run four minutes faster overall.
- The 8:54 AM weekday train from Port Jervis returns to its former departure time of 9:20 AM.
- Outbound trains (to Port Jervis) run four to nine minutes faster overall.
- The 8:38 AM train from Hoboken (8:32 AM from New York-Penn Station) returns to its former departure times of 8:21 AM from Hoboken and 8:13 AM from New York.
- On weekends, the 9:30 AM from Hoboken (9:14 AM from New York-Penn Station) returns to its former Hoboken departure time of 9:21 AM, and arrives in Port Jervis 35 minutes earlier, at 11:31 AM.
Tremendous Progress
Since the end of August, when flooding and catastrophic damage associated with Tropical Storm Irene devastated 14 miles of the Port Jervis Line, track repairs have been underway by Metro-North's own workforce. The progress of our employees' effort has been so great that the amount of work that had to be done by a third party contractor has been significantly reduced.
In addition, the cost of repairs, substitute bus service and lost revenue currently is estimated between $30 million and $40 million, less than the original $60 million estimate. This cost reduction is due in part to good planning for the substitute bus service and the efficiency of the work being performed by Metro-North's employees.
Given the tremendous progress made to date, the original estimate for completion of all Port Jervis Line repairs has been moved forward from fall 2012 to June 2012.
What Was Done
We had to quickly construct a new railroad where the infrastructure was most severely damaged:
- Thousands of feet of washed out track have been restored (requiring many tons of fill material), and resurfaced with new ballast. (Track ballast is crushed stone forming the track bed upon which railroad ties are laid.) Also, tons of debris have been removed from along the tracks.
- Several new culverts have been installed, and two bridge back walls were completely rebuilt. (A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment.)
- Some 150,000 tons of ballast and other fill was salvaged for the rebuilding effort.
- An abandoned damaged stone bridge was filled with concrete to stabilize it while maintaining the historic features of the structure.
- A scour hole beneath a bridge pier was filled in and will be protected with riprap (rock or other material used to armor shorelines, stream beds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against erosion). Scour holes are caused by swiftly moving water, compromising the integrity of a structure.
- Riprap was placed on embankment sections prone to washouts to help protect against future flooding events.
- We most recently completed the final surfacing and grading of the remaining track, restoring it to service. (Track surfacing is adjusting the vertical profile of the rails. Track grading refers to the slope of the track.)
What's Left To Do
- Metro-North will continue to fill in washed out areas of the embankment.
- Metro-North will continue to install slope protection (riprap) and 2 new drainage and piping structures to help prevent future washouts on the track.
- Any necessary touch up or finalization of the slope protection and placement of riprap, along with additional track resurfacing will be accomplished in the spring of 2012.
Thank You fro Metro-North!
Metro-North appreciates the patience of our 2,300 Port Jervis Line customers during the past few months. We look forward to providing you with the same level of train service that you have grown to expect and rely on. We realize the interim train-bus-train shuttle service we provided, while effective, was not nearly as convenient as a one-seat ride from Port Jervis to Hoboken.
And we thank our service partner NJ TRANSIT, our sister agency MTA Bus, and Leprechaun Lines, who all played key roles in helping to provide alternative shuttle bus/train service-by far the largest busing effort in our history- until we could restore full train service on the line.
We also want to acknowledge the tremendous cooperation and assistance received from Orange & Rockland Counties, and the Village of Sloatsburg, as well as the property owners along our right of way who granted us access so that we could build access roads, receive deliveries and perform critical repair work.
For more information please visit: http://www.mta.info
---
