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Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027328

US PASSENGER RAIL NORTHEAST CORRIDOR How We Get Around: America's Best Railroad has a MASSIVE Problem. Here's What Will Fix It. PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiITYpgd7Kw Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
America's Best Railroad has a MASSIVE Problem. Here's What Will Fix It. How We Get Around Aug 25, 024 3.08K subscribers ... 31,349 views ... 1.3K likes #amtrak #electrictrains #newjerseytransit The Northeast Corridor is the fastest, busiest and most important rail line in all of the Americas. For nearly 200 years, the line has been a backbone of transportation in the Northeastern US as it was becoming connected together, and for nearly 100 years, the line has been powered by the objectively best way to power a train: overhead line electrification. This system has enable the line to be the fastest railroad line in America for decades. However, the system has been having a common nemesis in recent years: Heatwaves, which are causing havoc on the near century old catenary systems. It has caused constant delays, slow operations and even damage to trains and the infrastructure. And all of this boils down to one common problem. It's a problem that has hindered the Corridor's sky-high potential for decades, but is a problem that can actually be fixed relatively easily and also relatively cheaply compared to other infrastructure investments, and it's one that can provide by far the most notable benefits. Oh, and I casually correct something that Wendover got very wrong when he made a video on this topic a little bit ago. Good article on this topic: https://www.curbed.com/article/amtrak... Sources: https://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/u... https://thebhc.org/sites/default/file... https://x.com/alanthefisher/status/18... https://web.archive.org/web/200104051... Chapters 0:00 Introduction 2:08 What is the Northeast Corridor? 7:39 Chaos, Confusion and Delay 9:56 Hot and Heavy 15:35 This is Not a New Problem... 18:00 Why is NJT getting it worse than Amtrak? 22:22 The Solution: Something that Everyone Else Uses... including Amtrak! 27:06 What This Fix Will Allow 29:20 How Much Will It Cost? Not As Much as You'd Fear! 33:38 It's Already Beginning... 37:51 Conclusion Keywords: #amtrak #newjerseytransit #highspeedrail #trains #infrastructure #highspeedtrain #electrictrains #newyork #americantrain #usarailway #passengertrain #acela #acelaexpress #history #pennsylvaniarailroad #washingtondc #boston #philadelphia #urbanism #highway #bridges #intercitytrain #commutertrain #wendover #halfasinteresting #wrong Transcript 0:05 the Northeast Corridor it is without question the busiest Inter City rail line on all of the North American continent and nothing even comes close to it covering 457 miles from Washington to Boston through Baltimore Wilmington Philadelphia Newark New Haven and Providence the corridor is always a hive of activity from the Workhorse commuter trains of various operators along the route to the inter city Amtrak trains from the trusty Northeast Regional to the Speedy asella trains and even longdistance trains on the first or last leg of their usually over Thousand Mile Journeys in the year 2024 amid growing ridership for passenger trains in general in the US more people are riding the Northeast Corridor than have done in years even going back to pre-2020 levels and even giving ridership from the Golden Age of rail a run for its money while that isn't the case for every 1:03 operator one that is seeing a lot of traffic back on its trains is New Jersey Transit the state operator of Regional Rail Services across its namesake state with its principal operations being commuter trains to and from New York City but throughout the summer of this year this portion of the line in particular has been subject to horrendous delays and reliability issues all related to the brutal heat wave that the region has been experiencing in this time time along with long-standing issues present with the line so what's going on here why is the heat affecting hundreds of thousands of people like this what can be done to fix it and what is being done to fix it well be sure to stay hydrated folks cuz this Hot Topic took me for quite a journey [Applause] What is the Northeast Corridor? 2:10 so before we go much further we have to understand a few things about the Northeast cordor generally built out in Loosely connected phases and stages from its first section between Newark and Trenton New Jersey opening in 1834 to the final part of the modern right of way being built between Manhattan and the Bronx being completed in 19177 the Northeast Corridor as we know it today will become part of the Consolidated main lines of two giant railroad companies by the time of the golden age of rail in the early 1900s the northern part of the line from New York City to Boston would be owned by the New York New Haven and Hartford railroad or the New Haven for short and would pass through the likes of Bridgeport Stamford New Haven New London and Providence on its way to Boston 3:00 the southern part though between New York City Newark Trenton Philadelphia Wilmington Baltimore and Washington DC will be owned by the company generally considered to be the largest and most powerful Railroad Company of the rail Golden Age the Pennsylvania Railroad their combined route provided the most direct and fastest alignment connecting the major cities of the Northeast megalopolis but even then there was much more to come by the time the final parts of the line were starting to take shape due largely to a mandate by the city of New York which bans steam locomotives and later diesel locomotives from running in the tunnels of New York for very very very good reasons I must stress that along with increasing traffic demand the penzy following an emerging Trend started by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1890s would Electrify the section of the Northeast Corridor between the newly completed New York Penn Station and Manhattan Transfer 4:00 Station near Newark in 1910 though this would use the more well-known at the time DC third rail system as opposed to the system that we see today which I'll get to later however while the Long Island Railroad which was owned by the peny at the time would begin electrifying their commuter network using this system with 750 volt DC third rail power the long distances of the main lines proved to be less than optimal for a third rail system due to the high number of of substations needed to deliver the current because of low voltages that third rail could provide however the peny didn't give up on this idea as in 1915 they would Electrify the first section of their original main line between Philadelphia's Broad Street Station and the suburb of peoli Pennsylvania this time with 11,000 volt AC overhead catary wires this would allow for much higher voltages and therefore Superior performance at a cheaper cost compared to Third rail as 5:00 fewer substations would need to be built and maintained for the same distances and this was already Improvement 5:06 compared to the vast Improvement that electric power in general third rail or catary provided over steam locomotives 5:13 and even later diesels something that still holds true to this day to the point that the most powerful locomotives 5:19 ever built are all electrics naturally though due to The Upfront cost of 5:24 setting up the system the electric wires would spread across the penzy's network slowly starting with their commuter 5:31 lines around Philadelphia and spreading out onto their Branch lines and Main lines until by 1934 the electric wires 5:38 were set up for the entire length of their section of the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington DC 5:45 replacing both the third rail system between Penn Station and Newark but it would also replace steam locomotives 5:51 elsewhere along the system being replaced by the legendary gg1 electric locomotives on Inter City passenger and 5:58 Mainline free great workings and the venerable mp54 electric rail cars on 6:04 commuter Services across the corridor the penzy would also extend the electric wires on the main line between peoli and 6:11 Harrisburg by 1938 and they even had plans to keep the wires going to Pittsburgh and eventually to Chicago 6:18 thus allowing the famous Broadway limited to be run with electric power for the whole length of its Journey but 6:25 then World War II happened and it very quickly put the kaios on those ideas the 6:31 New Haven would even get on the electric game too building out an electric network using overhead catary even 6:37 before the penzy did starting in 1907 with the wires reaching New Haven by 6:43 1914 where it would stay for decades they wanted to extend the wires all the way to Boston after its initial success 6:50 but the New Haven Infamous and pretty much Eternal financial problems prevented them from doing so and it 6:57 wouldn't be until the 199 9s when the job was finally done by Amtrak who put 7:04 up the wires from New Haven to Boston before the debut of the asella Express in 7:09 2000 on the whole the use of electric traction has truly stood the test of 7:15 time and it's enabled the NEC to be a line capable of operating the fastest trains on the continent and generally 7:21 enables performance frequency and reliability that other rail operations can only dream of in North America and 7:29 the over over 800,000 daily Riders of the NEC across its length and numerous 7:34 operators and services reap the benefit of it on a daily basis however these past few months have Chaos, Confusion and Delay 7:41 brought to the four one of the key problems that the NEC has faced which if it can be summarized in a phrase it 7:48 would be as follows the nec's infrastructure is insanely old now to a 7:55 lot of people who are familiar with the corridor this is definitely not a Sur surprise to anybody however when people 8:02 talk about the age of the infrastructure it's most easily described by the ages of structures like Bridges and tunnels 8:08 and thankfully there are several projects underway that seek to rectify the obvious cases where old 8:14 infrastructure needs to be replaced however there are a lot of lesser discussed areas where updates are 8:20 actively considered or on the back burner such as track geometry improvements and even smaller stuff such 8:27 as increasing the amount of fencing along the tracks to prevent a frankly disturbing number of trespasser strikes 8:34 on the route however the recent heat waves have displayed another area where 8:39 old infrastructure is coming back to bite and it can be found by looking at the catary systems that power the trains 8:46 particularly so on the former Pennsylvania half of the line and most infamously so in New Jersey throughout 8:54 the summer of 2024 numerous days of lengthy delays and cancellations rocked 8:59 the NEC Network leaving many riders particularly New Jersey Transit Riders struggling to get to and from home each 9:06 day even leading to a bit of a subtle blame game on social media not long 9:12 after the worst days of the crisis New Jersey governor Phil Murphy had a sit down with the heads of both njt and 9:19 Amtrak to work out what was going on and what can be done to fix it while it's understandable to fear that a solution 9:25 to this may seem complicated it actually isn't at least in principle in fact the 9:31 overarching answer is already being undertaken in current update projects on the docket but first I think it's good 9:38 to understand what the problem is and where it stems from and that has to do 9:43 in part with the most visually imposing symbol of the Northeast Corridor that's not the trains themselves and that is 9:51 the Towering catary poles that hold up the wires standing in up to 80 ft tall all Hot and Heavy 9:59 in places the catary poles of the route have come to symbolize the grand ambition and longlasting Legacy that 10:06 electric power has had on this route with the contact wires held at a lower 10:11 height just above the tracks but still at a height that double-decker Passenger cars can fit underneath them easily the 10:18 other wires hanging overhead carry the current to power the signaling system and at its higher levels are the ground 10:24 wires and the wires carrying the 132,000 volts of high current 10:30 electricity to the substations which are set up every 15 to 20 mil on the route 10:35 to convert the 132,000 volt current to the usable 12,000 volt current of the 10:41 Train's pick up all of which quite amazingly comes from one single 10:46 Generating Station 10:56 here behind me is the Safe Harbor Dam on the Susana River just Downstream from Columbia Pennsylvania opened in 1931 11:05 just as the penzi was electrifying the corridor not only does this power station provide Power for people from Philadelphia to Baltimore and everywhere 11:12 in between but there's two turbines in this power station that provide Power for the entirety of the Northeast 11:18 Corridor from Washington DC to New York City and that leads me to a rather interesting thing about the 11:24 infrastructure of the corridor itself it is old and the catary poles are old but 11:30 it really shouldn't be as big a problem as it is and the dam is a pretty good example of that the dam is still a very 11:36 good power station for the route but here's the thing the dam has seen updates over the years to match 11:42 increases in power demand the catary polls on the NEC haven't at least not 11:48 for the most part and that's a point that's going to be pretty obvious as we head south to meet the corridor itself 11:59 [Music] 12:07 I'm here in Perryville Maryland where the power lines from the dam meet up with the power lines for the rail line itself and it's here where we really get 12:14 down to the main issue with the nec's infrastructure at the moment it's not the power source it's not the high 12:20 voltage lines it's not even really the substations at at least it's not in principle and contrary to what our good 12:26 friend Mr Wendover suggested it's not the 25 HZ frequency of the current 12:32 though upgrading the current generally and have it run at 25,000 volts as opposed to the standard of 12,000 volts 12:38 now it would be nice but not exactly necessary no the big problem is the 12:44 actual wires itself and how they are physically hung above the tracks the 12:49 kind of catary wires that are hung above the tracks of the Northeast Corridor are of the old style from the 12:55 1930s that's not an exaggeration to today they are technically known as 13:01 variable tension catary and right there in the name you could probably start to guess the problem but not in a way that 13:08 you might first expect despite looking like that they'd be easy to sway around as they hang about the tracks as they're 13:15 held by other wires they're actually held quite rigidly since the whole point is to keep the wires taau in place so 13:21 that they stay consistent and allow their current going to the trains to flow reliably to the panag graphs which 13:27 are the big electric pickups on the top top of the train that's used to collect the power simple idea in principle yes 13:33 and it worked when it was new however there is a big problem the wires sag 13:41 hence why it's called variable tension catary since the rigidity well varies 13:47 not under the poles but between the poles one thing that I'm sure you notice 13:52 about the wires is that like all electric wires they are made of metal copper to be specific and as with all 14:00 things made of metal they are subject to thermal expansion and contraction the hotter that the temperature gets the 14:06 more the metal expands and while they may not be immediately noticeable to most people most of the time it does 14:14 have a notable effect on operations it can even affect the rails themselves and 14:19 in extreme examples it can cause them to warp so much that they bend the alignment making the tracks anywhere 14:26 from dangerous to useless thanks y there are numerous ways to counter this such 14:32 as joint gaps between the rails and for continuously welded rail like you see on the corridor there are stressing 14:38 techniques used in the laying process that assure that the rails are made to handle the conditions that they face the 14:44 opposite also holds true in winter when the metal contracts in cold temperatures 14:49 if you've ever seen pictures from places like Chicago of trains running over tracks particularly switches that were 14:55 set on fire those fires were deliberately Ely lit by maintenance Crews to reduce the contraction in the 15:02 rails and prevent the rails from snapping apart catary wire works on the same principle though its Solutions 15:09 require something a bit different what happens here is that the heat causes the wires to Sag over the rails between the 15:15 poles so that the wires become less tense since while the wires don't move as much above the mountings the 15:22 expansions between the mountings does cause them to drop out of their optimal position and this can cause problems 15:28 that have hindered the performance of trains on this part of the route going back over decades literally in the time This is Not a New Problem... 15:36 since the penzy installed the wires in the 30s the speed that trains run at as well as the trains themselves have 15:42 changed dramatically higher speeds and higher frequencies were demanded going 15:48 above the 100 mph top speed of the gg1s by the time the metrol liner 15:54 project was being pursued in the 60s the by then 30-year-old infrastructure the route was proving to be a hindrance to 16:00 their potential top speed in service while the metr liner trains boxy appearance and all could reach 160 mph 16:09 and more under testing the catary was one of the main reasons as to why they would never be allowed to run at that 16:15 speed in regular service with the trains limited to 120 mph at best even to this 16:23 day a lot of sections of the line have this same general configuration with a hard cap on the speed of stretches where 16:29 they're used at 135 mph even if the track layout and track geometry can 16:35 handle speeds much faster than that not only can this be observed on board the train in terms of travel times but the 16:42 nature of the wires can actually be heard have a listen here as this AEL Roars by Newark Delaware at 135 mph 16:51 listen for the creaking sound 17:24 if that doesn't symbolize the wire's issues I don't know what does the end 17:29 result has been most evident recently as the variable tension of the wires has led to the Wi sagging causing anything 17:36 from electrical arcing issues to getting caught in the panograph of trains most 17:41 often New Jersey Transit trains and thus either knocking down the wires or knocking the panag graphs off of the njt 17:49 trains but more generally speaking this forces the trains to run at slower speeds than their normal Services 17:56 something that Amtrak has even had to mention on their website if few times recently but wait a minute why are the Why is NJT getting it worse than Amtrak? 18:02 njt trains getting their pantographs knocked off by the drooping wires well Amtrak doesn't really have this issue to 18:10 a large extent wouldn't the Amtrak trains also be suffering a similar issue the answer to that is well yes but 18:18 actually no at least not to the same extent while the point of njt trains 18:24 being generally more frequent than Amtrak trains is one factor this largely has to do with the kinds of trains that 18:31 different operators run Amtrak mostly runs trains that are a traditional locomotive Hall formation with a 18:38 locomotive at the front of the train with a single panograph going up to the wire as it pulls the train along or 18:43 pushes it sometimes a lot of njt trains also run under the same idea and 18:49 therefore they also use one panograph to make contact with the wires some Amtrak 18:54 trains most famously the acelas but also some Northeast regionals have two pantographs contacting the wire one on 19:01 each locomotive or power car in the case of the acelas and they have one of them at each end the resident WS from the 19:09 first panograph running along the wire can cause the second one to bounce off the wires but since there are only two 19:15 panograph for every 8 to 12 cars on the train this is less of an issue as the wires do have time to straighten out 19:22 before the second panograph runs along them however there is a certain kind of 19:28 njt train that has been uniquely susceptible to this problem and sadly 19:33 it's a train that has long been beloved among njt Riders and rail fans 19:41 alike these are the AO 3 electric rail cars one of the longest serving commuter 19:47 train types in the country built by General Electric and avco from 1977 to 19:53 78 and being a cousin of the equally long lasting silver liner 4 cards used by SEPTA in the Philadelphia area these 20:01 cars have been an Old Reliable type of car for the last 45 years now with their 20:06 top speed of 100 mph quick acceleration and relative ease of Maintenance still 20:12 seeing them work across the electric territory of the njt system from the demanding commuter trains of the 20:18 Northeast Corridor down to this awesome little surface the famous Princeton dinky shuttle from Princeton University 20:24 to Princeton Junction while the arrows are generally considered to be second line units behind the locomotive Hall 20:31 trains today these cars are still rather commonly used and it's these cars in 20:36 particular that have been involved with a lot of the wire issues on the NEC and the connected North Jersey coastline so 20:43 much so that cases where the arrows have had their pantographs ripped off is becoming a more common occurrence than I 20:48 would like to see so why is this well remember how I said the locomotive Hall 20:54 trains have at worst a panograph every 8 to 12 cars well these have a panograph every one or 21:02 two cars and in a formation like this 10ar train shown here that's at best 21:08 five pantographs per train all spaced very close to one another it simply 21:13 becomes the laws of resonant waves and the law of averages when the panag graphs bounce off the wires with these 21:19 things thankfully though likely much of the Chagrin of enthusiasts it seems like 21:24 this issue is going to be resolved through a replacement in late 2018 18 21:29 njt made a deal with Bombardier later acquired by Alam for a new Fleet of 21:34 double decker mobile unit sets to replace the arrows these will be three car sets with a single panograph 21:41 powering three coaches as opposed to one or two and combined with other fixes in 21:46 the works and those needing to be pursued this is one step of the puzzle not only to improve speed and capacity 21:52 on njt services but better reliability as well and it's possible that this will 21:58 be one of the first fixes to arrive on the scene since the first set was revealed to be testing at allam's 22:04 factory after being stuck in limbo for a Time following the pandemic it will be sad to see the old units go but 45 years is quite a solid lifespan for any train plus I get the sense that the arrow 3s might stick around to serve on the Princeton dinky so that should be nice to see for a long time to come but this still doesn't resolve all the problems that the wires face not even close it's The Solution: Something that Everyone Else Uses... including Amtrak! it still doesn't fix the fact that the wires still sag so what can we do about that well how about something that's already been done Elsewhere on the corridor on the fastest parts of the corridor in fact instead of the outdated variable tension system newer catary systems and rebuilds of old ones have been seeing the introduction of constant tension catary which is the ultimate endgame solution to fixing the reliability problems of the NEC and increasing speeds on the corridor at the 23:00 same time so this got to be some pretty high-tech stuff right how does it work well it's actually pretty simple contrary to what has been suggested incorrectly via oversimplification by our good friend Mr Wendover in a video on this matter it does not involve tearing down the whole system and rebuilding it from scratch instead it's an active rebuild of the old system but the important thing is to do this the wires are kept con conly talk between 23:29 the poles by attaching pulleys on the ends of wire sections where there are large counter weights hanging from the 23:35 poles so that when the wires expand and contract the counter weights go up and down to keep the wires taut even with 23:42 trains running at higher speeds with multiple panag graphs this is how pretty much every modern electrification 23:48 project since the 60s has been set up and it's proven itself to almost completely get rid of this problem 23:55 making electrification even more reliable than Al Alternatives even in harsh environments including right here 24:02 in the United States it's been used in places from Cal trains recent electrification scheme in the Bay Area 24:08 to the RTD commuter rail system in Denver and even on the Northeast 24:14 Corridor itself remember that electrification that Amtrak did in the 9s from New Haven to Boston to prepare 24:20 for the asella that's all Conant tension systems and as a result they don't have 24:26 these wire problems ever and for the longest time that section was the only 24:32 place where you would see the acelas do 150 mph in 2020 though a new section of the 24:39 corridor had been upgraded with constant tension and that's right here along one of the most famous sections of the 24:45 corridor known as the Jersey racetrack from Hamilton to just before New 24:51 Brunswick the almost straight shot of the line has been upgraded to constant tension wires which makes this another 24:58 place to watch or ride the acelas doing 150 and soon 160 mph with the new trains 25:04 on the way they wanted to go even further with it too and they wanted the wires to go beyond the 14 mil put up to 25:12 23 Mi and extend the wires from New Brunswick to just before Hamilton to 25:17 Trenton but horrendous management largely derived from improper hiring and 25:22 complexs of Interest by an Amtrak executive at the time prevented this from happening and it was shortened to 25:28 the 14 M section that we see today and that's really been one of the 25:33 biggest millstones around the neck of making the ENC faster and more reliable for the longest time it's been 25:40 inconsistency with the level of spending for capital projects to bring the lineup to a state of good repair but also to 25:46 Future proof it for increasing speeds and for future ridership demand and it's not at all helped by really a lack of a 25:53 cohesive vision for what the NEC wants to be and while a lot of funding was 25:58 given to Amtrak and to the NEC in general via the 2021 infrastructure law a lot of that money is perhaps 26:05 understandably going towards bigger projects that require replacing pieces of infrastructure that date back to long 26:12 before the electrification plan was even considered in the first 26:20 [Applause] place now don't get me wrong here all of 26:26 these are good projects even if a few of them like the Frederick duckles tunnel for instance is way more expensive than 26:33 it has any business being something I'll yell about another time perhaps but it's pretty evident that even with things 26:39 like bottleneck fixes and track geometry improvements put off to a later date fixing the electrification scheme is one 26:46 of the easiest ways to improve not only speed but also reliability safety and 26:53 maintenance cost of the Northeast Corridor in general it may not s sound like one of those big sexy things out 27:00 there but it can produce some sexy results in the long term so what can those results What This Fix Will Allow 27:07 be according to calculations made by transit policy researcher and mathematician Alan Levy it's been 27:13 estimated that upgrading the line to constant tension catenary will cut trip times between New York and Washington by 27:20 10 to 11 minutes which combined with the current projects underway the Frederick Douglas tunnel the Susana River Bridge 27:27 and the Gateway project could well see an overall reduction in travel times by upwards of half an hour meaning that 27:34 it's possible to see in a cell service run between the two cities in under 2 and 1/2 hours as opposed to the 2 and 27:41 3/4 hours we see currently and that's with schedule padding I might add which 27:47 the NEC is notorious for in order to compensate for delays which are for numerous reasons that I'll talk about 27:52 more of in the future but more than anything else as it can probably be gleaned these will make the systems much 27:59 more consistent and reliable since trains will not need to be slowed to compensate for sagging wires or for 28:05 outright wire outages meaning that not only will there be less headaches for passengers but the service can be made 28:12 even faster by removing some padding from the scheduling now there are other things that need to be done to minimize 28:18 padding and make advertise travel times faster but this one fix is easily one of 28:24 the most significant on top of that upgrading to constant tension wires is one of the main parts of a proposed 28:31 creation of a fourth section of 160 mph capable trackage on the route which is 28:36 planned to be the longest one to date running from just outside Baltimore all 28:41 the way to just past Newark Delaware thus only adding to the speed potential this upgrade holds long term on top of 28:49 that Levy is estimated that this along with track geometry upgrades and straightening of some curves among 28:55 several other factors would be one of the keys to upgr in the ultimate top speed of the corridor from 160 to 29:02 186 mph the classic gold standard of High-Speed Rail at least on certain parts of the route most notably in New Jersey along the racetrack if you thought trains went by Princeton Junction quickly now that's going to be a whole different ball game with those speeds But ultimately it all comes down to funding and the urgency by those in positions of power to make this happen How Much Will It Cost? Not As Much as You'd Fear! and on top of that the need for a cohesive vision for what the NEC is supposed to be which we've honestly never gotten before this summer really has shown just how difficult the situation has gotten but at the very least it's a bit reassuring that Amtrak njt and the state government aren't just surrendering to the problem here but as heat waves become more and more pronounced and common as the years go by this situation will keep repeating itself until the wires are upgraded with these systems so how much how much will this all cost I hear a lot of you 30:01 ask well it's been estimated that the current cost to bring the whole Southern half of the corridor up to the specification would cost in the area of $3 billion just to do that and on top of that is nearly 850 million more to bring the electrical systems in general up to a state of good repair it may sound like a lot to some but others are asking what's the deal it sounds pretty cheap actually they're building the Frederick Douglas tunnel for $6 billion and the Gateway project in North Jersey is going to be around 16 billion so why is there not a discussion about this nearly as much until recently well as mentioned it's definitely not a high-profile upgrade by comparison and the projects they are underway as good as they are are pretty much the long-term equivalent of emergency repairs to replace infrastructure that's falling apart and could even possibly stop the NEC from being functional if not addressed and I think anybody with 31:03 any sort of sense would say that a Northeast Corridor is better than no Northeast Corridor but beyond the projects that are underway right now in my humble opinion this is the update of the corridor that must take top priority not only for the constant tension setup and the improvements to speed and reliability that it entails but also the Deferred maintenance on a lot of electrical infrastructure in general which which while Amtrak has tried with what they have for the longest time there is a lot more that needs to be fixed now I am not an electrical engineer and I definitely can't explain what those problems and solutions may be at least without firmly done in Krueger myself but considering that the electrical infrastructure of this part of the line runs at a 25 Herz frequency as opposed to the National power grid standard of 60 HZ since it dates back to before that standard was even set in the first place which despite what has been gested by Wendover it's not at all required to bring the frequency up to 60 32:02 HZ to make the line perform better but regardless of that needless idea there's still likely to be a fair bit more to do to bring the electrical systems up to a Modern Standard hence the over 80000 million backlog on the electrical system more generally so is there anything that can provide for this upgrade well there's thankfully more hope than some might think in the 2021 infrastructure law of the money that went to projects on the NEC $6 billion was set aside for state of good repair projects to fix longstanding issues with the line that don't involve building fancy new pieces of infrastructure like Bridges and tunnels and one of them that is being heavily suggested is that this money should go at least in part to upgrading the electrical systems and particularly the wires to constant tension and in recent weeks both state and federal figures representing New Jersey have been heavily pushing the the Department of Transportation to allocate funding on 33:00 top of that specifically for this problem it seems that with the options on the table politicians railroad officials and the public alike realize that it's about time to nip a long-standing issue with the most important rail line on the continent in the bud it's extremely rare to have a true Silver Bullet solution to a long-standing and critical issue but we may just have one with the upgrade of the line's wires to constant tension and it could be that those who controlled the purse strings know it too and nowhere do I think really shows that more than with one of those Marquee projects of rebuilding the nec's infrastructure It's Already Beginning... [Music] 34:02 [Music] flowing through the Meadowlands of Northern New Jersey is the hackensac river a 55M long river that flows from Rockland County New York down to its mouth at nework Bay as the river flows between the New York suburbs of sakas and Kierney the river and the boats and barges that ply their trade upon it encounter the Northeast Corridor on one of the route's worst pieces of infrastructure the portal Bridge the portal bridge is one of the oldest bridges on the line being completed when the part of the line between Newark and New York Penn Station the first part of the Southern half of the NEC to be electrified was completed in 1910 the portal bridge is one of the worst choke points on the North Corridor and I'd argue it's one of the worst bottlenecks of any transportation Link 35:01 in the whole country for multiple reasons for one the bridge is double tracked only it has a speed limit of 60 MPH and maybe worst of all is the fact that the bridge is a swing Bridge which means that when a ship approaches it the bridge has to physically swing out of the way stopping rail traffic because B cannot physically fit underneath it now that's already bad enough and it causes so many issues to begin with but what's worse is that given the fact that the bridge is 115 years old it should be no surprise that the bridge gets stuck open quite often leading to a lot more backups and this happens disturbingly often so for the longest time it's no surprise that the portal Bridge was on the docket for a replacement and that thankfully is happening right now the new bridge that will replace it the portal North Bridge which is part of of the much broader Gateway project which is a revamp of the at capacity tracks of the corridor between Newark 36:04 and Manhattan is going to be a big step forward for the route's reliability built much taller than the original bridge this bridge will never have to move out of the way of boats thus alleviating the most obvious problem with the current one while the bridge is designed to be double tracked the speeds going over the bridge will be increased from 60 to 90 mph thus allowing faster travel times and higher capacity on this crucial segment of the line but one of the things that doesn't get discussed as much in the midst of all this good stuff regarding the project is the wiring that'll be running over the bridge while the polls do share the same Timeless profile and configuration of the original penzy poles this bridge will have constant tension catary built in from day one thus meaning that one of the most important pieces of Transportation infrastructure on the continent will be future proof even further with with this crucial upgrade this is holding true for other 37:01 infrastructure projects that are being built most famously the 160 mph capable replacement of the current Susana River Bridge but this will be the first one to see the light of day as of June this year the portal North Bridge is halfway complete and is set to open on time in 2027 and on budget which is fantastic to see for such an important project for the future of highspeed rail on the busiest Corridor on the continent things can get better and they will get better but sometimes it takes some Dogg determination to do so even for something so simple yet so important because at the end of the day it's all worth it for all of us even in the daytoday it may go unnoticed for most of us it's still Conclusion important the Northeast Corridor is still unequivocally the best rail line for passenger service not just in the United States not merely in all of North America but in the 38:05 americaas it has no equal in terms of Passenger usage the number of trains that use it per day and especially the speeds that those trains can achieve it's America's current Temple of speed upon the high iron but it's also a line that can be agonizing to really think about not merely because the line is seen as not matching the standards of similarly vital highspeed oror in Europe and Asia but because it can be up there with the standard bearers from around the world and perhaps you become a model for other high-speed Inter City rail projects across the continent can take inspiration from and all of this without starting from scratch with a brand new highspeed Corridor for the whole route when the line is more than capable of being upgraded to those speeds it may be a legacy line that has roots dating back nearly 2 centuries but it's amazing to think that regardless of its age it has the potential to match the best in the world in an age where trains traveling at more than 3 m a minute is the norm 39:07 that can happen here and most importantly the line and its surrounding networks can be dependable and fast as well and while a lot of attention is given to Monumental projects create new and imposing structures that will be the public face of the route there are a lot of other projects that need to be undertaken to truly make the line's performance matches image and easily the most important is installing constant tension wires to make the heat waves of years down the line a nonissue for reliability while also providing a Bedrock for those faster speeds to be built off of with trains becoming more popular as a transportation option than they have since the creation of Amtrak in the 70s and as people begin to realize more and more the need for different options of travel rather than just the car and the continual traffic jams and negative externalities that they entail even with electric and hydrogen cars along with people in the US looking more and more at countries around the world with modern rail 40:05 systems and wondering why can't that be us they will realize that a worldclass inter city rail system that provides incredibly fast frequent and reliable trains connecting small town and big city alike is more attainable than we think it's something that some of us had tacitly realized has had the potential for for a long time but the age lack of attention of the network has been the biggest reason why that hasn't been so but now we could be about to see the true beginning of the creation of just such a thing and a seemingly unnoticed upgrade like constant tension catary among many other smaller things interpers with the big flashy projects will be the key to unlocking the true potential that this line has making America's best rail line truly a Marvel for the country and the world but only if it is made known own and we prepare for it if we do it would signal to the rest of the Northeast that this is truly the best way to get between the cities of the Northeast megalopolis and become a sign that sometimes the smaller things can be pivotal in taking a massive Leap Forward in the speed efficiency and reliability of how we get around

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