extension of the hudson bergen light rail - {transportation systems}

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40 |||| IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006 Harvey Glickenstein Senior Editor TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS Edmonton South LRT Extension Edmonton Alberta opened the first portion of its South LRT extension in January—the Health Sciences Station. The station provides access to the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, the University of Alberta Hospital, the Cross Can- cer Institute, and Canadian Blood Services. When the full South LRT extension opens in 2009 it will increase the present 7.5-mile line to more than 12 miles. The addi- tional four stations on the South LRT Extension will bring the total number of stations to 15. The extension to the Health Sci- ences Station required tunnels under St. Joseph’s College and the University of Alberta’s Education Car Park. The brakes on the LRT vehicles were upgraded to accom- modate the 6 percent grade leaving the tunnels. In 2005 Edmonton purchased 26 new light rail vehicles from Siemens. The SD160 model of vehi- cle is similar to vehicles now oper- ating in Calgary, Salt Lake City, and Denver. The $C98 million con- tract calls for the first vehicles to start arriving in May 2008. These new vehicles will supplement the 37 U2 Siemens Deuwag vehicles currently in service in Edmonton. The new vehicles will be assem- bled at the Siemens plant in Sacra- mento, California. TRAXX Loco Order The European rolling stock leasing company CBRail has ordered 35 TRAXX locomotives from Bom- bardier. CBRail is a joint venture of Babcock & Brown and the Bank of Scotland and is actively involved in the provision of operating leases for freight and passenger rolling stock to European operators. The $156 million contract includes 25 electric multi-system locomotives and 10 diesel-electric locomotives. The electric locomotives are de- signed for both ac and dc traction. New Stock for Buenos Aires Argentina has exercised an option for 16 additional metro cars for Extension of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail FIGURE 1 New Stock for Buenos Aires. ©ALSTROM 40 |||| 1556-6072/06/$20.00©2006IEEE IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006

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Page 1: Extension of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail - {Transportation Systems}

40 |||| IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006

Harvey GlickensteinSenior EditorTRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

Edmonton South LRT Extension

Edmonton Alberta opened the firstportion of its South LRT extensionin January—the Health SciencesStation. The station providesaccess to the Northern AlbertaJubilee Auditorium, the Universityof Alberta Hospital, the Cross Can-cer Institute, and Canadian BloodServices. When the full South LRTextension opens in 2009 it willincrease the present 7.5-mile lineto more than 12 miles. The addi-tional four stations on the SouthLRT Extension will bring the totalnumber of stations to 15.

The extension to the Health Sci-ences Station required tunnelsunder St. Joseph’s College and the

University of Alberta’s EducationCar Park. The brakes on the LRTvehicles were upgraded to accom-modate the 6 percent grade leavingthe tunnels.

In 2005 Edmonton purchased 26new l ight rai l vehicles fromSiemens. The SD160 model of vehi-cle is similar to vehicles now oper-ating in Calgary, Salt Lake City,and Denver. The $C98 million con-tract calls for the first vehicles tostart arriving in May 2008. Thesenew vehicles will supplement the37 U2 Siemens Deuwag vehiclescurrently in service in Edmonton.The new vehicles will be assem-bled at the Siemens plant in Sacra-mento, California.

TRAXX Loco Order

The European rolling stock leasingcompany CBRail has ordered 35TRAXX locomotives from Bom-bardier. CBRail is a joint venture ofBabcock & Brown and the Bank ofScotland and is actively involved inthe provision of operating leases forfreight and passenger rolling stockto European operators.

The $156 million contract includes25 electric multi-system locomotivesand 10 diesel-electric locomotives.The electric locomotives are de-signed for both ac and dc traction.

New Stock for Buenos Aires

Argentina has exercised an optionfor 16 additional metro cars for

Extension of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail

FIGURE 1 New Stock for Buenos Aires.

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40 |||| 1556-6072/06/$20.00©2006IEEE IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006

Page 2: Extension of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail - {Transportation Systems}

JUNE 2006 | IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ||| 41

Buenos Aires. This option will allowBuenos Aires to increase the numberof cars on their trains from five tosix. The original contract was foreighty cars, 30 of which were deliv-ered and configured into six trains.

DART Ridership Increase

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)had a 5.1 million passenger increasein fiscal year 2005. This was followedby a 4.8% increase in ridership in thelast three months of 2005. Theincrease was attributed to a combi-nation of the resurgent Dallas econ-omy and the high price of gasoline.

The resurgent economy meantthat DART received higher sales taxrevenues in fiscal year 2005 as well.The increased funding will help inkicking off the ambitious $2.4 billionexpansion plan that DART has pro-posed for implementation through2013. The Federal Transit Adminis-tration (FTA) also announced theirintention to recommend $700 mil-lion toward the 21-mile extension ofthe DART light rail line from Pleas-

ant Grove to Farmers Branch. Thisrecommendation is in addition tothe $80 million included in Presi-dent Bush’s proposed fiscal year2007 budget.

Historic Trolley for San Diego

San Diego is proposing to join theranks of U.S. cities with historic trol-ley service. The San Diego Trolleyhas set up a non-profit subsidiarycalled San Diego Vintage Trolley.Two PCC cars that previously oper-ated in San Francisco have beenpurchased. These cars operated inSt. Louis until being purchased bySan Francisco in 1957. They require

extensive renovation before beingplaced in service and their trolleypoles need to be replaced with pan-tographs to operate under the exist-ing wires in San Diego.

The plan includes purchasingtwo additional cars to allow for a 15-minute headway with three cars inservice and one spare.

Service would be intermixed withthe existing San Diego Trolley ser-vice. The intention is to begin ser-vice in July 2008 coincident with theannual convention of the AmericanPublic Transportation Associationwhich is scheduled to take place inSan Diego.

FIGURE 3 Hudson Bergen light rail transit system.

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FIGURE 2 Netherlands high speed test train.

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42 |||| IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006 42 |||| IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE | JUNE 2006

Netherlands HS Rail Tests

The Netherlands has begun testingtrains on its new high speed railroute from Schiphol Airport in Ams-terdam through Rotterdam to theBelgian Border. Top speed when theline opens in 2007 will be 186 mph.

Hudson Bergen Extension

New Jersey Transit opened its lat-est extension of the Hudson BergenLight Rail Transit System (HBLRTS)on February 25, 2006. This exten-sion completes the portion of thesystem that has been awarded forconstruction. A one-station exten-sion south in Bayonne, a one-sta-tion extension west in Jersey City,and a northerly extension fromTonnelle Avenue to the Vince Lom-bardi service area are the only por-tions of the originally contemplatedline that have not been built. Noneof these extensions are close tobeing advertised for construction,although a diesel train-operatedextension along the former ErieLackawanna, and now CSX, North-ern Branch is being studied.

The original portion of the line toopen was from West Side Avenue inJersey City and from Bayonne toHoboken Terminal. This was desig-nated as Minimum Operable Seg-ment 1 or MOS-1. MOS-2, which cost$1.2 billion, extended from Hobokento Tonnelle Avenue and was openedin pieces. The last piece to open,the portion from Port Imperial Sta-tion to Tonnelle Avenue, opened inFebruary.

The extension from Port Imperi-al Station to Tonnelle Avenue is thefirst only part of the HBLRTS thatoperates underground. A plaque atthe entrance to the tunnel givesthe history:

“When it was completed in 1883,the Weehawken Tunnel affordeddirect rail access through the NewJersey Palisades on the west shoreof the Hudson River to New YorkHarbor. The tunnel was a vital piecein an ambitious railroad expansionprogram that physically transformed

FIGURE 6 The middle of the tunnel had to be widened to accommodate a station andshafts needed to be sunk to accommodate elevators and an emergency staircase to accessthe plaza 160 feet above the station platform.

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FIGURE 4 Extensive modifications needed to be done to the tunnel to support the light railservice. High voltage electric lines that were located on the wall of the tunnel had to berelocated below the grade of the new tracks. Portions of the original unlined tunnel werelined, while other portions remained bare rock.

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FIGURE 5 The portals had a new lining installed and a new face.

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JUNE 2006 | IEEE VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE ||| 43

the Hudson River waterfront andspurred development along thealignment in northern New Jersey.”

The plaque goes on to trace thehistory of the tunnel from the NewYork, West Shore & Buffalo Railroadthrough the New York Central, PennCentral, and Conrail railroadsbefore it ended up in the hands ofCSX. The importance of the tunnelwas reduced after the George Wash-ington Bridge attracted a majorportion of the commuter trafficthat had used the trains of the NewYork Central along the West Shoreroute. It was still an importantfreight route, however. After Con-rail was created in 1976, an alter-native freight route was availablevia the former Erie LackawannaNorthern Branch. This allowedNew Jersey Transit (NJT) to beginnegotiations with Conrail forimprovements to their alternatefreight routes so that NJT couldbuy the tunnel and route light railtrains through it.

FIGURE 8 At the Tonnelle Avenue Station the tracks end in a dead endand a turnback loop. The original intention was to continue the line upto the Vince Lombardi service area of the New Jersey Turnpike. The lat-est plan of New Jersey Transit is to end the light rail service here and toinstitute a connecting diesel service for about 13 miles north mostly ona shared right-of-way with the CSX Northern Branch through Ridgefield,Palisades Park, Englewood, and end in Tenafly. The jog off that line thatwould have served Vince Lombardi is not part of the plan.

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FIGURE 7 The station in the tunnel has a number of state-of-the art safety features. One ofthe most interesting is that it will be possible to separate the two halves of the station withpower-operated doors so that if a light rail train is on fire on one the track the half of theplatform that accesses the other track can become a safe refuge during evacuation of thestation. Man doors will exist in the power-operated doors to allow passengers who may betrapped on the wrong side to reach the refuge. Positive air pressure will prevent smokefrom entering the refuge when the man doors are opened. Power-operated doors also pro-vide safety in the lower elevator lobby. The picture below shows the doors protecting theelevator lobby. The doors between the two halves of the platform are slightly visible on theleft beyond the elevator lobby.

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FIGURE 9 HBLRT train just leaving the Weehawken Tunnel.

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