This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

So this is interesting. The Forty Plus Foundation, doing business as Manhattan Central Railway Systems LLC (MCRS or Manhattan Central), filed with the Surface Transportation Board on October 26, 2004, to take over the Highline and begin using it as an industrial short-line track. (pdf)
For those not familiar with the Highline, (its’ official name is the West 30th Street Secondary Track) it is below grade, then at grade, then above grade rail line along which runs along 10th Avenue starting at 37th Street then runs above ground from 30th Street to Gansevoort Street. The Highline was part of the former New York Central freight line which replaced an existing at grade right-of-way. The Highline has been dormant since the construction of the Jacob Javits Center, when the Highline was severed from the National Rail Network at Penn Station.

The MCRS would be a Class III short line rail carrier in affiliation with New York Cross Harbor Railroad (NYCH). NYCH operates the only remaining rail “float bridge” in the region. Greenville Terminal Yard in Jersey City, NJ. The system would be a modeled on a “Personal Rapid Transit” (PRT) system by Robotic Railways Systems. Instead of moving people, like Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), this one would carry freight. Apparently there is already a similar system in place in Hoboken, NJ as a “beta test site” which uses (I kid you not) “shuttle craft” to move freight. Read on:

Applicant has entered into a Joint Venture agreement with “Robotic Railway Systems” (“RPS”) who has begun testing designs and equipment for intermodal freight usage on the Highline, over the past several years, initially in both their parent companies test lads in Letonia, Ohio and manufacturing facilities in Clearwater, Fla. As of October 2002, a fully functioning $6.2 million beta test site has been operational in Hoboken, NJ closely emulating a “mini” Highline corridor environment. The automated freight handling system is now open to the public 24/7 and has performed over 145,000+ handling transactions over the past 24 months. To underscore the design reliability, the user friendly “self service” on demand system’s advanced design seamlessly maintained uninterrupted full operational capability during last years Aug. 14th catastrophic blackout that disrupted electrical power in 8 states (including NYC and Hoboken NJ) and Canada.
page 13 of the MCRS STB filing (pdf)

What is interesting, is how MCRS in their filing have characterized the Highline Competition:

Well intentioned but disquieting efforts currently underway to essentially adulterate the original purpose of the Line raise serious question whether the Trails Act can be interpreted as permitting a railroad to collude with a potential “trail operator” to circumvent the purposes for which THE BOARD permits the continuation of active rail services.

Now, I like trains as much as the next person, but an operating Highline seems to be a few years out of date. The West Side has been losing manufacturing and industry for the last 20 years and is rapidly gentrifying. How MCRS expects to turn a profit is a good question. Apparantly, MCRS is applying to the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing Program (RRIF) which has $1 billion reserved for projects primarily benefiting Shortline and Regional Railroads among other Federal programs.
The big question is how this fits in with the rezoning of the West Side by the City of New York, and the Olympic Bid. In their filing they note the animosity they have received from the NYC 2012 Olympic Committee, especially about the placement of the proposed Jets Stadium which would permanently sever the Highline from the Federal Rail System. A running freight line, no matter how “technologically advanced” the freight line is. just doesn’t seem to be compatible (at least politically) with a bid for the Olympics. Could this filing be a deliberate “spanner in the works” meant to gum up the Jets Stadium? Would Cablevision like to comment (or any reporter like to follow up?).
Finally, I think an operating Highline would defiantly be a plus if all I thought about was nostalgia. But the neighborhood is fundamentally different now than it was when the Highline was built and when it ceased to function as an operating right-of-way. Operating the Highline as a passenger system might make more sense as it would serve the denser residential and commercial neighborhood which the rezoning will provide. I don’t see Gov. Pataki or Mayor Bloomberg actively supporting such a restoration of use to the Highline – there is too much support for reuse of the Highline. Additionally, for Bloomberg and Pataki, the big prize is the Jets Stadium, the #7 Subway extension (pdf), and the 2012 Olympics – not a restoration of the Highline.
More Information:
Forty Plus Foundation
7 Monmouth Road
Oakhurst, NJ 07755-1656
732-222-4327