A New View of Shared Use: Blending High Performance Light Rail and Freight on NJ Transit's River LINE

The need to expand light- and moderate-density passenger rail service and the constraints imposed by limited miles of existing rights of way are causing a change in view on what kinds of rail equipment can be deployed in “shared use” operations. This article argues that “near-compliant” equipment, which achieves the minimum buff strength requirement of the Federal Railway Administration and generally meets other requirements, can safely and effectively share the rails with full-fledged freight operations. In southern New Jersey, which has existing, low-density freight lines, operations such as the New Jersey Transit River LINE carries 110 passenger trains and four to five freight trains each weekday. Using systems that permit extended temporal separation (ETS), they allow close coordination and are now a template for other inter-urban operations on similar low-density freight lines. Details of the equipment and communications systems behind ETS are given. Refinements of the operation are also described, including steps that permit express passenger service between Camden and Trenton covering 32 miles in 50 minutes.