Skip to main content

Just curious...in the final years as a freight line under Conrail..where did the West Side Line go after it passed under the "Freedom Tunnel"  coming into the heart of NY?  Did amtrak build over the freight line completely except for the new tunnel that curves into Penn Station?

Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Mike, not sure about the "freedom tunnel". Never heard that name. At Spyten Duyvil  (not sure of spelling) Amtrak leaves the old New York Central passenger tracks to Grand Central (where the recent fatal Metro North derailment occurred). From there it crosses a bridge (which rotates) when boats have to pass in the waterway which joins the Harlem River and the Hudson River. That's where it leaves the Bronx and starts its run on Manhattan Island. Most of that ride is sort of underground going under roads,etc. but I don't remember an actual tunnel except just before it arrives in Penn Station. Hope that helped, but I'm sure someone on this forum can offer a better explanation than I did. There was a freight yard on the west side on the Hudson. Also the New York Central high line traveled down the west side of Manhattan to the West Village area. I think it serviced the marine shipping lines. 

I am curious as to where it ended in the abandoned years prior to Amtrak's use.  Did it end where the Penn Yards were (trump riverside dev) or did it always connect with the high line

 

The freedom tunnel is the part under the Henry Hudson Parkway that is covered over.  Pretty famous for its homeless colonies and graffiti art prior to Amtrak rebuilding it.

Last edited by Mike W.

What I always understood to be the "freedom tunnel" was the segment between 72 Street and Harlem known as the "overbuild" running under Riverside Park.

 

How this line connected with the High Line is unclear without digging up old track maps, but looking at a Google aerial view shows the remains of the ramp don't parallel 34th Street but curve away toward what is now the LIRR yard before vanishing into a truck parking lot.

 

I think the tracks merged with the yard somehow, and the High Line was probably reached by a switchback maneuver, since it really was just a branch line with a handful of sidings, that terminated in a meatpacking plant at about Gansevoort St. I know the present Amtrak tunnel connecting it with Penn Station was put in during the changeover from a freight yard to a LIRR storage facility.

 

---PCJ

There were a number of yards on the west side.  There was even an engine terminal at the yard at 60th street.  The original line went farther south, Chambers and Hudson, and it did have passenger service.  Line was re-aligned in the 30's with the construction of the "HighLine".  Most of the cars in the 30th street yard were actually ferried across the Hudson from Weehawken.   The original West side line ran down 10th/11th avenues and did have access to the yard.   During the re-alignment and construction of the HighLine the yard was mainly used as a car ferry terminal.

 

map

Last edited by chuck

Too expensive for Manhattan.  Only large surface yard left in Manhattan is the 207 th street MTA yard in Inwood.  All of the other passenger yards are underground (Grand Central), or "decked"' LI holding yard by Penn Station.  The freight terminals in the city are in the Bronx, Queens, or Brooklyn (Not counting the stuff delivered to NJ that is trucked in).

Originally Posted by Mike W.:

Why is there no longer a need to have freight rail in Manhatten?  ...does NY choose to use the land for trendy operations like banks and parks rather than efficient freight transportation?

 

Railroads may be 'doing better than ever' now, but in the early 1970s, Penn Central was losing money precisely because it operated too many obsolete and redundant facilities around its system. The West Side facilities were designed to serve the shipping docks that no longer received freighters, and industries like meat packing and manufacturing facilities that were either relocating or no longer shipping by rail. It was a solution for a 1930s economy, not a 21st Century city.

 

TL;dr the invisible hand of the free market spoke. (And yes, that's a mangled metaphor.)

 

Closing and selling the West Side yards was part of making Conrail more efficient (and eventually profitable again) - transload was consolidated in the Bronx, Long Island or Jersey.

 

Since we're on the subject, here are a few shots of the High Line from about a month ago.

 

IMG_20131115_101533

IMG_20131115_103627

IMG_20131115_104634

Attachments

Images (3)
  • IMG_20131115_101533: High Line - Standard Hotel
  • IMG_20131115_103627: School Group on the High Line
  • IMG_20131115_104634: 30th St. gate
Last edited by John Craft
Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×