New York New Jersey Rail

New York New Jersey Rail, LLC
Overview
HeadquartersGreenville, Jersey City, New Jersey
Reporting markNYNJ
LocaleUpper New York Bay
Dates of operation2006–
PredecessorNew York Cross Harbor Railroad
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length4 miles (6 kilometers) (car float) 4.5 miles (7 kilometers) (trackage)
Other
Websitenynjr.com
The 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn, refurbished in 1999 by the city of New York. The refurbished yard was placed in service for car floats in July 2012.
The 65th Street Yard from the harbor.
A railroad car float in the Upper New York Bay, 1919. Similar barges are still used today.
1912 Pennsylvania Railroad map showing cross harbor car float operations. Rail and barge routes shown on the map are largely the same as those in use a century later.

New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (reporting mark NYNJ) is a switching and terminal railroad[1] that operates the only car float operation across Upper New York Bay between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which acquired it for about $16 million as a step in a process that might see a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel completed.

Since freight trains are not allowed in Amtrak's North River Tunnels, and the Poughkeepsie Bridge was closed in 1974, the ferry is the only freight crossing of the Hudson River south of the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, 140 miles (230 km) to the north of New York City, in a process known as the Selkirk hurdle.[2] It is the last remaining car float operation in the Port of New York and New Jersey.[3]

The railroad operates in two divisions, the Marine division and Port Jersey Rail division.[4] Its switching operations on the New York side include a short spur north to Bush Terminal which runs through the Brooklyn Army Terminal complex and then through the center of First Avenue in Sunset Park.[5] This spur is the last example of active street-running rail operations in New York City.

  1. ^ Association of American Railroads, About the Industry: Railroads and States Archived December 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, 2006, accessed December 2008
  2. ^ "Top Officials and Stakeholders Meet to Launch Project That Will Study Regional Freight Movement Issues" (Press release). Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. November 13, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
  3. ^ Patrick McGeehan (November 13, 2014). "Truck Traffic in Mind, Port Agency Considers Plans for a Slow Boat to Brooklyn". The New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  4. ^ "New York New Jersey Rail, LLC". nynjr.com. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
  5. ^ Geberer, Raanan (March 1, 2022). "Historic Brooklyn subway cars take their last journey — Brooklyn-style". Brooklyn Eagle. Retrieved February 17, 2024.