Harlem River Yards

Last updated

Harlem River Yards
Shuttlewagon train WAB jeh.jpg
Car with solid waste containers being shunted at the Harlem River Yard
Harlem River Yards
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
Location
Location The Bronx, New York
Coordinates 40°48′12″N73°55′30″W / 40.80333°N 73.92500°W / 40.80333; -73.92500
Details
Built1991
Operated by Harlem River Yard Ventures
Type of harbour dry port
Size28 acres (intermodal facility) [1]
96 acres (total)
Rail lines Oak Point Link
Rail gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Street access Bruckner Expressway
MD Expressway

Harlem River Yards [2] [3] [4] [5] (also known as Harlem River Yard [6] [7] ) is a waterfront industrial property located in the Port Morris neighborhood of The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by Harlem River Yard Ventures, part of the Galesi Group, under a 99-year lease with the State of New York signed in 1991. [2] [7]

Contents

The yard owes its name to the property's prior and current use as a freight rail yard. However, only a 28-acre portion of the site has been retained for intermodal rail use, with rail traffic to and from the yard limited to municipal solid waste shipment. [1] [7] Beginning in the late 1990s, Harlem River Yards has been the site of substantial commercial development, including a New York Post printing plant, a waste treatment plant, and a FedEx distribution center. [2] [3] [4] [7]

History

Harlem River Yards was a 96-acre freight rail yard owned by the Penn Central Railroad, which in turn acquired the yard and associated lines in 1969 when it consummated a regulatory-induced, forced merger with the New Haven Railroad. [8] When the Penn Central went into bankruptcy in the 1970s, the State of New York condemned the rail yard and placed it under the stewardship of the state's Department of Transportation. [7] The yards were a key component of New York's Full Freight Access Program, a multi-decade effort to create manufacturing jobs by modernizing rail freight transportation in New York City and Long Island. This project involved raising vertical clearance on the rail lines along the east shore of the Hudson River from the Albany area into New York City and Long Island to accommodate Trailer on Flatcar (TOFC) intermodal freight transport, and the construction of the Oak Point Link. [1] [7] However, efforts to develop an intermodal rail facility at Harlem River Yards were frustrated due to multiple factors, including a lack of commercial interest and shifting political priorities. [2] [7] The Oak Point Link finally opened in 1998, but connected to a small intermodal facility at Harlem River Yards which used a small 28-acre portion of the site. [1]

In 1991, the State of New York entered into a 99-year least agreement with Harlem River Yard Ventures, a subsidiary of the Galesi Group, to develop and operate Harlem River Yards as a mixed-use industrial park. [2] [7] Harlem River Yard Ventures proceeded with industrial development of Harlem River Yards, with a New York Post paper printing and distribution facility built on the site in 1998, and FedEx distribution facility built on the site in 2007. [2] [3] [4]

In 2012, online grocery retailer FreshDirect proposed moving its main food distribution hub from Long Island City in Queens to the Harlem River Yards. [5] Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz, Jr. has said that he expects the new FreshDirect facility to create roughly 1,000 jobs in the Bronx over the next decade. [5] However, some residents in the South Bronx protested the development and organized efforts to promote conversion of the Harlem River Yards into a park space. [4] A lawsuit brought by a South Bronx advocacy group challenged the environmental review process for the FreshDirect facility, and also attempted to void the lease of the Harlem River Yards property to Harlem River Yard Ventures as well as Harlem River Yard Ventures' sublease of land to FreshDirect. This lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by unanimous appellate decision in 2014. [2] Construction on FreshDirect's Harlem River Yards facility began in December 2014. [5]

In April 2018, The Related Companies and Somerset Partners announced plans to build a mixed-use complex above the rail yard adjacent to the Willis Avenue Bridge. The development is planned to contain 1,779 apartments and a 26,000-seat stadium for New York City FC. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Connecting Railroad</span> Freight rail line in New York City

The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Providence and Worcester Railroad and New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR) currently use the line. It runs from the Hell Gate Bridge over the East River to Fresh Pond Junction yard in Glendale in Queens. It was completed in 1917. Amtrak uses the northernmost section of the line from Sunnyside Junction in the Woodside section of Queens to the Hell Gate Bridge into the Bronx from which it follows the line north to Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Point Link</span> Freight rail line in New York City

The Oak Point Link, also known as the South Bronx–Oak Point Link, is a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, United States, along the east bank of the Harlem River. It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line with the Harlem River Intermodal Yard and the CSX Transportation Oak Point Yard at the north end of the Hell Gate Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tinsley Marshalling Yard</span>

Tinsley was a railway marshalling yard near Tinsley in Sheffield, England, used to separate railway wagons from incoming trains and add them to new trains. It was sited immediately west of the M1 motorway, about one mile north of the Catcliffe junction. It was opened in 1965, as a part of a major plan to rationalise all aspects of the rail services in the Sheffield area; it closed in stages from 1985, with the run-down of rail freight in Britain. It was also the site of Tinsley Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD), which was closed in 1998; at its peak, 200 locomotives were allocated to this depot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal</span>

Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) is a rail-road intermodal freight terminal with an associated warehousing estate in Northamptonshire, England. The facility is located at the junctions between the M1 motorway, A5 and A428 roads, 4 miles (6 km) east of Rugby and 6 miles (10 km) north of Daventry; it has a rail connection from the Northampton loop of the West Coast Main Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port of New York and New Jersey</span> Port in New York and New Jersey, United States

The Port of New York and New Jersey is the port district of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, encompassing the region within approximately a 25-mile (40 km) radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument.

The Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel is a proposed freight rail transport tunnel under Upper New York Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey between northeastern New Jersey and Long Island, including southern and eastern New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Morris, Bronx</span> Neighborhood in New York City

Port Morris is a mixed use, primarily industrial neighborhood geographically located in the southwest Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 1. Its boundaries are the Major Deegan Expressway and Bruckner Expressway to the north, East 149th Street to the east, the East River to the southeast, the Bronx Kill to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. Its ZIP Codes are 10451 and 10454. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 40th Precinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highbridge Facility</span> Railroad maintenance facility in the Bronx, New York

The Highbridge Facility, also simply known as Highbridge or High Bridge, is a maintenance facility for the Metro-North Railroad in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, New York City, United States. It is the third stop along the Hudson Line north of Grand Central Terminal, and is for Metro-North employees only, though this stop also formerly served commuter rail passengers and was called High Bridge station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Point Yard</span> Rail yard in New York City, United States

The Oak Point Yard is a freight railroad yard located in Hunts Point, The Bronx, New York City. The yard is owned by CSX Transportation, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the Hunts Point Cooperative Market and for trains that interchange freight with the New York and Atlantic Railway at Fresh Pond Junction in Queens.

CenterPoint Properties is a company that invests primarily in real estate used for intermodal freight transport. The company owns more than 300 buildings containing more than 60 million square feet, including the CenterPoint Intermodal Center. The company is solely owned by CalPERS, which has engaged with GI Partners for management services of CenterPoint since 2010.

Greenville Yard is a freight rail yard in the Port of New York and New Jersey. It is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey, adjacent and north of Port Jersey. Originally developed in 1904 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it was later taken over by Conrail. It has been owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey since 2010. It takes its name from the former municipality of Greenville, now part of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rail freight transportation in New York City and Long Island</span>

From the start of railroading in America through the first half of the 20th century, New York City and Long Island were major areas for rail freight transportation. However, their relative isolation from the mainland United States has always posed problems for rail traffic. Numerous factors over the late 20th century have caused further declines in freight rail traffic. Efforts to reverse this trend are ongoing, but have been met with limited success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">65th Street Yard</span> Rail yard in New York City

The 65th Street Yard, also Bay Ridge Rail Yard, is a rail yard on the Upper New York Bay in Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Equipped with two transfer bridges which allow rail cars to be loaded and unloaded onto car floats, it is the last of once extensive car float operations in the Port of New York and New Jersey. Located adjacent to the Brooklyn Army Terminal, it provided a major link in the city's rail freight network in the first half of the twentieth century. It was later used as a conventional railroad yard at the end of the LIRR/NY&A Bay Ridge Branch. The new transfer bridges were constructed in 1999, but remained unused until the transfer bridges were activated in July 2012.

Wakefield Europort is a rail-connected warehousing and industrial estate located to the northeast of Wakefield at junction 31 of the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1996 in anticipation of increased international railfreight due to the construction of the Channel Tunnel. As of 2012 the site employs over 3,000 persons, and has motorway, high capacity rail, and waterway (canal) transport access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beacon Park Yard</span> Rail freight yard in Boston planned for redevelopment

Beacon Park Yard was a CSX Transportation rail yard in Allston, Boston, now owned by Harvard University. The yard opened in 1890 on the site of a former trotting park, from which it took its name. It was closed in 2013 following the relocation of the yard's container operations to Worcester, Massachusetts and opening of a transload facility in Westborough, Massachusetts. Plans for the yard include relocation of the Massachusetts Turnpike Allston exit, construction of a new MBTA commuter rail station and layover yard, and a major real estate development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad</span> Former New York railroad company (1842–1871)

Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad was a railroad built in what is today the West Bronx and South Bronx in New York City, United States. It ran from the junction between the West Side Line and the Hudson River Railroad near Spuyten Duyvil Creek, then along the Harlem River to the northwestern shore of the East River in what is today the Port Morris section of the Bronx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ExpressRail</span> Intermodal rail facilities at New York Harbor

ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has been overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which works in partnership with other public and private stakeholders. As of 2019, four ExpressRail facilities were in operation, with a total built capacity of 1.5 million lifts.

Bathgate Industrial Park is an industrial park located in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It is south of the Cross Bronx Expressway, west of Third and Fulton Avenues, north of Claremont Parkway, and east of Washington Avenue in the district of Bronx Community Board 3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parkchester/Van Nest station (Metro-North)</span> Planned rail station in the Bronx, New York

Parkchester/Van Nest station is a planned passenger rail station on the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line, to be located within Bronx Community Board 11 in Van Nest and just north of the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. The station is planned to open in 2027 as part of the Penn Station Access project, which will add four stations in the Bronx. It will be located east of Unionport Road, with entrance from East Tremont Avenue.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Halbfinger, David F. (October 12, 1998). "20 Years in the Making, Rail Freight Link Opens in Bronx". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Matter of South Bronx Unite! v New York City Indus. Dev. Agency, 115AD3d607 (1st Dept.2014).
  3. 1 2 3 "Bronx: Fedex in Harlem River Yards". The New York Times. February 9, 2007. p. B8. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Willis, Kerry (January 28, 2013). "Residents come out to support visions for Harlem River Yard that include ball fields and bike paths, but not FreshDirect". New York Daily News . Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Kochman, Ben (December 22, 2014). "FreshDirect finally breaks ground on distribution center in the Bronx". New York Daily News. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Harlem River Yard". Yonkers Contracting Company, Inc. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Miller, Benjamin (November 2005). "An Evaluation of New York's Full Freight Access Program and Harlem River Intermodal Rail Yard Project" (PDF). CUNY Institute for Urban Systems. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 14, 2014.
  8. ↑ Port of New York Authority; New York Harbor Terminal, July 1943 (Republished in TrainWeb)
  9. ↑ DeMause, Neil (April 17, 2018). "NYCFC Wants Its Own Islanders-Style Stadium Subsidy". Village Voice . Retrieved April 17, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.