 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2013) |
A railroad (or railway) cutoff (or cut-off) is a new railroad line built to replace or supplement an existing route, typically one where the old line is deficient for some reason.
The term "cutoff" refers to the fact that the new line cuts off distance (and/or time) and is, therefore, shorter distance-wise (or time-wise) than the old line. This is often the case, although the primary reason for building the cutoff may be to create a line with a better gradient profile, or other desirable features usually related to efficiency of operation that are lacking in the old line rather than merely shortening the distance between two endpoints. Bypassing a congested area, such as a city or railroad station, or a section of track with an already-existing high volume, is an additional reason to construct a new line. The building of a high-speed line to replace a lower-speed line is another possibility; one example of this is the New Lower Inn Valley railway in Austria. A "railroad bypass" is generally synonymous with a railroad cutoff, although there are examples, such as with the Berlin Outer Ring Railway in Germany, where the bypass route was built more for political reasons than operational ones.
Although some cutoffs, such as the Lucin Cutoff, [1] may run 100 miles (160 km) or more in length, there are cutoffs that are quite short, 1 mile (1.6 km) or less in length. The replacement of the old line is usually only considered by the railroad or funding-entity if both of the following conditions are met: (1) the future economic benefit of building a new line—usually for operational capacity or efficiency reasons—far exceeds that of continuing to solely use the old line; and (2) the upgrading of the old line is deemed impractical and will not provide sufficient operational capacity or benefits. If the operational problems are great enough, even a modest savings in distance between two endpoints may justify building a new line if other efficiencies can be gained. For instance, significant improvement in grades and/or curvature may justify the construction of a new route. Such was the case with the building of the Nicholson Cutoff, which saved less than 10% in distance over the old route, but which eliminated numerous curves, a steep grade over a mountain, and a number of grade crossings. Tunnels on an existing route may be problematic and can greatly increase the attractiveness of building a bypass route. An example of this would be the Lackawanna Cut-Off, where the old route had two tunnels that as the railroad's business grew were becoming a detriment to the efficient operation of the railroad. [2]
Geographic location of the new route may also justify a new route if it improves overall traffic flow or flexibility of operations on the railway line. An example of this would be the Trenton Cutoff, which saved significant travel time by bypassing the city of Philadelphia. [3] Cutoffs are not necessarily built with the intent of tapping new markets, but that does not preclude the railroad from seeking new business on the new route. Although the old route being replaced may face abandonment due to the existence of a new line, this isn't always the case, as a new route may not be able to carry all the present or future traffic that would be diverted to it if the old route were closed. Even if the new route can accommodate all the traffic from the old route, there may be freight or passenger business on (or carried via) the old route that justifies its continued operation. In this scenario, the new route becomes a supplement to the old route rather than a replacement. An example of this would be the Edgewood Cutoff, which has served as a complement, rather than a replacement, to the old route. [4]
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of 395 miles (636 km). Incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853 primarily for the purpose of providing a connection between the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and the large markets for coal in New York City. The railroad gradually expanded both East and West, eventually linking Buffalo with New York City.
The Erie Lackawanna Railway, known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route".
The Morristown Line is an NJ Transit commuter rail line connecting Morris and Essex counties to New York City, via either New York Penn Station or Hoboken Terminal. Out of 60 inbound and 58 outbound daily weekday trains, 28 inbound and 26 outbound Midtown Direct trains use the Kearny Connection to Penn Station; the rest go to Hoboken. Passengers can transfer at Newark Broad Street or Summit to reach the other destination. On rail system maps the line is colored dark green, and its symbol is a drum, a reference to Morristown's history during the American Revolution.
The Lucin Cutoff is a 102-mile (164 km) railroad line in Utah, United States that runs from Ogden to its namesake in Lucin. The most prominent feature of the cutoff was a twelve-mile-long (19 km) railroad trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake, which was in use from 1904 until the late 1950s, when it was replaced by an earthen causeway.
The Terminal Railway of Buffalo was a part of the New York Central Railroad system southeast of Buffalo, New York. It built the Gardenville Branch or Gardenville Cutoff, allowing through trains to bypass Buffalo. The cutoff has since been abandoned in favor of other parallel lines.
The Lackawanna Cut-Off was a rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). Constructed from 1908 to 1911, the line was part of a 396-mile (637 km) main line between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York. It ran west for 28.45 miles (45.79 km) from Port Morris Junction in Port Morris, New Jersey, near the south end of Lake Hopatcong about 45 miles (72 km) west-northwest of New York City, to Slateford Junction in Slateford, Pennsylvania near the Delaware Water Gap.
The Lackawanna Old Road was part of the original mainline of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). Opened in 1856, it was, for a half-century, a part of the line connecting the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Overland Route was a train route operated jointly by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad / Southern Pacific Railroad, between Council Bluffs, Iowa / Omaha, Nebraska, and the San Francisco Bay Area, over the grade of the first transcontinental railroad which had been opened on May 10, 1869. Passenger trains that operated over the line included the Overland Flyer, later renamed the Overland Limited, which also included a connection to Chicago. Although these passenger rail trains are no longer in operation, the Overland Route remains a common name for the line from Northern California to Chicago, now owned entirely by the Union Pacific. Although now primarily used for freight, a few portions still provide the route for the California Zephyr passenger train.
The Southern Transcon is a main line of BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen Cutoff in New Mexico and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass, it now serves as a mostly double-tracked intermodal corridor.
The Boonton Branch refers to the railroad line in New Jersey that was completed in 1870 and ran 34 miles (54.8 km) from Hoboken to East Dover Junction as part of the Morris & Essex Railroad (M&E). Although the branch hosted commuter trains, the line was primarily built as a freight bypass line. The term "branch", therefore, is somewhat of a misnomer since the Boonton Branch was built to higher mainline standards than the Morristown Line, the line that it bypassed. As a result, the Boonton Branch better meets the definition of a "cut-off" rather than a branch. Some of the towns that the Boonton Branch passed through included Lyndhurst, Passaic, Clifton, Paterson, Wayne, Lincoln Park, Mountain Lakes, and its namesake, Boonton.
The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Montclair Branch, which ran from Hoboken Terminal to Bay Street, Montclair; the Erie Railroad's Greenwood Lake Division, which originally ran from the Erie's Jersey City Terminal to Greenwood Lake, NY; and the former Lackawanna Boonton Line, which ran from Hoboken to Hackettstown, New Jersey. The Montclair-Boonton line was formed when the Montclair Connection opened on September 30, 2002. The line serves 28 active rail stations in New Jersey along with New York Pennsylvania Station. It crosses through six counties, serving six stations in the township of Montclair, two in the town of Bloomfield, and one in the city of Newark. Trains along the Montclair-Boonton Line heading eastward usually originate at Hackettstown, Mount Olive, Lake Hopatcong, Dover, or Montclair State University, bound for either Hoboken Terminal or New York Penn Station. On system maps the line is colored maroon and its symbol is a bird, after the state bird, the eastern goldfinch.
The Pequest Fill is a large railroad embankment on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey, touted at its 1911 completion as the largest railroad fill in the world.
The Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project is a New Jersey Transit and Amtrak effort to restore passenger service to the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwest New Jersey.
Andover is a planned New Jersey Transit passenger railroad station in Andover Township, in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States, providing service on its Lackawanna Cut-Off line. The line remains under construction. The station will be built at a site on Andover's Roseville Road, about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) from U.S. Route 206 and about 0.9 miles (1.4 km) from County Route 517. On the rail line, it will be located about 7.3 miles (11.7 km) west of Port Morris Junction.
Blairstown was one of the three original Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad stations on the Lackawanna Cut-Off rail line in northwestern New Jersey. Built by contractor Hyde, McFarlan & Burke, the station opened in 1911. Most passenger trains, such as the Lackawanna Limited and, later, the Phoebe Snow, plus the Twilight/Pocono Express and the Westerner/New Yorker stopped at Blairstown, which also sold commuter tickets. It was the only station on the Cut-Off to be open during the Erie Lackawanna years, and remained so until passenger service ended on January 6, 1970 with the discontinuing of the Lake Cities. After 1970, the building housed a radio station, WHCY-FM, until the 1990s. The station building is currently privately owned.
The Nicholson Cutoff is a railroad segment of the Sunbury Line rail line and formerly a railroad segment of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad main line and the Delaware and Hudson Railway South Line. The Nicholson Cutoff and the rest of the Sunbury Line is owned by Norfolk Southern Railway.
The Graham Line is the portion of the former Erie Railroad in New York State from Highland Mills to Guymard, constructed from 1906 to 1909 as a high-speed freight line. The Graham Line bypasses the original Erie Main Line through Monroe, Chester, Goshen and Middletown. Grade on the Graham Line was not to exceed 0.2% eastward or 0.6% westward, while the original Main Line built in the 1840s had grades up to 1.25%. There were three places where freight trains needed a helper on the old line and none on the new, but just west of the cutoff the grade up from Port Jervis to Guymard could not be improved, and remained unchanged as the only place in the area needing a helper. The sharpest curve on the old line was 7 degrees and on the new was 1 deg 30 min. The Graham Line has no grade crossings: a rarity on the Erie. The downside of the improved grade and curvature is that the Graham Line is seven miles longer than the original mainline. Maintaining the desired grade required two notable engineering features: the Moodna Viaduct and the Otisville Tunnel.
The Netcong-Stanhope Cutoff was a three-mile-long line built by the Lackawanna Railroad in New Jersey in 1900. Built as part of the Sussex Branch, this was one of the first projects undertaken by the Lackawanna after William Truesdale became president in 1899. Up until the building of the cutoff, the connection between the Sussex Branch and the Morris & Essex Railroad was at Waterloo, New Jersey. Built with the intent of delivering anthracite coal from the west at Scranton, Pennsylvania, to towns along the Sussex Branch, the connection at Waterloo was not aligned to permit trains from the Sussex Branch to travel eastward towards New York. Although the Lackawanna could have left the line to Waterloo in place and simply built an eastbound connecting switch at Waterloo, there were compelling reasons to moving the connection eastward to Netcong.
Construction of the Mexia-Nelleva Cutoff started in 1905. The new 94-mile line was built to shorten the distance between the Texas towns of Nelleva, a small community on the north side of Navasota, and Mexia. E.H. Harriman, who controlled the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific spearheaded construction of the cutoff. Both Mexia and Nelleva were on the existing Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) between Houston and Dallas via Hearn. The new cutoff would shorten the existing route by about 15 miles with lower grades and fewer curves.
The Bayshore Cutoff is the rail line between San Francisco and San Bruno along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula. It was completed by Southern Pacific (SP) in 1907 at a cost of $7 million, and included five tunnels, four of which are still used by Caltrain, the successor to Southern Pacific's Peninsula Commute service. Fill from the five tunnels was used to build the Visitacion or Bayshore Yard, the main SP classification yard near the city of Brisbane. The Del Monte was similarly rerouted over the line at some point in its operational history.