Rarely a day goes by that I don’t learn something else about New York City. Today’s find, via an article in the New York Times: the New York Cross Harbor Railroad. It’s one of the shortest railroad lines in the United States, with only one and a half miles of track, a bunch of carfloats, and a single active locomotive. The line serves to move railcars from Brooklyn to Greenville, NJ (which means a trip across New York Harbor); on the Brooklyn side of the water, the train actually runs along city streets in order to pick up and deliver its cargo. The carfloats meander across the Harbor once or twice a day, providing shippers who don’t want to travel the extra 150 miles to Albany with a shortcut across the Hudson River. As you’d expect, the line faces many difficulties, from double-parked cars blocking its tracks to fog in the Harbor to the dwindling resources devoted to surface freight in New York City; despite this, it continues on, providing the city with a tiny anchor to its manufacturing and shipping roots.
Mar 1, 2003 | Q
That is so cool. I always wondered what those tracks were there for.
• Posted by: James Spahr on Mar 1, 2003, 11:31 PMI am a police officer with Port Authority PD (NY-NJ) … I recently saw a police patch which said “Police” across the top … the two state seals of NY & NJ, the initials “NYCHRR” in the center, and the words “New York” and “New Jersey” along the sides … The only non-federal police agencies with powers in both NY & NJ which I am aware of are Port Authority, NYS Waterfront Commission, and Amtrak .. Please advise if NYCHRR has its own active department, or if what I saw was an outdated patch from a now non-existent agency.
• Posted by: Michael Lydon on Oct 14, 2003, 10:10 PMMichael, I really don’t know if it’s up-to-date, but I’m assuming that this is the patch you saw. There’s another one, too, for the Train Protection Unit. I couldn’t find anything to speak of that talked about whether the NYCHRR police force still exists, and what kind of authority they have.
Anyone else? Maybe a field trip out to Brooklyn is in order!
• Posted by: Jason on Oct 14, 2003, 10:34 PMNY Cross Harbor RR has its own PD, to my knowledge the Chief is a retired NY Transit PD captain. Also NJ Transit Police posess police status in NY/NJ as their trains operate in both states. The correct name is the waterfront commission of ny harbor and they at one time had a uniformed patrol division.
• Posted by: Bob Rainis on Jan 8, 2004, 10:51 PMBob, I think you are mixing up two seperate departments. The NYCHRR does have its own Police, as does the NY Waterfront Comm.
• Posted by: Howard Klein on Jan 18, 2004, 10:09 AMI have been in touch with a P.O. from NYCHRR and just got an E-mail from a part-time Chief at CHRR for wrote me he retired from NY Transit Police with 27 years of service.
Howard, just where was I mixed up? Seems we have the same info, perhps you should re-read my post. Anyway, if you are so inclined, Contact me as I am interested in pursuing the possibility of p/t rr cop.
• Posted by: Bob Rainis on Feb 21, 2004, 4:24 PMSgt. Bob, now retired