Oak Point Link

Looking northwest from Triboro Bridge

Looking north from the Madison Avenue Bridge

The Oak Point Link is a 1.9-mile (3.1 km) long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, USA, along the east bank of the Harlem River.^[1] It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (on the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad section) with the Harlem River Yard and the CSX Transportation Oak Point Yard at the north end of the Hell Gate Bridge.

The line, constructed and owned by the State of New York, opened in 1998 to allow better freight rail access to the city by eliminating a more circuitous route that crossed busy commuter lines and whose tight turns (at Mott Haven and Melrose) limited the length of freight cars. The new line was built with loading gauge clearances high enough for trailer-on-flat car (TOFC) intermodal freight transport service, but is not high enough for double stack container service, due to limits imposed by city bridges crossing over the line and the high tides on the Harlem River.^[2] Construction of the line began in 1983 and cost $187 million to complete.^[1]

The line also gives Canadian Pacific Railway's subsidiary Delaware and Hudson Railway access to New York City. The access was mandated by the Surface Transportation Board to give competition to CSX's post-Conrail breakup monopoly on New York City and encourage freight in the area to use rail. CP uses trackage rights over CSX and Metro-North from Schenectady south along the east side of the Hudson River to the connection. The first train to use it ran on March 7, 2000.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2009, CSX runs a pair of trains on the line each day, while CP runs several trains per week.^[3]

Local service from Oak Point Yard runs to an interchange with the New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) at Fresh Pond Yard in Queens. From Fresh Pond the NY&A takes freight to customers on the Long Island Rail Road, as well as the city-owned 65th Street Yard in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, via the Bay Ridge Branch.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Schneider, Daniel B. (November 30, 1997). "F.Y.I.". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/30/nyregion/fyi-328278.html. Retrieved July 16, 2010. 
2. ^ Halbfinger, David M. (October 12, 1998). "20 Years in the Making, Rail Freight Link Opens in Bronx". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E0DF163AF931A25753C1A96E958260. Retrieved January 30, 2008. 
3. ^ RailForum discussion

Sources

• Joe Greenstein, Canadian Pacific in NYC, Trains April 2002