With frequent service and thru operation for Regional Rail, the need for close-in real estate to store railcars, midday, diminishes. High levels of service mean that many railcars will be used all day long. The remainder can be sent back to more remote rail yards. With thru service, rail cars are more efficiently deployed and the size of the fleet is reduced accordingly. The cost of maintaining two yards for each rail car is substantial and must be compared with the incremental cost of running rail cars longer distances to return to more outlying yards.

Four existing Regional Rail yards in or near the Manhattan business district can be closed entirely, and plans for a fifth yard to be constructed can be scrapped. The real estate that is released can be sold at full market value. Costly decks over these yards can be avoided. Sensible new development at these yards can be advanced.

Long Island City Yard

Located near the Queens waterfront, this yard is used primarily to store rail cars used on non-electrified lines in Long Island. Using dual mode locomotives and operating frequent service with thru-running at Penn Station, the yard becomes redundant. The site is adjacent to major new residential developments at Queens West and elsewhere along the East River.

Yard A at Sunnyside

This yard is proposed to be constructed as part of the LIRR East Side Access Project. Already cleared of the freight tracks, this yard would be constructed to house trains that would not be needed for reverse peak service. With the Regional Rail service proposed, a much higher level of service all day would be expected. By routing the remaining trains back to existing yards in Queens and Long Island this yard would not be needed. Including the separate track connection from the tunnel, this new yard could cost $1.0 billion or more to construct. Since this parcel is immediately adjacent to the proposed Long Island City business district Regional Rail station at Sunnyside, its value as raw real estate would be much higher. This sizable parcel could be developed as a campus for a university or some other institution requiring high quality regional access.

Vanderbilt Yard in Downtown Brooklyn

MTA maintains a midday rail car storage facility just south of the Flatbush LIRR Terminal at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Adjacent to the passenger yard is a disused rail freight yard. The developer of the Brooklyn arena proposes to buy the passenger yard and replace it with a new yard further to the east, at this site. With a higher service level on the Brooklyn Regional Rail line, a midday storage yard at this location is not needed. Both the freight and passenger yard can be sold at full market value, and costly air rights construction can be avoided.

West Side Yard in Manhattan

By far the most valuable of these yards, the West Side yard was opened to service in 1987. For 77 years, the LIRR operated to Penn Station without this yard. Trains were sent back to Jamaica or other yards further east. With the completion of East Side Access, half of the rail cars stored in the West Side Yard will be relocated. With thru running between New York and New Jersey, even fewer cars would reach the West Side Yard. A proposed two-track connection to the Amtrak West Side line would permit the complete abandonment of this facility. The value of the yard was recently appraised at $1.5 billion.

Hoboken Yard

As detailed planning for the new Hudson River tunnel advanced, it became clear that additional clearance was needed between the top of the new tunnel and the river bottom. Instead of following an almost arrow-straight shot beneath the Hudson River as the original 1910 tunnel did, it became necessary to consider an alignment that bowed south through the northern edge of Hoboken. Instead of bowing back north again as in the current plan, the curving alignment could be continued further south and then west, linking up with existing rail tracks just west of the Hoboken Terminal. The route to Newark via Hoboken would be the same distance as the existing route via Secaucus. Routing the new Hudson River tunnel thru Hoboken allows it to connect to existing high capacity infrastructure, including the four-track tunnel through the Palisades, the three-track Hackensack River lift bridge and the four-track connection to Secaucus: all become useful elements of the new tunnels. The connecting loop to the Bergen lines, passing through Secaucus station twice, can be avoided, saving over a mile and half of distance and perhaps three to four minutes of running time. No new capacity is needed across the Hackensack River.

With service running thru Hoboken, the yard tracks at this terminal will no longer be needed. A substantial amount of waterfront land becomes available for other purposes. The historic terminal and train sheds could be adapted to some other use, such as a new convention center or museum. The Hoboken-Penn Station-Grand Central routing enhances the value of released real estate at Hoboken: this large parcel would then be easily reached by commuters from Westchester and Connecticut, making it a uniquely accessible location for new development. Existing and planned office properties just to the south, in Jersey City, would also be enhanced with this new access.