Overview Document

General Description

This data represents the volume of freight railcars moved by New York Rail, LLC (NYNJR), which is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA). NYNJR moves freight rail cars across , from in Jersey City, NJ to , NY by pushing cars onto a “carfloat” (basically, a barge with rail tracks on it), towing it across the bay, and unloading it on the other side.

Volume numbers in this data set refer to loaded (or “revenue”) cars only, as is custom in the rail industry. To calculate the total number including empties, double the number of revenue cars moved.

Float numbers refer to the number of round-trips across the bay made annually by the carfloat during NYNJR’s operations.

NYNJR is part of the PA’s long-term effort to improve the movement of goods in the greater New York/New Jersey region by enhancing the transportation of freight across New York Harbor between the -Port Authority Marine Terminal and the Greenville Yard-Port Authority Marine Terminal. Over 90% of the goods consumed by the 20 million people in the region, the nation’s largest, move by truck, increasing congestion, decreasing air quality, wearing down local and regional roads, highways, and crossings, and increasing costs. The CHFP aims to mitigate these social costs, add redundancy to the freight movement system, and promote the regional economy by rehabilitating the “southern gateway” to the “East of Hudson Market” (EOH) - Long Island, the Five Boroughs, and New England.

Data Collection Methodology Volume numbers are a product of railcar interchange system used to track rail cars nationally. These numbers are reconciled against internal records made at the time of each float.

Statistical and Analytic Issues There are minor discrepancies between volumes tracked in the interchange system and those tracked at the time of the float, for example, because of misrouted cars. forced NYNJR out of operation in November and December 2012, so those volume and float numbers reflect only 10 months of service.

Limitations of Data Use

None.