The Selkirk Hurdle is the term used by

urban planners An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

employees, politicians, and others to describe the route that must be taken by

freight trains A freight train, also called a goods train or cargo train, is a railway train that is used to carry cargo, as opposed to passengers. Freight trains are made up of one or more locomotives which provide propulsion, along with one or more railroad ...

traveling between

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and other points in

downstate New York Downstate New York is a region that generally consists of the southeastern and more densely populated portion of the U.S. state of New York, in contrast to Upstate New York, which comprises a larger geographic area with much sparser population d ...

that are east of the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

, and locations in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to the south and west. There are no rail freight bridges or tunnels that cross the Hudson River south of Selkirk, which is south of Albany and the home of Selkirk Yard, a major

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

classification yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

. As a result, trains from

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

and New York City (except for the borough of

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

which has a rail bridge to New Jersey) must travel north to cross at Selkirk before continuing on their way. Advocates claim that this detour and the inefficiencies that result force New York City to rely more heavily on relatively-inefficient trucks than most parts of the United States, where freight trains are more common. However, at least for traffic to and from the west, this route was touted for its efficiency as the "Water Level Route" by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

because trains using it did not have to climb over the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

, and it is still used by the New York Central's successor,

, for traffic to both sides of the Hudson River. To cross the Hudson, trains must use the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge or another bridge further north near

Mechanicville, New York Mechanicville is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,163 at the 2020 census, a small decrease from 5,196 in 2010. It is the smallest city by area in the state. The name is derived from the occupations of early ...

, operated by Pan Am Southern railroad. A May 8, 1974, tie fire ended service across a railroad bridge at

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

, north of New York City. Because of the height of the bridge, trains still had to travel west to Maybrook, New York and back, limiting its use when it was in service. The rails on the bridge at Poughkeepsie have been removed and the bridge was converted into the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park in 2009, a pedestrian footbridge. The only alternative to the Selkirk Hurdle is for rail cars to be floated across Upper New York Bay: an operation run until 2006 by the New York Cross Harbor Railroad and currently run by New York New Jersey Rail, LLC, now owned by the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

. The Port Authority is investing in improvements to its decayed infrastructure, much of which was washed away by

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

. As trucking has become more prevalent, rail float operations across the bay have dwindled and freight operations on the

Bay Ridge Branch The Bay Ridge Branch is a rail line in New York City, owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway. It is the longest freight-only line of the LIRR, connecting the Montauk Branch and CSX Transporta ...

have decreased from 600,000 railcar loads per year to less than 3,000 carloads per year. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes some day to transport as many as 25,000 cars annually. Eliminating the Selkirk Hurdle is a primary objective of the Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, proposed to span

Upper New York Bay New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...

between

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

. A draft

environmental impact study Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...

for the project was released in November 2014.Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project
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References

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See also

References

Further reading