New York New Jersey Rail, LLC is a switching and terminal railroadthat operates the only car float operation across New York Harbor between Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York. Since mid-November 2008, it has been owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which acquired it for about $16 million as a step in a process that might see a Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel completed.[1] 

The Greenville Yard was created at the turn of the 20th century by the Pennsylvania Railroad.^[12] The New York New Jersey Rail, LLC (replacing the New York Cross Harbor Railroad), transferring freight cars between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York, run as needed. This car float still operates because rail cars with flammable and hazardous materials are not permitted in the former Pennsylvania Railroad, now Amtrak, tunnels under the East River, Manhattan and the Hudson River, and because the tunnel clearances of the tunnels are inadequate for most freight cars. Since freight trains are not allowed in Amtrak's North River Tunnels, and the Poughkeepsie Bridge was closed in 1974, the ferry is the only freight crossing of the Hudson River south of the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, 140 miles (230 km) to the north of New York City. NYNJ leases approximately 27 acres (11 ha) of land at Conrail's Greenville Yard in Greenville, Jersey City, where it connects with two Class I railroads - CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway - which jointly operate Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area.[2]   The 2.5 mile barge trip across the harbor takes approximately 45 minutes. The equivalent truck trip would be 35 to 50 miles.[3]