by njtmnrrbuff
Even with a few curves that are sharp, fine but too many every few miles is not ok.
In many territories along defunct or very curvy right of ways, such as in Northeastern PA where the Lackawanna Pocono Main is, the bus is the best mode of public transportation. From having ridden the excursion powered by the 765 in September of 2015, I noticed those are extremely sharp curves once you get past E. Stroudsburg. There is no way that a train running from Hoboken to Scranton would do well ridershipwise because of speed being a major obstacle. In fact, taking a NJT local train from NYP to Dover is extremely slow and doesn't compete with driving or taking the bus between those two points.
It seems that between Springfield and Greenfield, there are a lot of curves but I think there is a lot of straight track too. The curves aren't 180 degrees which helps. Looking at a map, it looks like the main roads between Springfield and Greenfield curve as well. Hopefully, train travel time between Springfield and Greenfield won't be much slower than driving. It looks like presently, the timetable says that Amtrak Train # 56 does the trip between Springfield and Greenfield in one hour and seven minutes. Is that terrible? Probably not, given that it makes stops in between. Could the times be improved? Yes, and whatever slow orders there are once you clear the junction just west of the Springfield Amtrak Station, hopefully they can help bring down the travel time. I doubt that the approach in and out of the Springfield station can be improved with speed.
When these shuttles are extended north of SPG, Mass needs to let Amtrak run at least three car trains or even have a forth car. I wouldn't be overly surprised that these trains will get crowded. I also think the fares north of SPG up to Greenfield should be lowered.
In many territories along defunct or very curvy right of ways, such as in Northeastern PA where the Lackawanna Pocono Main is, the bus is the best mode of public transportation. From having ridden the excursion powered by the 765 in September of 2015, I noticed those are extremely sharp curves once you get past E. Stroudsburg. There is no way that a train running from Hoboken to Scranton would do well ridershipwise because of speed being a major obstacle. In fact, taking a NJT local train from NYP to Dover is extremely slow and doesn't compete with driving or taking the bus between those two points.
It seems that between Springfield and Greenfield, there are a lot of curves but I think there is a lot of straight track too. The curves aren't 180 degrees which helps. Looking at a map, it looks like the main roads between Springfield and Greenfield curve as well. Hopefully, train travel time between Springfield and Greenfield won't be much slower than driving. It looks like presently, the timetable says that Amtrak Train # 56 does the trip between Springfield and Greenfield in one hour and seven minutes. Is that terrible? Probably not, given that it makes stops in between. Could the times be improved? Yes, and whatever slow orders there are once you clear the junction just west of the Springfield Amtrak Station, hopefully they can help bring down the travel time. I doubt that the approach in and out of the Springfield station can be improved with speed.
When these shuttles are extended north of SPG, Mass needs to let Amtrak run at least three car trains or even have a forth car. I wouldn't be overly surprised that these trains will get crowded. I also think the fares north of SPG up to Greenfield should be lowered.