Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the operations of MTA MetroNorth Railroad including west of Hudson operations and discussion of CtDOT sponsored rail operations such as Shore Line East and the Springfield to New Haven Hartford Line

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 #1519928  by daybeers
 
As was posted on the Amtrak Shuttle forum, Amtrak is retiring the Springfield Shuttle name and renaming them "Amtrak Hartford Line" for all the trains that run NHV-SPG. Valley Flyer will stay for the trains starting/ending in Greenfield and Northeast Regional for the through trains to/from Springfield. I think it's interesting but makes sense, though I do agree with another poster: some may get confused as all the Amtrak trains continue to Springfield, plus they don't allow bikes (a big negative for me, as I use my bike all the time). I guess that's the price MA pays when they didn't want to fork over enough money for the service (silly). It looks like the internal Amtrak system has switched over: the status and ticketing pages on the website show the new name. I took the picture below at the Meriden, CT station on Tuesday night the 10th (sorry for the quality).

In other news, CTDOT sent out a press release today with a short survey to join a Customer Advisory Panel for the purchase of new rail cars for the Hartford Line, Shore Line East, Danbury Branch, and Waterbury Branch. Big news!

Any news on the platform in Springfield? Can't believe it's taken this long.
Attachments:
MDN PIDS with new Amtrak Hartford Line name.jpg
MDN PIDS with new Amtrak Hartford Line name.jpg (579.12 KiB) Viewed 2086 times
 #1520856  by lordsigma12345
 
For folks looking for a foliage ride/dinner idea, you can now go to Northampton for dinner by train on weekends. You do it by taking the Vermonter to Northampton, and then train 499 from Northampton to Springfield for the return trip where you can then connect to CTrail 6411. The Northampton station is extremely convenient to lots of great restaurants.
 #1520953  by Traingeek3629
 
ebtmikado wrote: Fri Sep 13, 2019 4:15 pm It is 29 years, and Madison and Clinton SLE stations don't have their Track 1 platforms yet.
Clinton's has begun construction. I drove by the station Monday and it looked like they had begun tearing down the walls around the little shelter area and were clearing the parking lot on the Track 1 side.

As for Madison, I can assure you I'll be writing a letter to the first selectman candidates both before and after the election telling them to get their act together with this project.
 #1520969  by ebtmikado
 
But of course! As founder of the Shore Line East Riders Association, the group that fought to save SLE back in 1995 and 1997, when then- governor John Rowland tried to eliminate the service. This was before he went to federal prison the first time.
 #1523120  by Arlington
 
jxzz wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2019 7:35 am CTrail Hartford Line has been doing well. Ridership is up 25% recently.
Can you supply a link to a source or press release?
 #1523207  by jxzz
 
I attended commuter forum meeting last week at New Haven Union station. One of CtDOT staff said that at some weekdays, they were seeing 3000 rides per day. This line ridership is skyrocketing. CtDOT was predicting that this line could hit 1 million per year ridership in the future and they promised more trains on this line if ridership continues to go up
 #1523288  by jxzz
 
You are referring to valley Flyer. I do not want repeat here and I posted in valley Flyer thread already. Valley Flyer does not look good, probably will not past pilot.
 #1523289  by gregorygrice
 
njt/mnrrbuff wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2019 8:09 pm That's great that the ridership continues to climb on the Ctrail Hartford Line trains. It would be good to have some more and hopefully have at least one of them continue beyond Hartford to Springfield.
That is simply a result of MassDOT not contributing any funding towards CTrail trains. The 3 round trips a day that go to Springfield are pretty much "gifted" to them. The CTrail trains are solely funded by ConnDOT.
 #1523291  by jxzz
 
gregorygrice wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:21 pm
njt/mnrrbuff wrote: Wed Oct 23, 2019 8:09 pm That's great that the ridership continues to climb on the Ctrail Hartford Line trains. It would be good to have some more and hopefully have at least one of them continue beyond Hartford to Springfield.
That is simply a result of MassDOT not contributing any funding towards CTrail trains. The 3 round trips a day that go to Springfield are pretty much "gifted" to them. The CTrail trains are solely funded by ConnDOT.
My bad, I misread it. Not valley flyer, you guys are talking about more trains between Hartford/Springfield.

Yes, funding issue is major one. CT does not want to spend more money for MA. Also, double tracking between near windsor lock and MA/CT border are not funded yet. Hartford station I-84 funding is major factor too. Too much issue north of Hartford makes Springfield schedule not as desirable as it should be.

The best solution is for MA to put up more funding supporting Western Mass, not just this line, also East West rail Springfield/Boston. A linked corridor in New England between NYC/Boston is good for whole region. East West rail won't help CT commuters to Boston that much, too far away, but certainly opens up jobs opportunity of Worcester region to CT, or vice versa, New Haven/Stamford Jobs for Springfield/Worcester too.
Last edited by jxzz on Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #1523308  by njtmnrrbuff
 
I remember that when CTRail Hartford Line started running, the first northbound CTRail trains departed from New Haven very early but were cut because of low ridership probably. The trick is to run the trains when enough people would ride them while considering the types of jobs and other reasons that people would use those trains for.
Even though job opportunities are improving in Springfield, that city still has an economy that can be better than what it is. By adding more double track, that will help provide flexibility in the train schedule. I know that that first northbound that was cut months ago arrived into Springfield very close to 8:00. Yes many people work 8:00 to 4:00 jobs but the time that it arrived into Springfield would have caused people who were supposed to start work at 8:00 be tardy. I don’t think that a person who works a 9:00 to 5:00 shift would want to take a train that arrived at the city of where their job is an hour before their shift begins. While wiggle room is good, too much of it can prevent a person from having to leave earlier than they want to. Having a Ctrail train departing New Haven a little before 7:00 am and arriving into Springfield around 8:30 wouldn’t be too bad, especially for those people who work 9 to 5 jobs in Springfield.
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