east point wrote:isn't MBTA actually flirting with electrification on the proposed fall River (?) line ? That might require electrification of the Fairmont line to BOS. Then electrification might be advisable but until then ? ? ?
Electrified commuter rail, even on the already-wired Providence Line, can't happen overnight such that buying a few Toaster remans would work.
1)
Sharon substation was only constructed with enough capacity to feed Amtrak-only service through most of MA and the terminal district. As you can clearly see from the linked Google view, half of the substation site is completely empty awaiting an MBTA-paid expansion of the sub's generating capacity before it can juggle both AMTK and commuter traffic. That's a significant expense (albeit one that scales very, very well), so funds would have to start appearing on a 4-year MassDOT/MBTA Capital Improvements budget to put Sharon sub expansion into design + construction. That's not going to happen instantaneously. Minimum timetable from initial "Go!" decision to final result of daily Providence schedule getting a net-positive revision because enough zippier electrics are in-service ends up being 4-5 years any way you slice it.
2) Pawtucket layover has to be completely wired up in order to turn Providence commuter trains. That's a RIDOT expense, so minimum timetable for introducing electric service becomes dependent on coordination of
both a MassDOT 4-year CIP budgeting term for Sharon sub expansion and a RIDOT 4-year CIP budgeting term for Pawtucket layover. Not a big deal, but the respective DOT's are on different budgeting calendars and RIDOT is a hell of a lot smaller and more cash-constrained than MassDOT so the chances of paper-pushing making the schedule coordination between states out-of-sync by a year or more is pretty high. Bank on the higher-end of 5-year gestation period for getting most-essential jobs #1 & #2 done.
3) Attleboro station platform tracks are currently un-wired, with just the 2 center AMTK tracks settled. This is a very minor job, but Amtrak's in charge of the catenary and they're not going to hang the wire here until Sharon sub expansion is shovel-ready.
4) South Station Expansion. This is semi-decoupled from the line-specific requirements, but given that the Southampton Yard power draw is going to be upgraded in a package with the revamping of the terminal district and expansion of this station this is a necessary bucket list item to clinch for bolstering the only power capacity dependency external to Sharon sub. Looking more and more by the day like this is going to finally happen as-planned, and electrics could start before construction is completed...but you have to have this one signed/sealed/budgeted in order for AMTK to get go-ahead to do what it needs to do at Southampton to fortify the terminal's draw.
5a) The T needs to construct more wired layover tracks at Widett Circle, because Southampton is at-capacity and AMTK is already pissed at the T for bogarting too much space in Southampton for the largest 6+ car diesel rush hour sets (lot of Worcester Line sets as well as Providence) that don't fit in the T's extremely limited designated storage @ Widett. There's no way it'll work if every electric set, no matter how long or short, had to take up AMTK's space in addition to the diesel crowd-swallowers who won't fit on the shorter T layup tracks. The T's layups have to be wired, and some sort of partial relief valve has to be constructed to ease the pressure. That's an ongoing quest, stymied by lack of available land. There are some grand perma-fix plans under consideration (see the T subforum) which I won't get into here because they aren't necessarily a requirement for Providence electrics...but there has to be at least
something in the way of stopgap fixes in exploitable nooks-and-crannies to solve the storage issue before they can do electrics. Again, an ID'd strip of re-landscaped area cramming an extra track here and there isn't something that's going to happen in < 3 years...if for no other reason than space is scarce enough that you're probably designing a new retaining wall or two to eke out that extra +1 layup track crammed here and there, or changing a switch layout to lengthen a few of the tight existing layups for +1 cars.
5b) *Maybe* the T can get away with outsourcing electric loco maintenance to AMTK-Southampton in lieu of building their own small facility for that fleet, but such a deal is only possible if the T solves
all of the storage issues in #5a. AMTK's not going to take on outsource maint labor if the T can't get off their lawn with daily layover storage. AMTK needs its full yard back before it can entertain taking on outsource maint tasks, which means storage of both electric and large-size diesel consists has to move out of Southampton to new T property. The short-term options for nooks-and-crannies storage don't look promising enough to get them completely off AMTK's yard tracks, so this is going to require better clarity on the "killshot"-level solves (see MBTA forum, because too much to discuss here).
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4-5 years as minimum wait just for Providence. Not even T.F. Green and Wickford Jct., as that requires a whole other RIDOT funding shot...so those Boston schedules would still have to be covered by trace diesels. It's not as simple as buying a few Toasters while they're cheap. They'll be sitting stored in a yard for 5 years and then need a whole new maint program...
after all other units have been scrapped and both SEPTA and MARC have disposed of their fleets...to be re-prepped for service after that many years of not moving. Why would anyone do that when the no-give 4-5 lead time enforced by all the power generation construction prerequisites ^^above^^ is more than enough time to buy new. Don't forget as well...SEPTA's 13-unit Sprinter base order has 5 unexercised options on it for a total of 18. SEPTA does not have a current or planned coach fleet large enough to utilize 18 units, so those 5 contract options are pretty nakedly a bargaining chip to launder to somebody else in need of electrics on-the-quick. MARC, a few extra AMTK units...whoever. If the T were looking to dip its toes into electrification it would FIRST be looking at those +5 SEPTA options for getting its feet wet during the partial build-out of prerequisites #1-5 ^^above^^, then possibly a follow-on order of a few more units of its own when capacity is buffed-out enough and RIDOT has played catch-up with south-of-PVD funding enough to go wholer-hog with an electric fleet.
There's enough moving parts on planning/design of strictly the lineside power capacity and storage to coordinate that it's a few years longer a gestation period than "throw a bunch Toasters at Providence tomorrow". There's no quick fix, because the deployment timetable isn't quick-fix. Hoarding old stuff doesn't save them money when it'll be sitting inoperable from lack of power/storage capacity for 5 years, then need to undergo a much more intensive prep-for-service maintenance campaign after sitting that long...and need that maint shot
after all other operable units on the continent have been scrapped. Too convoluted a path when RFP'ing for a new order or horse-trading for the 5 SEPTA Sprinter options then telling Siemens to take its sweet time on the deliveries fits the same minimum timetable in far less convoluted fashion. It would be fewer moving parts to coordinate on the vehicle side when they already have enough moving parts to coordinate lineside for enacting their first commuter electrification.
