AllEarth Rail / Vermont Commuter Rail

In Vermont, these RDCs do not have to have PTC installed. The rail corridors in Vermont are not owned by Class I freight railroad companies, nor have enough business to warrant it. The limitation for them is 12 passenger trains per day, or if you prefer 6 round trips, along any section of track.

That’s up to six trains in one direction in the morning, and six trains in the evening in the opposite direction. Amtrak already uses 2 of the 12 possible passenger trains south of St. Albans towards New Haven ever day. So that leaves 5 round trips between St.Albans and Exeter, and 5 round trips between Exeter and Montpelier. That also leaves all 6 round trips between Exeter and Burlington and towns further south towards Rutland.

The tracks from St. Albans south to New Haven and Burlington south to Rutland have recently been or in the process to be refurbished to 60 mph maximum speeds. That leaves the sections of tracks between Burlington and Exeter, and between Montpelier and Barre left to be refurbished. As I understand the conditions, both of the latter segments of track are limited to 10-15 mph max speeds. Refurbishing either or both sections of tracks will be necessary for a useable commuter rail system.

AllEarth does not really want to operate these RDCs, they want the local transit agency or the state to subsidize the operations. All they wish to do is be the provider of the RDCs. Besides finding the money to refurbish the tracks left needing to be done, and subsidizing the rail operations, someone is going to have indemnify or fund the freight railroad companies higher insurance costs.

I do think when push comes to shove, Vermont will not fund this commuter rail push because it would be too expensive. ViA wanted these RDCs badly, but were outbid for them. As soon as AllEarth realizes Vermont will not fund these trains, they will sell them to the highest bidder. AllEarth can not and will not hold onto them forever, there is a time when these RDCs will be sold. Canada does not require PTC for passenger train operations, and the lack of PTC equipment in these RDCs will not be a problem for them.

And I do not think NICTD will buy them mainly because they will run more than 6 round trips per day, and some of the tracks they plan to use are owned by Class I freight railroads, so PTC will be a requirement for them. Whereas I have no idea if PTC can be installed on these or not, why do so? There is a reason why the TRE decided to sell them, and those same reasons are also true for them.

Vermont is not even in picture , no deal , no railroad,
so lets focus on other idea's with PTC.

Any kind of cab signal/PTC install will be a bit of a "shoehorn" fit on a RDC,might lose a bathroom or a seat or 2 for the gear required.
including Air Brake plumbing for both cabs.

DutchRailnut wrote: ↑Tue Jul 30, 2019 7:32 pm Vermont is not even in picture , no deal , no railroad, so lets focus on other idea's with PTC.

NYSW (NJDOT-sudsidized) commuter service, anyone? NYSW already ran some RDCs with the On-Track shuttle operation in Syracuse. With NJDOT/NJT subsidy, a few round trips from either Tonnelle or Hackensack (NJT bus terminal hub there) to Paterson and Pompton Lakes.

Or an off-the shelf solution for the CSX/Erie Northern Branch: no need to extend electric HBLR, but run RDCs from Englewood/Tenafly/Northvale to the Tonnelle park-ride. Just one active customer left on the branch.

Don't wanna' go off topic.but
A drawback with RDC's on Northern Branch might be
that would make it 3 ride trip into Manhattan,Gotta' wonder how much that
would appeal to the daily commuter....and with The Susquehanna
personally I think the only reactivation that would make any sense
would be from destination west of Hawthorne Jct.feeding onto
NJ Transit Main Line at Hawthorne
I don't see how All Earth's proposed operation is gonna' be
much more than a local curiosity...as it would need
substantial patronage to make it work long term..

TriMet (WES Commuter Rail) has two Budd RDCs - ex-Alaska Railroad - that are in service every day (or almost every day) and have PTC installed.

TriMet also owns two more RDCs - ex-Trinity Railway Express - that have never entered service.

They actually did a ridership study for CR from Middlebury to Burlington a while ago;
I worked on evaluating the noise and vibration from the proposed trains. The numbers
simply weren't that great; maybe a few dozen people a day would use it to commute to
Burlington. I don't know about further south, but the numbers would have been even less.
Just don't see the ridership justifying the expense here.

trainhq wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2020 3:19 pm They actually did a ridership study for CR from Middlebury to Burlington a while ago;
I worked on evaluating the noise and vibration from the proposed trains. The numbers
simply weren't that great; maybe a few dozen people a day would use it to commute to
Burlington. I don't know about further south, but the numbers would have been even less.
Just don't see the ridership justifying the expense here.

If there wasn't enough actual ridership to justify keeping either the Ethan Allen Connection or the Champlain Flyer (may they both R.I.P.) going there's no way commuter trains to/from Middlebury would produce enough ridership. A daily Amtrak train in each direction connecting Burlington and towns like Middlebury with downstate NY and NYC is another story. Maybe a 2nd daily train (even as just an Albany-Burlington "shuttle") could work, but only because of the ability for connections to be made to points south and west which is where the ridership and revenue potential really is.

Backshophoss wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2019 8:27 pm Any kind of cab signal/PTC install will be a bit of a "shoehorn" fit on a RDC,might lose a bathroom or a seat or 2 for the gear required.
including Air Brake plumbing for both cabs.

yeah that's basically it. Ron mentions NICTD above, and NICTD had to install PTC on many of their cars. They basically tossed a seat and installed a stainless cabinet the size of a home fridge. Pro tip, there is a little ledge to the left of that cabinet that makes for an excellent footrest.

Bumping this hibernating thread:

An AllEarth Rail RDC, one of 12 purchased from Trinity Rail Express of Dallas a few years back for proposed deployment in Vermont commuter rail service around Burlington, was observed on the Palmer Rail Cam on 12/14/21 being switched by NECR's Palmer daytime switcher #603 at 1316 backing into the NECR yard south of the diamond, presumably after arriving on the daily NECR 611 road train from Brattleboro. And then 10 hours later at 2333, NECR's Palmer switcher was seen shoving the RDC in the middle of a long cut of cars into the CSX/MA Central interchange yard.

Anybody know where the RDC is headed? I'll have to watch the cam midday to see if the RDC is dragged to W Springfield on the CSX B740 local.

johnpbarlow wrote: ↑Wed Dec 15, 2021 6:43 am Bumping this hibernating thread.

Anybody know where the RDC is headed? I'll have to watch the cam midday to see if the RDC is dragged to W Springfield on the CSX B740 local.

The only internet prescience I see anymore for AllEarthRail is a Facebook page, their ,com homepage link just redirects to AllEarth renewables. So maybe they are in the process of selling their RDCs? VIA will probably still wish to buy them. Millions of capital can not be left invested into a failed business model forever. Apparently Vermont did not wish to invest in and subsidize running commuter trains.

I believe it was mentioned elsewhere that it went to FGLK, which now adds some sense to the previous speculation in another thread that some or all of these cars were bound for the Rockland Branch in Maine, prior to FGLK backing out of that transaction.

On Wednesday evening 6/8/22, CSX freight M425 out of West Springfield had an ex-TRE RDC on the marker. Anyone know the story of where it's headed?

It's on the way to a tourist line in NY from what I hear.

Are they selling off their RDCs? Is this commuter line still proposed? What will they run if they sell off most of their fleet?