Amtrak at TF Green Airport in Rhode Island

Today I had a chance to see the new TF Green airport train station in Rhode Island and I am very disappointed that #1 amtrak is not going to make a station stop there and #2 the station track there is not electrified for future service (mbta, which currently has 3 round trips from boston monday-friday uses diesel). Additionally, I believe that their is a market for 2-3 amtrak trains a day from TF Green to Boston (one of which should certainly be the commuter heavy #66). IMO people in the vicinity of Route 128 would be flocking to one stop service to TF Green in order to avoid Logan...

Thoughts?

It'll probably happen eventually. They've been negotiating over this a long time; I think they'll work something
some time, but who knows when.

Two new interlockings are going to be built to access TF Greene from main line tracks 1&2, but only for T trains. I don't believe that there are any plans in the very near future for Amtrak service at the airport.

As it stands, even the MBTA schedule isn't at all friendly for rail-to-air travellers. The station, at least for the time being, is being used primarily as a giant parking lot for commuters.

I would definitely utilize a Westerly to TF Green Amtrak route (at least I would if I wasn't boycotting the airlines!)

Does anyone know how ridership is on Amtrak for Newark Airport? That station is 100% for airport access, as you can't even exit to the street there.

Taken from the State Fact sheets.

2009 Newark Airport 109,517 - about 300 per day
2010 Newark Airport 116,526 - about 319 per day

Not too bad, but it's not like

2009 BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport 617,349 - about 1691 per day
2010 BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport 654,151 - about 1792 per day

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...

My previous reply was Amtrak ONLY numbers.

Here are some commuter numbers.

BWI - Marc Trains stop Daily 5:30am-9:30pm

Press release of 11/23/2010 says:

The BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Rail Station was dedicated on October 23, 1980 as the first intercity rail station built to serve an airport in the United States. MARC ridership has grown steadily since then. The BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Rail Station now serves more than 1,800 passengers on a weekday. That is a 50 percent increase from just five years ago.

Newark Airport - NJ Transit stops Daily 5:00am-2:00am

I can't find any exact ridership levels, only comments on how it's growing. Read into that as you wish.

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...

giljanus wrote:Taken from the State Fact sheets.

2009 Newark Airport 109,517 - about 300 per day
2010 Newark Airport 116,526 - about 319 per day

That is Amtrak ridership to EWR. According to the PA, NJT ridership to PA reached 2 million (~5480 per day) in 2008. Almost 25% of all EWR users from Manhattan use rail to get to EWR according to PA in the document entitled Upgrading to World Class, the future of New York Region's Airports.

There's a provision at T.F. Green for a platform on the other side of the tracks. Currently it's only 1 platform, which is a lot more operationally awkward for Amtrak than the MBTA which is only running a subset of its schedule past Providence. That's the primary reason they're taking a pass now. The state's also approaching the airport connection from a gradual-growth standpoint, letting the MBTA ridership percolate and then expanding out the facility/parking/intermodal connections to tap the growth curve. That'll include the opposite-side platform build in a few years, at which point Amtrak will probably have enough passing interest to stop some Regionals there.

RI is pressing ahead with plans for a full in-state commuter rail build-out down to Westerly, and it's those riders to the south and southeast outside of the MBTA district who are going to take most regular advantage of T.F. Green. Extreme Southeast CT and RI well south and west of Providence are the one sort-of no man's land in Southern New England that has poorish access to the region's airports and no attractive driving choices except a traffic hell on I-95 to get to one. So the T.F. Green scale-up (both the increase in flights and the transit connection) will be a godsend to that corner of the region. You'll certainly see more riders well east in CT looking for Regionals to take them to Green since that jog goes beyond the scope of Shore Line East service.

Speaking as a lifelong resident of that unlucky corner, expanded T.F. Green service would indeed be a miracle, especially if we can get some more trains as well at Mystic.

I had some fun playing with GIMP today; here's what the north end of the station would look like with Amtrak. I envisioned full high-level platforms for Amtrak, with a mid-height platform for the MBTA track (which is physically a foot or too lower than the corridor) to match the current platform.

And yes, despite the bad perspective on my part, there really is space for platforms, assuming they didn't put in a fourth track. About 25 feet between the MBTA track and the Corridor; 10 to 12 between the Corridor and the parking garage wall.



Bigger version

That was planned from Day 1, at least a second platform (I doubt they'll do 3). Baby steps...they're still doing track work for the MBTA extension to Wickford Jct. It's going to be a very limited schedule to Green until that's open. Then they need a couple years of ridership growth and more flights coming in. 2nd platform is an inevitability, not a debate. So, I would presume, is Amtrak doing some Regional stops.

I just did the two high-levels plus the middle platform for the MBTA for the sake of completeness, but yeah, baby steps. Will they put in the northbound or southbound Regional platform first, or both at the same time? I imagine they'd just do the northbound platform to avoid the cost of a pedestrian bridge, but they'd probably need a southbound platform then anyway for the return trips.

Most likely to have just two platforms: the present one on track three and a new one for track two. Electrifying track three between Post and Packard wouldn't be very difficult. I would expect the wire over 3 to be very high to clear oversize freight movements.

JWilson wrote:Most likely to have just two platforms: the present one on track three and a new one for track two. Electrifying track three between Post and Packard wouldn't be very difficult. I would expect the wire over 3 to be very high to clear oversize freight movements.

The purpose of Track 3 was for the P&W to not interfere with passenger trains and also so catenary clearance wasn't an issue.

Catenary clearance over track three at TF Green would not be any more of a problem than it is west of Packard, where track three joins track one. Special ties (8 bolsters each) have been installed on track three in the platform area so that a gantlet track for freight can be built next to the running track.