Amtrak Downeaster Discussion Thread

[Hamhock]

Assuming the MBTA trackwork stays on the schedule discussed by NNEPRA any negative effects (if there are in fact any....) from the loss of the second "peak of the peak" rush hour departure should be over by the end of May.

I'd really like to see the numbers on the ridership on the 6:40 departure versus the former 5:20/5:40/whatever it was; my biased opinion is that whatever they've lost in "out of work at 5pm" commuters, they've gained in "out of work at 6pm" commuters. Ultimately, if they had three northbound departures at 4:30/5:30/6:30, they'd capture every possible combo of 8am/9am/10am - 4pm/5pm/6pm commuter.

[Cowford]

"To suggest that I'm am not willing to use any ability to search out information is contrary to my presence in this thread, on this board and shows your assumption in this matter will not pass muster."

I stand corrected and apologize if I've offended you.

"I'm sure even a person with a casual understanding of fuel economy can understand that two people can handle a train with same consist under the same conditions and the fuel usage can be completely different... The variable can swing, and as you mentioned doesn't even include non revenue moves... How is that computed?"

Perhaps we're talking past each other. Non-rev train-miles or the fact that it's Bill or Joe driving the train on a particular day... these are incidental to the big picture. Said another way: The January average high temperature in Portland in January is 31F. Today's high was 37F. This January's average high temp will be, in all likelihood, pretty close to 31F.

[gokeefe]

Assuming the MBTA trackwork stays on the schedule discussed by NNEPRA any negative effects (if there are in fact any....) from the loss of the second "peak of the peak" rush hour departure should be over by the end of May.

I'd really like to see the numbers on the ridership on the 6:40 departure versus the former 5:20/5:40/whatever it was; my biased opinion is that whatever they've lost in "out of work at 5pm" commuters, they've gained in "out of work at 6pm" commuters. Ultimately, if they had three northbound departures at 4:30/5:30/6:30, they'd capture every possible combo of 8am/9am/10am - 4pm/5pm/6pm commuter.

That and they would also capture the people who work 4 days x 10 hours etc. But this kind of thing requires a very long term commitment to a schedule not a temporary change. That's how they've built all of this incremental ridership in the first place.

[jbvb]

>> jbvb:Also, some Haverhill boarding notes: 1/3/13 #681 had 5 people waiting in the cold (some severely underdressed) as it ran 15 min. late. 1/4 #685 had 12 or 13 waiting.
> gokeefe: How does that compare with what you've typically seen (especially before the extension)?

More than I've ever seen board either train at Haverhill. I see #685's patrons 4 out of 5 weekdays, #681 only maybe 20 times during 2012.

[MEC407]

Video (by "SignalHillProds") of GP38H-3 #521 on the Downeaster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T76ku_EaFJs

[Dick H]

Broken rail at Dover this AM right in Central Ave Crossing.
PAR crew working around DE's to do repairs. Minor delays
for 681-683-684.

I was on #685 on November 9th. About 15 mostly college
types boarded at Haverhill. As best as I could tell, most
got off at Durham-UNH.

[MEC407]

From The Forecaster:

FREEPORT — The Town Council made the first move toward silencing train horns Tuesday night, voting to designate the town a quiet zone.

But residents who have decried the horns won't get any relief for at least another three months.

Read more at: http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print ... one/147643

[MEC407]

From the Portland Press Herald:

FREEPORT - Town councilors voted Tuesday to designate the town a quiet zone, the first step toward stopping high-decibel whistle blasts from passing Downeaster trains.

The vote, taken shortly after 10 p.m., was 5-1 with one councilor absent.
. . .
Most agreed that the Bow Street junction in downtown Freeport -- the busiest and therefore most dangerous intersection -- will likely require a four-way safety gate.
. . .
Each four-way gate, which blocks all lanes of traffic in both directions leading up to the tracks and is considered the safest, costs an estimated $50,000.
. . .
Some funding could come from the state, said council Chair Jim Hendricks. He suggested that councilors "shoot for the sky" if they ask for state assistance.

Read more at: http://www.pressherald.com/news/freepor ... 01-09.html

[mr. mick]

What does it mean to "revisit it on March 19"? It seems like another two months will have passed without anything being done -; does it really mean that they will do nothing, and talk about it again,or --maybe it means that in the interim they will get some hard and fast estimates, or prepare the waiver request, etc. Based on the the newspaper reports, it doesn't sound like there was any commitment at the meeting to take any further action on anything in the interim. Hard to tell, not having been there.

[MEC407]

Based on the federal requirement of a 60 day comment period, perhaps there's not much they can do in the meantime. They did take a vote, and the vote to create the quiet zone(s) passed, so I'd say that counts as a commitment.

[gokeefe]

What does it mean to "revisit it on March 19"? It seems like another two months will have passed without anything being done -; does it really mean that they will do nothing, and talk about it again,or --maybe it means that in the interim they will get some hard and fast estimates, or prepare the waiver request, etc. Based on the the newspaper reports, it doesn't sound like there was any commitment at the meeting to take any further action on anything in the interim. Hard to tell, not having been there.

They're going to get contractor estimates lined up and check with the FRA during this period to see what the requirements are for each intersection. The articles either hinted at this or stated it directly. This will also start the clock (at least in their view) on the 60 day window.

[gokeefe]

From The Forecaster:

FREEPORT — The Town Council made the first move toward silencing train horns Tuesday night, voting to designate the town a quiet zone.

But residents who have decried the horns won't get any relief for at least another three months.

Read more at: http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print ... one/147643

The Forecaster covered a critical aspect of this process that the Portland Press Herald missed:

Residents who spoke at the meeting Tuesday night were generally concerned about the cost.

"This project has been problematic and is growing increasingly costly for the town," said Marie Gunning, advocating a public forum to evaluate costs. "What we don't want to do is pit neighbor against neighbor. From a process perspective, you folks have a chance to show leadership that hasn't been shown in this town."

Chairman Jim Hendricks said the council will seek funding from the state to offset the costs of the proposed safety measures, but that estimates will be elusive until after the 60-day comment period.

We have written and discussed the highly passive "wait and see" approach to this project taken by the Town of Freeport. I confirmed as much in my discussions with members of the Town Council and the Town Manager at the Inaugural celebrations. Their justification for this was the unknown of ridership.

Now that the question of ridership seems to have cleared up, and very clearly the trains aren't running empty, the Town is going to have to decide how to "catch-up". I'm really rather impressed that the consensus decision was to install quad gates at Bow Street. At least from the early point of view they now appear to be ready to leap forward and get ahead of the curve. It also appears that the solutions that they are prepared to deploy will be rather robust.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the decide that they need a new station. For the time being I think they will leave their platform and welcome center in the old hose tower, "as is". Perhaps the trigger for a new station will be an increase in frequencies and a resulting new flood of passengers.

[markhb]

I haven't been up to see how packed the hose tower waiting room is (or was during the Christmas season), but if traffic warrants improvements already, their relatively low-hanging fruit might be a canopy over the crosswalk from the tower to the platform. That at least would get rid of the nasty choice between waiting in the nice, warm room but having to go out in the rain to get to the platform, or waiting in the cold but not having to get any wetter. The only other station in Maine that doesn't have covered access from the waiting room to the platform is Wells; OOB doesn't have a waiting room at all but they're seasonal.

[mr. mick]

Thanks for the additional insight on the plans for the Quiet Zone in Freeport, I was hoping that they would be moving on the different items that need to be resolved. Now, "revisit" sounds much more like a commitment to update folks on where things stand/progress to date in March, which is a definite commitment to move forward with this issue.

[gokeefe]

Thanks for the additional insight on the plans for the Quiet Zone in Freeport, I was hoping that they would be moving on the different items that need to be resolved. Now, "revisit" sounds much more like a commitment to update folks on where things stand/progress to date in March, which is a definite commitment to move forward with this issue.

Yep. No doubt they're moving forward on this now.

Again, I remained impressed that quad gates at Bow Street are apparently an "of course." I noticed that the pricing on these seemed lower than usual ($100K instead of close to $1M). I'm guessing a lot of the necessary work for these has already been done due to the signal upgrades which means going from twin gates to quad gates is more of a modular upgrade instead of a rebuild. Perhaps this is one of the smaller benefits of having the new CTC online.

If these prices hold the apparent flexibility could have implications for other towns as well.

I also noted the Town Council's comments regarding the State paying for the upgrades. That seemed to be said more as a 'token' effort to defray costs in order to fulfill fiduciary duty. There is no chance the State will pay for this, especially after Portland had the necessary upgrades planned and budgeted for ahead of time from their own funds.