AMTRAK NEC: Springfield Shuttle/Regional/Valley Flyer/Inland Routing

Structures like that usually are self insured by railroad, new owner probably only had liability insurance.

My thoughts exactly.

This morning it was announced that Amtrak ordered a halt to the demolition of the remains of the Berlin passenger station. An article in the New Britain 'Herald" provided additional details: the halt in demolition was due to "insurance concerns."

476 and 479 will be going back to a bustitution approximately one month early. Beginning around March 1 they will abolished and weekend shutdowns will resume shortly thereafter.

The Berlin station is now nothing more than a hole in the ground. The last wall came down on Friday afternoon.

The demolition of the remnants of the old Berlin station was a requirement to complete the investigation of the cause of the fire. Let's see what happens now.

Effective today, 476/479 are now bustitutions. The work extras return next week.

I need to get from Springfield to NYC for the APA Conference in the beginning of May, what are the odds that the currently non bus trips end up bustituted? Also does anyone know the official date for the start of the new Union Station?

The bus substitutions are planned ahead of time and show up when booking. They won't just spring a bus on you. If you book on the Vermonter (56, 54, 55, 57), or one of the direct to Springfield trains (141, 143, 140, 148, 146, 136) your chance of bus substitution is very low, about the same as anywhere else on the Amtrak system. The additional advantage of these trains is that it's a single seat all the way through. You won't spend any time on the platform in New Haven waiting for a connection, or missing a connection if late.

There have been weekend closures occasionally affecting the above trains. These are usually announced well ahead of time.

The first shutdown of the year is tonight. Planned work should include removing the north switch to the former Quarry Industrial Track and 'widening' the Mattabesset River Bridge in Berlin. 494 will be the last train tonight.

I'm currently aboard train 579 San Diego to Los Angeles and admiring the work being done to ADD a second track north of San Diego. This is NOT replacing a track that was removed, but adding a track to the line that was neither designed nor built for 2 tracks by the Santa Fe (predecessor?) many, many years ago. They are doing everything from creating significant fills to building new bridges and even widening several significant deep cuts in the mountainous areas about 30 mins out of San Diego.

All this is being done with only minor delays to a FULL SCHEDULE of weekday (and weekend?) trains LAX-SAN! That's ELEVEN (11) weekday trains each way during daylight hours per my quick look at the timetable! Elsewhere on the line, they are adding & improving stations as well!

So, as a Springfield MA area resident that is beyond FED UP with the 3rd year of bus substitution, I have to ask: Does Amtrak California know how to control the contractors or what? In Connecticut, the contractors apparently rule the roost! And yes, all railroad safety rules appear to be followed including 'making noise' through the work areas.

Oh, and the Long Island Railroad is doing the same on the way to Ronkonkoma...with full commuter train schedules going through! Just no mountains, though.

Here's a link to what California is doing http://www.keepsandiegomoving.com/Lossa ... intro.aspx

You will probably see some significant schedule delays when the time comes to cut the new track and switches in. Ground work such as what you describe probably wouldn't have as much of an impact. The NHHS effectively had a "head start" because there was no need for the creation of a new right of way.

The Surf Line has been a public work-in-progress for 25 years, a little bit of double track here, a little grade separation there, and it's still partially single tracked.

I wouldn't assume that Caltrans/LOSSAN's little by little upgrades, which meant precious little difference in travel time, though seem to have enabled commuter service, have been less overall economical or more impactful than the 'big bang' approach being taken by Connecticut

gokeefe wrote:You will probably see some significant schedule delays when the time comes to cut the new track and switches in. Ground work such as what you describe probably wouldn't have as much of an impact. The NHHS effectively had a "head start" because there was no need for the creation of a new right of way.

In some cases, due to right-of-way width limitations, some of their construction was on both sides of the existing track. I'm reasonably sure there were times cranes lifting bridge pillar materials and the like sometimes blocked that track area. As far as cutting in new switches, signals, etc goes, I saw multiple switches, perhaps 100 yards of track, and a completely new signal bridge installed in West Springfield in 4-5 days about 5 years ago when there was a derailment on the approach to the CT River bridge. I recall they had the first track open in less than 24 hours. A lot can be done in a short amount of time with the proper motivation!

bdawe wrote:The Surf Line has been a public work-in-progress for 25 years, a little bit of double track here, a little grade separation there, and it's still partially single tracked.

The stretch I went through today was at least 10 miles long, maybe even 15 miles. I didn't time it, but I think we spent a good 20 minutes at restricted speed going through the construction zone. The construction zone on the Ronkonkoma line on Long Island that I went through 6-7 months ago was perhaps 10 miles long as well.

Given the slow construction progress on highway repairs in the Springfield area the past 20 years+ since I moved there from Wisconsin, I guess I shouldn't expect that government run construction projects will be done as quickly and efficiently as I'm accustomed to seeing. But then, those contracts have very lucrative incentive payments for early completion (they even worked 3 shifts/day!) as well as very expensive penalties for late completion. Out here, it seems that delay after delay occurs. My favorite one was several years ago when a single steel beam for the South End Bridge project in Springfield was too short/long/whatever. That caused a 6 month delay and ALL work on the bridge stopped! Obviously, Easterners are more complacent about slow construction times than their counterparts elsewhere.

It'll be interesting to watch "how it's done" at NYP "New York Style". I have little doubt the current schedule for emergency track repairs will drag on for some time.

bratkinson wrote:Obviously, Easterners are more complacent about slow construction times than their counterparts elsewhere.

Perhaps a deliberate and meaningless provocation on your part. The premise is in my opinion unworthy of consideration.