paulrail wrote:The thread about the bridge replacement on the Amtrak Forum is locked.
However, I suppose Amtrak could have gotten an agreement with the New England Central RR to use their freight tracks from New London to Palmer and then run from Palmer to Boston. The line runs along the west bank of the Connectcitut River. right past the Mohecan Sun Casino! 
Naw,....this would be way too long a trip tim wise anyway, since freiht trains are quite active on this line and there would be too much delay time.
Paul
Slightly OT... Despite efforts of the state governors all Amtrak service BOS to NYC will be down from 14-Jun to 17-Jun. There are also rumors of requests for that to actually be extended additional days but so far no word on that.
Amtrak will actually run on a modified schedule from New London to NYC followed by a "re-branding" of the service after that per Amtrak marketing plans.
There are rumors of some limited service connecting New Haven to Springfield, and from there to Boston but that has to be worked out with CSX. Right now that is not happening - only rumor.
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On topic, the segment of track 3 from Forest Hills to Readville was last rebuilt well before electrification - in fact it was rebuilt a couple of years before the shut down that created the Southwest Corridor trench.
From a point just south (west) of Forest Hills near the former Toll Gate Bridge, the RR ties are wooden on track 3. Track 1 and 2 were rebuilt with concrete ties but track 3 was never done. Track 3 only carries MBTA traffic anyway, the overhead catenary was never installed. The supports are there but no wire.
I live south (west) of Forest Hills and the stacks of new WOODEN ties have already been dropped off every 100 feet or so along the service road where the freight track used to be (removed when the Southwest Corridor was built).
Per my understanding, while Amtrak will not have service BOS to NYC, the MBTA will continue to operate as usual along this stretch of track. With no Amtrak, there would be no reason why they could not run on 1 or 2 tracks between Forest Hills and Readville. There are sufficient cross overs. Two of the days are weekends when service is already low, and some modification for the Monday and Tuesday of the netx week may be required, but not impossible.
There is still a connection from Readville JCT (between Readville and RT128 Station), through the old yard, and onto the Fairmount branch. During the construction of the Southwest Corridor all traffic went that way. Might be a slow proceed through it if deemed necessary, but possible as I see it, but likely not necessary.
I suspect however that despite the 4-day outage, we'll still have some sleepless nights with the machinery operating or moving to and from the work site.
DMK
at Bridge 282.2
