Danbury Branch - History, Electrification, Studies

Also the Berkshire flyer is supposed to begin their pilot program train this summer between GCT and Pittsfield via A\R. Will see if that one fly's.

I see Colin Pease is still handing out the kool aid in Jonestown...I mean Canaan...

Mod Note: Did a little combining of several threads that focused specifically on service studies heading northward from Danbury to New Milford - Pittsfield & it’s effects on Metro North.

northward from Danbury is not likely to happen and as Metro North issue a no brainer.
even New Milford is far fetched as crews simply can not deadhead trains from Danbury to New Milford and finish a round trip back without violating hours of service.

Mr Lang, NEVER Happen,HRRC HATES MN.
GOT,need to send the IRS to shut down the distillery!!
Dutch get 2 T&E crews to work the Danbury-New Milford segment 1 crew for the AM moves,the other handles the PM moves.

J.D. Lang wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 2:03 pm Also the Berkshire flyer is supposed to begin their pilot program train this summer between GCT and Pittsfield via A\R. Will see if that one fly's.

Mr Lang, NEVER Happen,HRRC HATES MN.

I never said anything about MN verses HRRC. The only thing I added was the Berkshire Flyer's pilot program which will run from (corrected) NY Penn. up the Hudson to A/R then over the B&A to Pittsfield

The pilot service from NYP will be operated by Amtrak and will be using Amtrak equipment.

As for running regular passenger rail service on the Housy, it’s likely going to be a bit slower than driving. It’s very loopy in certain areas, even leaving Danbury, the tracks take a semi loop around the museum and MNR yard. Not only would the trains from the Berkshires have to deal with Housy. They would have to run down the Danbury Branch plus the New Haven Line. The New Haven Line is at or above capacity. Plus infrastructural issues would need to be worked on-bridges, curves. If any regular passenger rail service to NYC heads up to the Berkshires, that would also mean trying to make very few stops on the Danbury and New Haven Lines. There are many people who might live in Danbury who drive across the NY State border to Southeast and ride the Harlem to the city. The longer the projected travel times are to the Berkshires from NYC, the more people will not want to use this service. If you are heading to Great Barrington from Midtowb Manhattan, you can probably be up in Great Barrington in about three hours if you take Amtrak to Hudson and then get a ride from Hudson. You could be in Great Barrington in a little longer than three hours if you take MNR to Wassaic and have other travel arrangements from there. I know people who live in Great Barrington who use MNR out of Wassaic at least once a month. When they travel to DC, they take Amtrak from Hudson to NYP and then switch there for DC.

HRRC needs to GO,they can not make simple track repairs,after ConnDOT gave them $$$$$$ and materials to do repairs.
It will take many seasons of track rebuilding to passenger ready specs before service can run. A very lost cause for now.
NY Penn=Albany-Pittsfield is the LONG way around.

if the HRRC manages to eventually operate this using their own equipment i'll be shocked

If HRRC had own equipment it would not last a week , with 3 states involved, it would be financial mess. even if Berkshire div were upgrades track speed would only be around 50 > 55 mph , current time from GCT to Danbury is about 2 hours and Danbury to Pittsfield would add another 2 to 2 12 hour . the Danbury Branch is pretty much saturated yet these schmucks want to add 8 trains , not like they live in a fantasy limbo and no believe in facts

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/ ... 636471.php
Some legislatures are calling for a restudy into the Electrification of the DBL along with more trains. What are your guys thoughts?

$$$ to be appropriated for a study, no doubt. End result? No electrification (where would the motors and rolling stock, if not EMUs, come from?); possible and needed extension to New Milford, given population trends. But Waterbury branch improvements, along with costs of running SLE and the Hartford Line may so eat up DOT budget that another service expansion could be beyond reach.

They already did a study. No need to waste money again. They added a passing siding (or two, not sure) and found electrification cost too much with minimal time savings. What they could do is negotiate with the freight operator and upgrade the two tracks to a proposed Danbury North station near I 84 as a first step. Need to see if land is available for a station and parking however.

https://www.dotdata.ct.gov/DanburyBranc ... index.html


link to the Danbury study

I think they might end up running some more trains with maybe additional passing sidings but electrification isn't the time yet. Maybe in like 10 years when ridership increases, they will re-evaluate the needs of the branch.