Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

Kind of pisses me off that Woburn Transrail has been whittled down to nothing. That project was so promising for rail freight and makes so much sense for last mile commerce for the area. We are lacking freight interchange facilities in the greater Boston area and longer transit distances only increases costs. The NIMBYS win again.

Its also strange that ALL of the remaining customers are suddenly not taking any loads any more. Like tighe was doing tons of boxcars between their two buildings. And atlantic plywood had been taking regular boxcars forever and suddenly, nada.

As I mentioned before, this certainly is not sudden. Carloads have been dwindling for years...

I gather the warehouses and transloads in Iron Horse Park are doing plenty of business. I think a lawrence local serves the park M-F. Operationally it makes sense for CSX to encourage customers on the lowell line and nearby to transload there so they only have to actually run all the way down to everett twice a week or whatever they have been doing. Unfortunate but fits the trend we see all over eastern MA.

Speaking of IHP, Waste Management seems like a natural growth opportunity, though I dont know what kind of volume they handle at that location.

In all likelihood, something major would need to change to actually trigger increased service and traffic south of Billerica. The cement plant reopening under Benevento or someone else would fit the bill, but I’m not holding my breath on that. Development in Everett could mean dirty dirt or high/wide loads that could increase frequency for a while and maybe entice some lineside customers. Possibilities beyond that are just wishful thinking.

EDIT: i dont know how much WM would need to produce or where customers need to be to for it to make sense to load pellet hoppers, but 450 incoming tons a day and processed materials heading to China sounds like it could work. https://www.wm.com/about/wm-monday/billerica.jsp

Im seeing conflicting satellite imagery on the state of the WM spur. Ill be in the area this weekend so I might be able to check it out.

Is this the WM site you are talking about?



If so where was the siding?

No, I am sure he's talking the facility in Iron Horse Park. They don't use rail.

Yea I was referring to IHP location

Last few weeks DOBO has been thru medford at 10:30pm on Thursdays like clockwork.