Pan Am Worcester Main Line

Drove by sterling st/depot sq today
Crave still sitting there
Concrete base of center support for the bridge is much more robust with new concrete
No obvious sign of any undercutting having been done

I chatted briefly with a worker at the Sterling St clearance project in Clinton and the Ag branch bridge is going to be raised 33” with project completion slated for April 2025. Worcester main will not be lowered. NS is footing the bill. Also there is no plan for this construction team to connect the Ag branch and Worcester main at Clinton. The grading that is going on around the bridge is for construction roadway access only; not track. Presumably if CSX does want to connect the two lines at Clinton in the future, a CSX-funded construction team would do the track work.

The Clinton bridge has turned out to be a much larger job than I expected. The work has been going on for months and there are still at least 5 months to go!

Looks like there was once a connection there? Google satellite images seem pretty current as you can see work is going on at the site

Good information about raising the Clinton bridge and to a WML clearance 22-feet above the rail.

From the NSR Settlement Agreement:

IV. NSR Trackage Rights
(1) NSR entering trackage rights agreements on industry standard terms except as
described hereinafter, with CSX, Providence and Worcester Railroad Company
(“P&W”), and Boston and Maine Corporation limited to no more than one pair of
NSR Premium Trains per day operating over the trackage rights;
...
(4) NSR will assume the capital cost of the connections and infrastructure necessary to
double stack the route, including:
(a) the Voorheesville/Schenectady connection;
(b) the clearance upgrades needed on the P&W segment south of Ayer; and
(c) the clearance upgrades needed between Barbers Station and Harvard;

Importantly, what's lacking at this point is the start of NS-funded clearance upgrades needed on the P&W segment, likely the most challenging of the entire project in clearing the tunnel under Worcester's Lincoln Square in addition to the Lincoln St. overhead bridge, as well execution of a CP-45 to Barbers trackage rights agreement.

Good to see there's finally general understanding around the fact that the WML could be re-connected to the Fitchburg Secondary if CSX chooses to do so as one element in reducing their footprint east of Worcester responding to growing passenger rail and re-development pressures.

However, should CSX decide to make the re-connection, unless something changes all evidence in wider-area existing, including and as well planned, new and improved track capacity at this point would favor use for local Secondary service and not a rumored re-routed road train pair dumping all work east of Worcester into Framingham where transit-oriented re-development pressures run high. This could work in conjunction with re-locating existing customers onto the Secondary from elsewhere as part of another element in pursuing reduction of their footprint east of Worcester.

To be fair, I'm now hearing some version of this floating around, and I'll say it's possible Selkirk crews won't be running to Framingham with the full road train this way. Of course I'll say it's still a re-route. The bottom line is that the 436/437 train pair will not be going east of Worcester on the B&A at some point in the near future.

I'm not trying to claim that I know exactly what is going to happen and when. I can tell you that they are doing more work Worcester to Ayer then they are doing on the B&A, and the B&A is supposed to be double tracked from Worcester to Springfield in 5 years.

That's going to take a lot of work and there is currently no sign of it, but nobody questions it. I understand that but the thing is, nothing happens until it does. It actually mirrors T&E hurry up and wait. So just because work can't be seen now doesn't mean it's not happening.

All I can say for sure is that there will be big changes for New England railroading in the next 5 years.

Warning! Railfan speculation follows with little basis in knowledge or verifiable fact:

Looking at the CSX system map for SE Massachusetts, a significant source of CSX traffic (especially C&D), it's apparent that CSX no longer owns any of this track; rather it has operating rights over MBTA or MA-owned track. And looking at the P&W map, we see it also has operating rights over MBTA to get traffic to/from Attleboro/Fall River. What I can't tell from this map is does P&W have access to MBTA-owned NE Corridor track via Boston Switch/NEC or via its roundabout E Providence branch to the S Attleboro connection to the NEC/MBTA?

My question is could CSX partner somehow with P&W (trackage rights?) to move its SE MA traffic via P&W's Providence main through Boston Switch on the NE Corridor to gain access to where it currently has operating rights, avoiding use of the MBTA Worcester line?

This CSX-P&W arrangement plus a Clinton MA connection would route almost all of CSX traffic off MBTA east of Worcester except for the G&U, Westborough transload yard, and Inteplast Engineered Films at CP-33 Westborough. And even CSX's G&U interchange traffic could be moved from N Grafton to Forge Park, although I believe MASSDOT has committed to improving the N Grafton interchange with a lengthened siding.

I don't know about all that, the constant is that the full road train will be going up the branch and that the old B&M yard space will be rebuilt to some degree. The details on how they parse it out from there are less clear, but it seems to favor Selkirk crews going to Framingham via Clinton or something more like QB 52.32 said. Locals taking cars to the rebuilt B&M yard.

The actual on-site workers in Clinton now of course don't know anything about any future plans, they are grunts just like us in T&E. They just know that their job is to raise the bridge. Most of them are not even CSX employees.

johnpbarlow wrote: ↑Wed Oct 23, 2024 6:39 am Warning! Railfan speculation follows with little basis in knowledge or verifiable fact:

[Discussion of CSX using P&W to avoid use of MBTA Worcester Line between Worcester and Framingham]

You're overthinking this, as well as missing some other key pieces.

1) Running anything for extended distances on the NEC costs big bucks. Amtrak charges a much higher price per car/axle for use of NEC track than is typical for trackage rights fees. Shifting the traffic would result in a much longer run over Amtrak rails, especially since CSX still needs to reach Mansfield as well as points further east.
2) Using the P&W would require splitting the revenue with the P&W, which CSX probably won't want to do if they don't have to for other reasons.
3) Assuming the priority is to get road trains off the MBTA Worcester Line between Worcester and Framingham, the short-term cost of building the Clinton connection is likely to be much lower than the longer-term operational costs required by #1 and #2.

johnpbarlow wrote: ↑Wed Oct 23, 2024 6:39 am Warning! Railfan speculation follows with little basis in knowledge or verifiable fact:

This business is lucrative, and they are not going to pay someone else to move it when they do not pay anything to run over their ex-lines owned by the state now.

Edit: oops I see this was already stated this above in much more details.

Since the supposed goal of the Commonwealth is to remove freight trains east of Worcester on the B&A , any work to create a connection in Clinton would fall under the states funding. So no work would be done until that project gets under way. CSX isn't going to pay for it.

I may well be overthinking this but I believe CSX pays the MBTA and not Amtrak to use the NE Corridor east of the RI border today. As far as revenue sharing with P&W, if CSX gets trackage rights (or haulage rights), usage fees are paid and revenue is not shared; CSX retains the shipper relationship.

The only changes I'm contemplating here are elimination of the L002 Worcester-Framingham turn (ie, M436.M437) that runs on the MBTA Worcester line and re-routing of the heavy locals that CSX runs today out of Framingham on the the MassDOT owned Framingham secondary:
- L005 Framingham - Attleboro turn becomes a Worcester - Attleboro turn
- L010 Framingham - Readville turn becomes a Worcester (or maybe Providence) - Readville turn

All other SE MA locals would continue to operate as they do today on MBTA/MassDOT owned track:
- L003 (Worcester-Westborough turn)
- L006 (Middleboro-Attleboro turn)
- L007 (Middleboro-Hebronville turn)
- L008 (Middleboro-Braintree turn)
- L011 (Walpole-Attleboro turn)

Is it the case that CSX currently pays zero charges/fees to operate its SE MA traffic over MBTA or MassDOT-owned track? If so, then CSX should negotiate with the Commonwealth to add a 3rd track using tax dollars between Worcester and Framingham that it could also use for free, no? Sounds like the easiest solution from a CSX perspective.

So when a railroad like CSX or Pan Am sells their tracks to the state and obtains "perpetual rights" to operate over those tracks, do they have to pay to use those tracks?

Nice work, Mr. Barlow. You're not overthinking it, you're considering it along the same lines of how planners would view this situation and of no less value than rumors, where in all cases it becomes a matter of rolling probabilities according to the known facts at any given time as we move along to a 25-year horizon where, I might add, passenger rail and re-development pressures on CSX could become extended out as far west as Springfield.

But, at this point after 2 years of Fitchburg Secondary investments in new rail & ties unless they are added in Southborough and N. Framingham as they have in interesting contrast to the north, improbable a Clinton connection would serve a re-routed Framingham road train. Additionally, doubtful even if that were to become the case that the Westborough's and G&U's would be included.

taracer wrote: I can tell you that they are doing more work Worcester to Ayer then they are doing on the B&A, and the B&A is supposed to be double tracked from Worcester to Springfield in 5 years.

As a matter of fact the B&A Worcester-Springfield will not be doubletracked in 5 years, but instead have added track heavily skewed just to the west of Worcester and to the east for G&U interchange in addition to the track just added in Westborough.

At this particular time, subject to change when looking at the fullness of facts moving forward, drawing no conclusions here's how I assess in declining probability current WML track rumors in play:

- extending a second through track the additional 2/3 of the way CP-45 to Barbers
- adding N. Worcester yard track supporting local service
- re-connecting at Clinton for Fitchburg Secondary local service
- adding N. Worcester yard track for P&W interchange
- re-connecting at Clinton for a Framingham road train pair
- N. Worcester turntable

If as rumored here today substantial clearance work is needed , and not even started, in Worcester Lincoln sq area, how does DS traffic start in May as otherwise rumored here by historically pretty accurate posters?