Pittsfield/Springfield/Boston East-West Passenger Rail

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Tue Dec 20, 2022 6:59 pm

cle wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 1:59 pm
Does one not include the Lake Shore? So one additional service? Would be nice to extend a NE Regional (no mentions of CTDOT re Hartford Line extension, another option)

And same for phase 2 and Albany-Boston, would it be two net new services? Might they run on anywhere?

2 round trips on the inland route which will likely happen first. 2 additional round trips Albany - Boston. Doesn't include the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited. Including the Lake Shore this would be 5 round trips Springfield - Boston. 3 round trips Albany - Boston.

Ok so first will be (best guess) - extensions of two Regional services from Springfield to Boston, and return.

Second up will be two unique, new Albany-Boston round trips, which (+LSL) will equate to 5 tpd from Springfield to Boston.

I wonder if the Albany-Bostons could be a Berkshire Flyer - I can definitely see potential there but it's too niche right now. And Chatham reopening would be interesting too.

Its Boston-Springfield-New Haven through service. https://www.mass.gov/news/massdot-amtra ... -worcester

Expanded Boston-ALB service is only a line on a map at the moment. MassDOT and NYSDOT have said little about this option as of now.

Maybe one RT will connect to Vermonter? Also one connect to Adarondiac ??? Both ways.

I can't see PIttsfield unless they can fund Berkshire service.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 9:24 am I can't see PIttsfield unless they can fund Berkshire service.

Agree not enough population west of Springfield area.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/03/17/ ... esnt-move/

There’s momentum at last for East-West Rail, but Postal Service still stands in the way

After years of being stuck on the siding, East-West Rail sure seems like it’s on the right track now.

Just look at what’s happened lately. MassDOT is seeking $108 million from the feds for rail improvements between Springfield and Worcester. Governor Maura Healey set aside $8.5 million in her first proposed state budget for track upgrades in Pittsfield and $4 million for a station study and design in Palmer. A new commission reconvenes on Tuesday to hash out the best governing structure for passenger rail operations in Western Massachusetts. Amtrak and CSX are finally all aboard. And Senate President Karen Spilka was just out touring Palmer, where she pledged that it’s a matter of “when, not if” improved train service between Pittsfield and Boston gets done.

But there’s one big obstacle no one seems to be talking about: the US Postal Service’s sprawling mail-sorting complex along the Fort Point Channel. State officials can do all the track and station work they want out west. With the massive USPS facility blocking a South Station expansion in Boston, East-West Rail could be going nowhere.
...

Why is the postal annex so vital to East/West Rail? Most Worcester trains use tracks 1 and 2 at South Station. I don't see/recall a lot of other traffic on those tracks, especially 1.

The MBTA claims that South Station is at or over capacity, that they basically cannot add any more trains. At some point (when? 50s? 60s?) the two railroads sold the eastern 1/3? of the South Station tracks and ?sheds? to the Post Office Department, which moved their main processing facility from Post Office Square to Fort Point Channel / Dorchester Avenue. Most of the passenger layover yards went away in the 1960s? The old South Station track charts showed 28 tracks iirc, but a lot of those were short tracks.