AMTRAK NEC: Springfield Shuttle/Regional/Valley Flyer/Inland Routing

east leg of wye ?? off springfield line ??
http://binged.it/1JRzUmb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yup, right there where Rt. 8 is with I-95. The New Haven used to run freights out of there from Cedar Hill Yard on eastward.

yes but there is no east leg of wye from springfield line to shoreline jct. and FRA is not going to let you run passenger trains trough a non signalled freight yard.
the wye you see in map does not connect with tracks to cedar hill yard either they loop over the yard lead to the wheel mill near were old coal tower is/was.

DutchRailnut wrote:that market is not CDOT's concern and if CDOT awards contract to other than Amtrak you can kiss any Amtrak service goodbye.
Amtrak has stated that the New Haven crew base would be gone and they would basically lease the line to CDOT.

Amtrak owns and dispatches the line so why would there be literally no service on their end? They're certainly not going to can the Vermonter for that kind of reason..

Dutch wrote above:
[[ yes but there is no east leg of wye from springfield line to shoreline jct. and FRA is not going to let you run passenger trains trough a non signalled freight yard. ]]

Just as a point of order...

Back when the old Montrealer was revived in 1989 (via New Haven to New London and then "up the CV" all the way to St. Albans), we used to take the train through an "unsignalled freight yard".

We even ran over that ricketly wooden trestle you see on the CV connection just east of New London station. I remember when I first worked on the Shore Line I used to pass that bridge and wonder who would run a train over it. Little did I know that I would, but that was the regular move.

A story about an irregular move on the CV:
One night, coming south, I was coming through East New London yard around 4 in the a.m., getting there not long after the CV's southbound freight had. Well, came up on their caboose and the rear end of it was only halfway cleared at a switch, with the switch restored to normal position and the caboose still fouling the main.

What to do? I figured the CV crew probably had gone home and didn't want to be the one to get them into trouble. So I had the conductor go over to the Amtrak channel. There was another track to our right, I didn't even know if it was in service, but it ran from the north end of the yard by the roundhouse, and then back into the "yard main" -- enough to get us around the caboose.

So we backed up, got onto the "other track", and crept down it and somehow got back onto the yard main. Then I called the St. Albans dispatcher and cleared up, and crept on out of there. It would have required some explaining if the track had been in such bad shape that we derailed on it with a passenger train.

I guess the CV dispatcher found out about it some other way, story I heard was that the rear end brakeman was brand-new and didn't fully comprehend what "clearing" a track was!

But I wasn't the one to report him.

Moral of the story:
To quote a saying CV Road Foreman P.K. Larner used to say in his classes:
"A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do!"

interesting , but times have changed and no one will run acses signalling in cedar hill yard and its switches.

For the amount of property in and around Cedar Hill that is probably still in "railroad hands" there should be enough room to build a new track or maybe two new tracks to make a possible through move at Cedar Hill from the Springfield Line to the Shoreline and signal it and allow for a nonstop move. I am not saying that it would be a good idea or good use of state money, I am not convinced that it would be in any way and as others have stated here, a lot of the responsibility would or at least should rest on Massachusetts. A far better route would be via Springfield even if they had to spend considerable money to improve the railroad between Springfield and Worcester. I am still not convinced that there is enough market between Hartford and Boston to justify a train. As an alternative maybe a train between Hartford and Worcester where they could connect with MBTA service between Worcester and Boston.
Noel Weaver

The market is all of Western Mass, Central CT, and Northern CT. That encompasses over a million people. Most of us have cars and will drive to a train station and park. This would be vastly better than driving into Boston and then having to find parking there.

I wouldn't mind driving to Worcester if there was a limited stop train at convenient times to Boston. (There isn't yet.)

I'm not sure if I posted this map before; if I did, forgive my forgetfulness. Someone had screen-capped this out of the Futures report, I think.

In any case, THIS is the point Noel is making. It makes no sense to go Hartford Line - NHV - BOS. You can see clearly by the geography. The points others are making is that if there is a viable inland route, whether HFD via Springfield or via Worcester, people might take that OVER dealing with the traffic and the buses.

A lot will be told by how well the Hartford line does. But that's more of a CTDOT topic than an Amtrak topic.

NHHS Construction Updates

Construction Update: Town of Berlin

Beginning on Friday, September 11th and concluding by Sunday, September 13th, there will be construction activity on the rail line between Surrey Lane and Camels Back Road. Work will include the replacement/rehabilitation of culverts. The work will occur during the 32-hour period beginning at 8PM on Friday and concluding at 8AM on Sunday. Train service in this area will be suspended during this period. While no vehicular traffic impacts are anticipated, there will be construction noise throughout this period and temporary lighting to support overnight work in the area.

Please note that this schedule is subject to change.

Future updates on the status and location of construction activities will be provided on the NHHS Rail Program website at http://www.nhhsrail.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, Facebook, Twitter and by email. To receive email updates, please register on the NHHS Rail Program website.

Hartford CT rail yard (Amtrak/CSO) has now started to lay aggregate down next to main line 1 for what will become the second track today. Just a small section was started and will be patted down for a good solid base. I watched both south and north bound Vermonters go though basically right on time. CSO also went south with 19 cars towards New Haven as well as either South Windsor or Manchester local leaving yard to head over to East Hartford with 7 cars. Looked like they cars were for South Windsor line.

Jehochman wrote:The market is all of Western Mass, Central CT, and Northern CT. That encompasses over a million people. Most of us have cars and will drive to a train station and park. This would be vastly better than driving into Boston and then having to find parking there.

I wouldn't mind driving to Worcester if there was a limited stop train at convenient times to Boston. (There isn't yet.)

I have very serious doubts of over a million people anywhere near the Hartford area, maybe down the road I will try to check where I can but that is not for now. In any event Hartford is NOT growing, in fact I can remember when the population was close to 175,000 but not today when I doubt if it is over 125,000. The growth areas in Connecticut today are in western Fairfield County mainly Stamford, Norwalk and maybe Danbury. Hartford probably rivals Bridgeport for the highest crime rate in the state. There was something in the New York Times last week regarding that but I did not post it on here because it really wasn't good news and I did not think it needed to apply to the railroad. I don't think the State of Connecticut can be trusted to spend any transportation funds wisely and this saddens me no end. The only practical rail route between Hartford and Boston today is via Springfield. It will take a major upgrading of track and signals between Hartford and Worcester but it could be done. The big question is whether it is worthwhile given the populations around Hartford. I am not necessarily against it happening but I think it is far more important to get the New Haven Line between New Haven and the New York State Line back in decent condition FIRST.
Noel Weaver

Hartford proper is a tiny slab of land about 3 miles x 6 miles. If you include the suburbs, known as "Greater Hartford" there are over 1,200,000 souls. Metropolitan Springfield has another 700,000. These two metros fit together seamlessly. That's a market of nearly 2,000,000 people who could use the inland route to get to Boston.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Hartford" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springf ... litan_area" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Same source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Hartford" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Population: 1,486,436 (CSA)

Includes:

Principal cities
Hartford
New Britain
West Hartford
Bristol
Manchester
East Hartford
Middletown

A headline Malloy is upset with Amtrak instead of stats.

Honestly, from what I've heard of Malloy, this seems like a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

But that's just my opinion.