CTDOT: Hartford Line

Many Ctrail trains operate with four MBB cars and a Geep and the acceleration is good. Amtrak, on the other hand, still operates with two cars and a Genesis on its 400 series shuttle. The Vermonter I think is 5 cars north of New Haven and the NE Regionals are 8 cars. The acceleration of a Genesis is not too good, even a single one pulling a two car train.

lordsigma12345 wrote:Platform canopy demolition and track reallgnment work. New power cabinets can be seen in one pic. - taken at SPG

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I went back to take some more pictures today of the Springfield platform C work. They have begun removing the steel canopy structure starting from the east end. Additionally they have begun to demo the west stairwell headhouse. The east headhouse was demolished back during the renovated passenger tunnel waterproofing work and was capped. This stairwell will no longer be used. Once the canopy and headhouse is down they will demolish the asphault platform and dig down to the canopy column foundations. Before they start building the new platform they have to verify the foundations and lower columns can handle the weight of four extra feet of column for the new higher canopy.

BandA wrote:You raise the issue of dispatch priority! Presumably Amtrak dispatches NHHS & takes priority over CTRail on this line. I forget, did they build any station sidings for this project? The local CTRail then "takes the siding" and the Shuttle/Vermonter whizzes by... The CTRail trains probably have better acceleration because they are shorter? but make more frequent stops.

There really isn't anything like that. The commuter service operates under a joint dual service provider model. The CTrail trains and Amtrak Shuttles are functionally identical and make all stops except that the Shuttles also carry intercity Amtrak ticketed travelers in addition to commuters holding commuter rail tickets (the Amtraks also don't stop at New Haven State Street except for a couple Shuttles that run at peak commuter hours.) The only exception is the Vermonter which operates as an "express" and skips stops, but it also has it's own "spot" on the commuter rail schedule even though it doesn't accept commuter tickets so it really isn't supposed to bump into any trains traveling the same direction unless you have late train scenarios. They basically took the Amtrak schedule as the core and they scheduled CTrail trains to fill in the holes. Trains running in the same direction don't really bump into each other as a result although there are some bottlenecks where the line remains single track where trains traveling in the opposite direction can delay each other, but I would say the dispatch priority is equal and is based on other criteria than whether its an Amtrak or CTrail train. There have been a couple of times where I've been on an Amtrak operated train and waited for a CTrail train to clear the single track area.

Additionally There aren’t station sidings because all trains are locals except the Vermonter There are three sidings as part of the NHHS project and I’m not sure if the first two are built yet or not - one in Berlin, one in Hartford and one in Springfield for a future layover yard. None of these really become required until the number of round trips reaches what’s planned around the 2030 timeframe.

Why are they building a low level platform in Windsor?
Wouldn't it make sense to build a short high level one until funding (which may or may not come) arrives?
It seems a waste of money to do what they did. Just build a one car hi level platform.

Also, when the Hartford line launched, CDOT said that a ticket machine would be added in Windsor and Windsor Locks in July.
Did they mean 2018 or 2019?

Train322 wrote:Why are they building a low level platform in Windsor?
Wouldn't it make sense to build a short high level one until funding (which may or may not come) arrives?
It seems a waste of money to do what they did. Just build a one car hi level platform.

Also, when the Hartford line launched, CDOT said that a ticket machine would be added in Windsor and Windsor Locks in July.
Did they mean 2018 or 2019?

Last I heard Windsor/Windsor Locks TVMs are supposed to be in by September 30th.

Agreed on the Windsor platform seems a waste - would have made sense to do temporary high levels. When the Springfield platform is finished in late fall/early winter Windsor/Windsor Locks will be the only remaining stations with only low level boarding.

They could easily do what they did in Northampton, MA at Windsor. Build a temporary high platform until the funding for a full one arrives.

Speaking of Northampton, how is the platform extension coming along up there? I haven't been up in 2 months or so.

Last thing I heard is that the bids for the Greenfield/Northampton upgrades were going to be opened in early August. Have not heard if they have awarded to a contractor yet. The goal is for the physical platforms to be done before the snow flies and then complete landscaping/aesthetics work in the spring.

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When complete will allow a maximum of four doors to open on three passenger cars for Northampton and Greenfield.
Springfield's new platform will allow for 8 doors on five cars.

Thanks.

This just proves that Connecticut DOT likes to waste money.

Either that or all the people making decisions are inadequate.
They could have had the second TVM at the other stations (like Berlin) installed in Windsor until more TVM's are available.

CDOT has some of the most incompetent leadership in the history of transportation. Virtually everything they touch turns into a billion-dollar boondoggle.

I guess but not every project is as much as a boondoogle as it looks. The busway in the Hartford area is probably very important since it provides the buses their own roadway, especially where they overlap and then many of them connect the suburbs of Hartford as well as other cities like Waterbury.

As for Ctrail, if I could change one thing, I would have probably just had all of the trains run with Amtrak equipment and operated by Amtrak crews. While it helps provide capacity, many of the trains are serving the same stops anyway. The Springfield Line was literally in a good position to be its own commuter service anyway. If I were the head of DOT, I would have not only had Amtrak operate the service. I would have had other parts of the project done before the frequencies increased-brand new Hartford Station with double tracks. The current situation at Hartford Station is dismal because it is probably the busiest intermediate station on the Springfield Line and only one track there. When one train is delayed there, it probably messes up everything else. Plus, you can't extend many more trains north of Hartford. I would have had the new Windsor Locks station built before the new service began. Lastly, a brand new Connecticut River bridge with a double track span. Had they had the Springfield Line double tracked to at least the east side of the Connecticut River, even with a few stretches of single track, that would have been a good start.

Not that germaine to this thread, but still related to transportation in the central part of Connecticut-CDOT was supposed to have upgraded the Waterbury Branch. Yes, Waterbury has fallen on hard times for a while, but that shouldn't stop the sidings from being built along the branch. Many people who live along the branch would benefit from more train service options, especially those who might be heading to work along the main line in Bridgeport and other cities west of there.

Good points. It would seem to have been smoother if they just had Amtrak crews. After all they did have Amtrak take on three of the new round trips due to the limited CTDOT rolling stock. But they chose to do a competitive bid. Amtrak did bid on the service but lost to TASI. Though even if Amtrak had won it sounds like Amtrak crews would be operating CTDOT rolling stock (perhaps the same rolling stock being used by TASI.) Amtrak May not have enough rolling stock lying around to carry this whole service itself. I wouldn’t be surprised that when CTDOT buys the new rolling stock for CTrail that they also eventually have to pay for whatever replaces the current Amtrak rolling stock used for the Shuttles since this is a state supported service now.

Thanks. It's like this-on Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route, are there any other commuter rail routes that operate on the same tracks to Sacramento and Roseville? No. The Capitol Corridor is not just an intercity rail corridor, but also like it's own commuter service too. On weekdays, the trains literally operate every 30 to 40 minutes between Oakland Jack London Sq and Sacramento and plenty of people commute on them. CDOT will probably have to pay Amtrak for operating their own trains on the SPG Line-yes, the SPG Line is and has been a state supported corridor for a while.

I think there is some legislation in place (in several I believe, including CT) that for infrastructure projects, they must be competitively bid on, and usually the lowest bidder has to be accepted. In my opinion this is a very silly practice and needs to be changed.

As to njt/mnrrbuff's thoughts:

The current Hartford Union Station is on hold until the plan for the I-84 Project is decided on. The end result of that will most likely mean a complete relocation of the tracks and construction of a new station. It is also well known that the viaduct at Hartford isn't capable of holding two trains at once. Sure, CTDOT has bad management and possibly could've stretched the money a bit more, but I don't think it would have been enough for upgrading the viaduct (if that was even possible), another high-level platform, new track, and for what, to rip it up in two-three years? It's the same with your ideas about the Connecticut River bridge: where would the funding come from for a completely new double-track bridge? Same with the Windsor Locks station. To say nothing of the timing: the start date was years after the initial projection, and those projects likely would've extended the timeline even further.