by Philly Amtrak Fan
Any chance we can make Baltimore's (and New York's) tunnels high enough for Superliners?
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Philly Amtrak Fan wrote:Any chance we can make Baltimore's (and New York's) tunnels high enough for Superliners?B&P replacement is supposed to have full-on freight under wire clearances so Norfolk Southern can enhance its Port of Baltimore loading capacity. That should be fine. Gateway they may pour at 16'2" Superliner height for 100-year-plus future-proofing purposes, but you still have no means of getting anything taller than a 14'6" MLV through Penn and the East River Tunnels so it's a moot point for train ops.
F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:WSH-BAL wouldn't even be able to take an Auto Train extension from Lorton to a #2 terminal north of the Beltway without fixing a bunch of sub- 19'6" overpass clearances for the autoracks, so that nearby Superliner-bearing route is no practical consideration either.How about WSH to MARC's Camden Station, running over CSX lines used for MARC's Camden service? At the very least it'll need a terminal at Locust Point/Riverside. (That may be a different topic there for this)
STrRedWolf wrote:I've been wondering how they can build the new alignment without shutting off service, too. It's a shame the plan from the 90s to use the Claremont Branch as a way of getting penn line trains to camden station never went anywhere.east point wrote:What will be interesting is how the tunneling work is scheduled. 4 separate tunnels including the one that ducks under another. Just how many TBMs can be used simultaneously will be determined later but that will definitely affect how long the project will take. Adjacent tunnel bores will need cross connection walkways. If one tunnel bore can be come operational when 2 are complete is another question to answer.It's going to be a mess no matter what, because it's not just the tunnels. You got a new bridge and station to build as well, given the chosen alignment, and the need to keep existing service in play until they're ready to connect the tracks by West Baltimore.
Also how many hours a day can the work be done ? The many trucks hauling away boring spoil will make a lot of noise.
scratchy wrote:I've been wondering how they can build the new alignment without shutting off service, too. It's a shame the plan from the 90s to use the Claremont Branch as a way of getting penn line trains to camden station never went anywhere.If the current state of the branch is any indication of what it was back then, it would of needed a fair bit of reconstruction of the line itself, plus some new connections at the Mt. Claire yard (having it end in a wye). Plus, it'll add more time to go Penn to Camden anyway. It wouldn't be worth it.
This... is a mixed bag. $4 billion for two higher-speed tunnels (down from 4 in the approved EIS) and a rebuild West Baltimore station... I'm not happy about it.
Nettie Washington Douglass gets chills when she thinks about her great-great-grandfather’s daring escape from the bonds of slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Disguised in a sailor’s uniform sewn for him by his future wife, Anna Murray, Frederick Douglass crossed the Chesapeake Bay by boat, then boarded a New York-bound train from Baltimore in 1838.
“If it had not been for the railroad,” Washington Douglass said in an interview, “I would not be standing here.”
The $4 billion replacement of Amtrak’s Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, which will be renamed after Douglass, officially began Friday with a news conference attended by the famed abolitionist’s great-great-granddaughter and federal, state and local officials.
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Construction of the new tunnel will be paid for by the federal and state government because it is used by Amtrak and MARC passengers, (Amtrak Senior director for the south end of the NEC Jeffrey) Ensor said. Negotiations are underway to determine how much each will kick in. Unlike the Howard Street Tunnel expansion for double-stacked freight trains, the city will not be asked to help pay for the new passenger rail tunnel, Ensor said.
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The two-bore tunnel has been scaled back from Amtrak’s initial proposal, which would have created a four-bore tunnel that could have accommodated both passenger and double-stacked freight trains. The reduced project will offer less capacity but will reduce the cost by more than $1 billion and the construction time by two years, Ensor said.
“With two high-capacity tunnel tubes, which is what we’re going to do, we’re still going to triple the capacity of this segment,” he said. “After this is done, and MARC has their new electrified trains, they could run express trains from Baltimore to Washington, that would get there in under 30 minutes.”
STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:34 pm Welp, the replacement tunnel is now called the "Fredrick Douglass Tunnel":The pessimist in me says that other than a revision to the concept and a name there is not much to see here. The optimist says that Maryland has agreed to work to advance the project.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/b ... story.html
This... is a mixed bag. $4 billion for two higher-speed tunnels (down from 4 in the approved EIS) and a rebuild West Baltimore station... I'm not happy about it.
KTHW wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 6:24 am Wow it seems very short sided to build only two new tubes. Is there any way the current tunnels could be taken out of service and rebuilt for local MARC trains once the other tunnels are completed?It would be short sighted if in building only 2 tunnels they eliminate their ability to come back later and bore the other 2. It is not mentioned, but I would guess that they are leaving open the option to do just that. If you read through the EIS, they had rejected the idea of rebuilding the current tunnel. Both as a stand alone option and as a 2 new, 2 rebuilt scenario.
Also what is “MARC’s new electric fleet”? They just bought 8 SC-44s, are they finally investing in new electrics as well?
The proposal is a scaled-down version of a plan approved four years ago by the Federal Railroad Administration that called for four single-track tunnel tubes. Railroad officials say by building only two tunnels, the project will save $1 billion and up to two years on construction while still tripling train capacity to accommodate future demand. The additional two tunnels could be built in a second phase as funding becomes available, Amtrak said.
The proposal is dependent upon Amtrak securing federal and state funding. Amtrak has budgeted $65 million for design and preconstruction work in the next year, including negotiations to acquire more than three dozen properties, including 22 residential buildings, 13 businesses and four churches that would be demolished.
The passenger railroad also is seeking $257 million for the tunnel project this year from Congress.