Rail Restoration to Newport, RI

Just recently local university students started working on a project to gauge interest in the restoration of passenger rail service to Newport, RI. Using the RIDOT owned Newport Secondary Rail Line the trains would be able to run north to the new MBTA South Coast Rail Line in Fall River, MA to Boston (and possible Providence in the future). This video explains the project briefly with some background info on the line's current state. Please take the time to answer the survey and petition below to show support for restored rail service to Newport, RI!

From the petition: “There are many people living on Aquidneck Island that do not have access to private car travel. The existing bus transportation lines that connect the island's population to the Providence and Boston metropolitan areas are not sustainable for regular travel. At present there are no other public transportation alternative besides bus travel, and there is an opportunity for Rhode Island to utilize the existing rail infrastructure on Aquidneck Island to resolve this accessibility issue.

Rhode Island as the smallest state in the country has the ability to be highly interconnected, and yet its infrastructure is far behind other cities in the Northeast. The Rhode Island State Legislature recently signed the Act on Climate agreement for carbon neutrality by the year 2050, and must start rethinking interstate travel. Rail travel has the ability to be built in electric technology, and could be a large solution to the gas powered bus systems already in place”

$50M or so for a railroad bridge to an island with a 60,000 population is a big ask, plus 5 miles of track in rough shape, plus track that was "temporarily removed". Connecting to South Coast Rail which in itself has indirect routing to Boston. I think maritime law needs to be revised to increase ship liability in cases of ship crashes. "Large portion of the population doesn't have access to automobiles" specific numbers needed. Naval station and university would have car-less populations

That works out to be about $835 per person
All joking aside, for a region that draws a lot of money from tourism, having an operating commuter rail wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. It would have to be able to draw people in from Metro Boston though, if they are looking to get people commuting from the Island towards Boston, I don't see it working very well.

Who wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 12:15 pm That works out to be about $835 per person
All joking aside, for a region that draws a lot of money from tourism, having an operating commuter rail wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. It would have to be able to draw people in from Metro Boston though, if they are looking to get people commuting from the Island towards Boston, I don't see it working very well.

They would need trains that have an avg speed of about 60MPH, to be competitive against driving, and running with enough frequency for it to be worth it.

Yeah, I don't think population is the best measure, because everything surges in the summer months.

From my armchair, I'd say start out with some of those new Stadler units running to Providence, and add a one-seat ride if things take off

Not too sure about this proposal myself . A large percentage of Newport's summer market is from the NY and NJ area. This is not going to be served at all . And another significant segment is from the Providence Metro area . also on the wrong side of Narragansett Bay . I'm not really sure how much of the area's traffic is going or coming from the Boston region . Does anyone know if Rt 24 gets congested south of Taunton heading toward the island ?

It's not a proposal, it's a group of college students putting together a study for a project, but I agree with you, I think only a small percentage comes from the Boston metro area. If the study is done objectively, I think they could get some solid results that could provide beneficial information to the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce, I'm just not confident it will be done objectively.
I would much rather see them try to improve and grow the heritage operation.

I'm all for restoring railroad bridges in general, but if it is only going to get 1% of the traffic and 99% go by automobile it isn't worth it. Maybe street running across the bridge there would be enough auto traffic to justify a new bridge.