Traffic on the B&A

I was reading the map in the latest Trains magazine on traffic from 1980 to now I think it was. While traffic was way up all over the place it didn't really show a change on the B&A, other than ownership change.

Question, How is traffic. Is it up or down from 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago?

I don't think there has been a whole lot of change in the # of freight/intermodal trains running the B&A in the past 20 years. There may be one less train pair to/from GRS/PAR via the Worcester branch since the Conrail breakup when GRS/PAR revived its District 4 westend. The multilevel train that used to run to Ayer with Fords now runs to Framingham. Bow/Mt Tom Coal trains no longer traverse the B&A as they run via GRS/PAR.

The traffic hauled has changed a bit: no more autoparts in and multilevels out at Framingham for GM's assembly plant that closed in 1989, P&W now gets a lot of double stacks for its inland port, and lots of C&D / trash are hauled wb out of state from Boston and environs.

Down quite a bit over Conrail.

What are the reason if it is down other than the type of product being move by the railroad?

Business is not down from CR days. Note the gradients of the Trains map... 20-49.9MGT. If memory serves, the B+A was on the lower end of that scale - on the order of 20-25MGT- back in the CR days. Jumping to the next tier would take a phenomenal (read 100%+)increase in traffic. The fact that the 20+MGT threshold has pushed east from Springfield since 1980 indicates that traffic between Selkirk and Springfield has increased, too. Train counts can't provide an accurate tonnage comparison. Lading weight per car and, resultingly, train weights have increased in the last 25 years with the advent ot 286k GWL, elimination of friction bearings, retirement of older, smaller cars, etc.

The closing of GM's Framingham assembly plant, while obviously eliminating the inbound Auto Parts and outbound Multi-Level traffic, actually increased the amount of inbound Multi-Levels, as autos that were previously trucked locally from that plant now come in via rail from more distant plant locations. As someone else pointed out, other big gains over the years were the Ford ML traffic back in 90 or 91, the GRS manifest trains also routed via Barbers which came shortly therafter (down from 2 to 1 roundtrips/day currently), C&D which is shipped from several locations in MA, RI and especially CT and the Allied/BFI Garbage business out of Allston. Intermodal has also grown over the years, though not at the same pace as out West or down South. As Cowford pointed out, car counts may not be up substantially, but then again, todays cars almost all carry 100 or more tons, vs 50 or 75 tons per car back in the 70's and 80's. Another substantial piece of totally new business for the B&A will be unit Ethanol trains moving to Providence, RI sometime in the near future. West of Springfield, on a daily basis, there is currently something like 10 manifest trains, 4 multi-levels and 9 or 10 Intermodals (with less on the weekends).

Very interesting guys. Thanks for the info

Cowford wrote:Business is not down from CR days. Note the gradients of the Trains map... 20-49.9MGT. If memory serves, the B+A was on the lower end of that scale - on the order of 20-25MGT- back in the CR days. Jumping to the next tier would take a phenomenal (read 100%+)increase in traffic. The fact that the 20+MGT threshold has pushed east from Springfield since 1980 indicates that traffic between Selkirk and Springfield has increased, too. Train counts can't provide an accurate tonnage comparison. Lading weight per car and, resultingly, train weights have increased in the last 25 years with the advent ot 286k GWL, elimination of friction bearings, retirement of older, smaller cars, etc.

I've got news for you Cowford; I railfan the B&A and the total numbers of trains are way down. Example Guilfords Worcester main at times ran
most of there stuff via Worcester and the B&A rather than thru their west end via the Hoosac tunnel. NESE / SENE - LASE / SELA - NASE - SENA -
Plus the auto racks both ways and intermodal trains TV - 95 and TV-96
to and from Waterville,Me.Plus the Bow Coal trains ran the Boston line as well as up to 6 Amtrak trains,Now only 2 Amtraks "THE LAKE SHORE LIMITED" to and from Chicago and Albany.Also under Conrail you new when the trains were as they ran pretty much on a schedule.
Skull

Sounds like you're talking about the ST Worcester mainline, not the B&A!! For starters, we are talking about freight traffic, so the Amtrak trains don't figure into the equation. While there were several different symbols for the ST trains, there was never more than 2 roundtrip manifests between Selkirk and Ayer (not counting the Coal trains), so in reality, there's now 2 manifests as opposed to 4. The Intermodal trains never went West on the B&A, but were instead just blended in to existing TV trains out of Boston. As for the Ford Auto train, it's still running on the B&A, just terminates at Framingahm, not Ayer.

Granted there was more traffic out of CT joining the B&A at Springfield back in the early 80's and before, but since the late 80's/early 90's, I don't recall there ever being more than the current 5 road freights each way west of Springfield (certainly no more than 6) and there certainly wasn't any more than the current 9-10 Intermodal trains per day back then and never has there been more than the current 4 Auto trains. So I would argue that Cowford is not off base here, especially considering that todays cars carry a lot more tonnage than cars of 25 years ago - and we are talking tonnage.

Skull, I'm unfortunate to be old enough to remember seeing U-25s chug up Washington Hill in my "foamer" days around 1980. Back then, there were about 18-24 trains per day, plus helper movements. Mr Tosh states that today, there are up to 24 freights per day west of Springfield. I don't even see a train reduction, let alone tonnage reduction.

If it's the volume east of Springfield that you think is down so significantly, why has the 20+MGT line advanced east of Springfield on the Trains map during the 1980-2005 time period?

I am not sure that I can follow all of this. First off, freight trains are
heavier today than they were in the 1970's and that is due to improved
equipment, locomotives that are better pullers and runners, cars with
better air brake equipment and all roller bearings. The tonnage could be
up without an increase in total train movements.
Railfanning a line does not necessarily give you an inside to the actual
tonnage moving over that particular line. Trains Magazine is not always
the best source for information regarding this either although it could be,
you can not gurantee it.
The Boston and Albany is for the most part, a terminating railroad line
which no longer originates a lot of traffic and that hampers growth. The
lack of really decent port facilities in Boston does not help traffic growth
either.
I would not be surprised if traffic is somewhat down out of Boston but
somewhat higher out of Worcester and Springfield.
I have never worked the Boston and Albany and I think for us who do not
work this line, it could be somewhat hard to figure out just what is actually
going on here.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote: The Boston and Albany is for the most part, a terminating railroad line
which no longer originates a lot of traffic and that hampers growth.

With the signifigant exception being trash! Lots of growth from trash movements....

dbperry wrote:

Noel Weaver wrote: The Boston and Albany is for the most part, a terminating railroad line
which no longer originates a lot of traffic and that hampers growth.

With the signifigant exception being trash! Lots of growth from trash movements....

Yes, absolutely, I should have stated that.
Noel Weaver

Between shippers in MA, RI and CT, I'm guessing that CSXT probably handles somewhere in the vicinity of 60-70 carloads a day of C&D over the B&A. Circle of Life at New Haven, Murphy Road at Portland & Harford and Regus at Brockton all ship in excess of 10 cars per day.

Allied/BFI, which ships the Garbage (MSW) out of Boston, sends on average probably 20-25 cars per day of containerized MSW over the B&A. They also ship containerized Waste Soil from Allston, though at a much lesser volume than the MSW.

Other significant shippers of Waste products that use CSXT would be MHF that loads contaminated Soils in Gons on the PW at Worcester and Prolerized/Metals Recycling that ships Auto Shredder Residue (ASR) from Everett and Providence. I believe Metals Management at New Haven also ships significant volumes of ASR.

Waste products no doubt represent CSXT's fastes growing business segment in NEw England.