Railroad Forums
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bwparker1 wrote:Maybe an up date on this project?P&W is eager to generate some new biz here. How much they'll succeed at drawing, who knows. These small ports like Belle, New London, Fall River, New Bedford, Providence, and South Boston never have as much multimodal value as the states pouring money into them hope they'll have, since economy of scale favors massive ports and rail traffic that goes to massive transloads (Ayer, Worcester, etc.). But since Southern New England doesn't have any big port facilities bringing in reliable revenue (excepting very narrowly-focused niche sites like Davisville or Boston Autoport), they're stuck trying to diversify what they have even when that requires an overpay on capital investment.
"So the city of New Haven spent $7.6 mill and built track to the property line of everyone on Waterfront Street whether they wanted it or not. Brand new everything, 136 lb rail and Century concrete crossings. All this rail was rolled in March 2014 and has never been used. Last week Sperry came and tested all of it."
F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Thanks for the info... Just curious, why is it the P&WRR and not CSX providing service to Belle Dock? CSX operations in Connecticut puzzle me sometimes. I know they have certain rights and certain areas with Cedar Hill inherited from the Conrail operation. Also, I think they may serve the lumber yard in Darien CT with a local. Do they rely on CSOR to move bridge traffic to them between the CSX main line in West Springfield, MA and New Haven? If not, why don't they run their own "road trains" over the Springfield line? It just seems like it is an isolated CSX operation down in New Haven, with no official CSX trains in or out of the area.bwparker1 wrote:Maybe an up date on this project?P&W is eager to generate some new biz here. How much they'll succeed at drawing, who knows. These small ports like Belle, New London, Fall River, New Bedford, Providence, and South Boston never have as much multimodal value as the states pouring money into them hope they'll have, since economy of scale favors massive ports and rail traffic that goes to massive transloads (Ayer, Worcester, etc.). But since Southern New England doesn't have any big port facilities bringing in reliable revenue (excepting very narrowly-focused niche sites like Davisville or Boston Autoport), they're stuck trying to diversify what they have even when that requires an overpay on capital investment.
"So the city of New Haven spent $7.6 mill and built track to the property line of everyone on Waterfront Street whether they wanted it or not. Brand new everything, 136 lb rail and Century concrete crossings. All this rail was rolled in March 2014 and has never been used. Last week Sperry came and tested all of it."
That said, P&W sees enough upside here within its margins to give it a full-court press. I would expect at least one anchor customer with reliable traffic to get signed on before too long, and maybe they get lucky enough to get a small collection and enough biz for a daily/near-daily jog tacked on to their normal Cedar Hill stopover.
bwparker1 wrote:Do they rely on CSOR to move bridge traffic to them between the CSX main line in West Springfield, MA and New Haven? If not, why don't they run their own "road trains" over the Springfield line? It just seems like it is an isolated CSX operation down in New Haven, with no official CSX trains in or out of the area.Yes, Connecticut Southern handles the through traffic between West Springfield and Cedar Hill, and the Conrail/CSX terminal operation in New Haven has been an isolated island for a couple decades now. I have to presume that CSX makes money off their Cedar Hill business since otherwise they (or Conrail before them) wouldn't have kept it when the Shore Line East freight was spun off to P&W. CSX serves the two surviving freight customers at Mamaroneck and Darien out of Oak Point, and runs no through freights between Oak Point and Cedar Hill. Customers in West Haven and thereabouts are handled by a Cedar Hill crew. P&W got the Belle Dock line from Conrail, ran down there before all the construction mess began, and will serve any future customers that appear in the harbor neighborhood.
TomNelligan wrote:Yes, Connecticut Southern handles the through traffic between West Springfield and Cedar Hill, and the Conrail/CSX terminal operation in New Haven has been an isolated island for a couple decades now. I have to presume that CSX makes money off their Cedar Hill business since otherwise they (or Conrail before them) wouldn't have kept it when the Shore Line East freight was spun off to P&W. CSX serves the two surviving freight customers at Mamaroneck and Darien out of Oak Point, and runs no through freights between Oak Point and Cedar Hill. Customers in West Haven and thereabouts are handled by a Cedar Hill crew. P&W got the Belle Dock line from Conrail, ran down there before all the construction mess began, and will serve any future customers that appear in the harbor neighborhood.Thank you Tom and boatsmate. Everything more or less makes sense now, although I guess I don't understand the building of this new branch to the dock by the City of New Haven, or was there an old spur before that was ripped out at some point? From Aerial imagery, there seems to be quite a bite of track down along there, and clearly all of the track is not new, but my contact sent me a photo of a brand new track that terminated at a gate fence, encased in a concrete crossing, which is high $$$$.
