The capacity of the parking garage was cut nearly in half, supposedly because of costs associated with what's buried under, and the need to drive piles to bedrock. This is filled land, and filled long ago.
The contractors also said they were shocked, SHOCKED, to find the RR roundhouse foundation underground. The contractors are fucking morons. That roundhouse was standing until the mid-70's. It's right there clear as day on
Historic Aerials. It was gradually torn down over a span of 10 years, but the foundation remnants are still visible on the 1978 view. Every commuter rail rider passed by that thing in plain view. There are active MBCR employees who remember it. The T simply paved over it for the parking lot when it relocated Salem station north of the portal in 1987.
Everybody involved in this knew full goddamn well what was in the ground. This little "surprise historical finding!", massive cost overrun, and design slashing on the garage is about as brazen as contractor corruption gets. I can't believe the papers haven't yet grilled them on this. Surely there has got to be one area reporter who's in their early-50's, used to frequent downtown Salem in their youth, and remembers seeing that roundhouse building standing there back during the Nixon Administration. Egad...do they really think people are that stupid?
For those not familiar, there is a long single track tunnel under downtown Salem, and a bit of single track beyond the station toward Beverly where double tracking, because of a lack of sufficient right-of-way, would require filling in a stretch of the shoreline.
The single-track tunnel is a constriction, but that's why you do a double-track platform north of the station. An inbound train can manage an outbound train meet by holding at the platform until the outbounder comes through the tunnel onto its platform. Right now inbounds have to hold at Beverly (which in turn will back up the next Rockport inbound at Montserrat or Newburyport inbound at North Beverly) while outbounds not only stop at the tunnel but disembark at Salem. And outbounds have to either hold way back at Swampscott or sit idle by the first set of crossovers south-of-portal while the inbound is at the platform. If something blows its rush hour schedule chaos ensues on the entire line + both branches. Difference between a 2-minute hold at the portal while the opposing train goes through the tunnel and switches tracks right when it hits daylight, or a 10 minute wait from miles and 2 stations away.
Double-tracking the Salem platform means they can pretty much punt the tunnel issue 20 years or more down the road, get all the Newburyport and Rockport service increases they want, and reopen a (new-location) south-of-portal station at Salem State U as the North Shore Transit Improvements study recommends. And any Peabody service would be able to speed on through the tunnel and quickly get out of the way onto its own platform without having to wait its turn while something delayed way back at Beverly gets priority.
Moving the platform a literal 20 feet back saves all this pain. They don't even have to build the second platform now. Just don't bloody freaking block it forever.
I believe the Peabody spur is now only for a single customer.
Eastman Gelatin factory just west of Peabody Sq. Processes raw gelatin products for food, medical use (all those gelcaps used for pills), and industrial use. Kodak sold them last month 1 week before they filed for bankruptcy to new multinational owners. They've recently increased to 2 carloads a week when Kodak shifted the plant more to foodstuffs and medicine and away from dying film stock materials, but the new owners are huge pharmaceutical materials players who bought 'em for the high-growth medical gelatin industry. Supposed to be hiring more at the plant, and they could be at 3+ carloads by year's end. Pan Am has them pegged as one of their highest-growth Boston-area customers.
The tracks are out-of-service but still maintained to the industrial park near 128. Peabody and Pan Am have aims on luring new rail customers there with the increased frequency to Eastman, since that business only dried up when Eastman went down to 1 load per week.
If you want to see some real traffic insanity, camp out in Peabody Sq. when the freight comes through right at the tail end of rush hour. No gates, no lights...the crew has to flag the crossing to get the train through. You can watch the flagman defy death standing in the middle of the square while idiot drivers gun it within inches of him to beat the train. Almost like those neon flags are daring bulls to charge the matador. One former Pan Am flagman on RR.net told a story about protecting that crossing by menacingly waving a lit emergency flare because FIRE was the only thing most drivers would stop for.