Re: T construction news
excuse my ignorance, but how does this fit into Foxboro service? Would that route through the worcester line?
Foxboro CR feasibility study:
http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfiles/A...er Rail Report (01-Sept-10) - REPORT ONLY.pdf
Foxboro CR would just fork off Walpole station to Foxboro for the regular CR service. 32 trains per day @ 60 MPH on that portion of the Framingham Secondary. The Foxboro-Mansfield segment would get signalized and upgraded to 40 MPH as part of the project as technicality: the signal fiber is easier to tie into the NEC at the Mansfield end than the Franklin Line at the Walpole end, and the state has a pre-existing IOU to CSX from the South Coast line sale to upgrade the line to 286,000 lb. freight loading weight. So...better Providence game trains and a viable Providence Line backup route to Boston as purely coincidental side benefit.
The Walpole-Framingham segment has no immediate passenger use, unless they try to implement a Worcester-Foxboro game train (doubt it...495 just isn't bad enough for there to be any patronage on such a dog-slow train). Framingham Jct. also points the wrong direction for useful thru-routing to/from Boston, and it passes through a whole lot of nothing between Framingham and Walpole. Most likely CSX just told them if they're buying part of the line they have to buy it all, and fulfill that IOU for track upgrades to 286,000 lbs. while they're at it. So...it's like their trackage rights agreement on the Pan Am Worcester branch: immediate utility for non-revenue equipment moves, gives the state more leverage to stimulate new freight revenue, 100-year hold if they ever find a viable passenger use for it. But it's going to stay 10-25 MPH and probably has no halfway-viable passenger proposals to even think of a good justification for an official study.
That's a shitload of mileage they've bought in the last year. Right now they've got all waiting for official close on sale:
-- Pan Am Conn River Line (all of it)
-- CSX Framingham Sec.
-- Housatonic RR Berkshire Line to CT state line
-- Pan Am Adams Branch (active north end of ex-Pittsfield & North Adams), for Berkshire Scenic Rail Museum excursion trains
-- Housatonic Coltsville Industrial Track (recently abandoned south end of ex-Pittsfield & North Adams, for trail extension to downtown Pittsfield)
. . .and these abandoned lines still being negotiated for sale:
-- Pan Am Watertown Branch, Danehy Park to Grove St. -- Watertown Greenway extension. I saw some report in one of the Wicked Local rags that DCR and City of Cambridge (on Waterworks property only) bought it last year, but that isn't confirmed by any MassDOT or Surface Transportation Board filings. And Cambridge replaced the track at one of the Waterworks driveway grade crossings last month when they were ripping up pavement...which strongly suggests sale hasn't closed yet.
-- CSX South Sudbury Secondary -- Bruce Freeman Trail south extension to Framingham. Sale stalled for 6 years now over asking price, towns getting pissy with CSX.
-- CSX Saxonville Branch -- Natick trail. Sale stalled for >5 years over asking price, town vs. CSX pissiness.
-- CSX Holliston Secondary, Framingham/Ashland town line to Holliston -- Upper Charles/Milford trail extension. Sale stalled. CSX allowing Town of Holliston to pay monthly rent and spread a little crushed stone for bare-bones interim use, but DCR can't proceed with planned paved trail until they pay the CSX ransom.
-- Pan Am Lowell Industrial Track -- Bruce Freeman Trail north extension to downtown Lowell. Abandonment was held up for like 5 years because of some misc. delay in the historical inventory, so this has only been open for negotiation for a year.
. . .and then these stretches of active track are probably in-play:
-- CSX Milford Branch, Franklin Jct. to Milford -- Leased to MBTA since 1988 for the Forge Park CR extension, with state purchase option build into the lease. CSX is ending freight service south of Walpole at year's end to turn the Milford-Franklin biz over to the tiny Grafton & Upton RR shortline. Which probably means they're going to tap the state on the shoulder to pick up the option and get that branch off their books.
-- Pan Am mainline, Fitchburg station to Wachusett station -- For obvious reasons, since the T is going to be primary track maintainer when Wachusett opens.
-- CSX Fitchburg Secondary, Framingham-Leominster (32 miles active, 4 miles railbanked). Northborough commuter rail long-term hold. My guess is if CSX is getting the Framingham Sec. off-books they'll want to sell their last Massachusetts branch line and run whatever's left of east-of-Worcester freight on state-owned track they don't have to pay property taxes on. State won't actually need to use this line for eons, but they wouldn't turn down the opportunity to lock it up forever if CSX approached them first.
Doesn't leave very much private track left statewide:
-- CSX B&A main, state line to Worcester (Springfield-Worcester may be a purchase someday, but it'll be ungodly expensive)
-- Pan Am main west of Wachusett (zero passenger potential)
-- Pan Am Worcester Branch (T has trackage rights, no compelling need to buy)
-- Pan Am main connecting branches: Stony Brook Branch, Ayer-Chelmsford + Lowell Branch, Lowell-Andover (no 50-year passenger potential)
-- NECR main (will never sell)
-- P&W Providence main, P&W New London main (will never sell)
-- P&W Gardner Branch (zero passenger potential, unlikely to ever sell)
-- Grafton & Upton mainline, Grafton-Milford (will never sell)
-- Pioneer Valley RR, Westfield-Holyoke + Westfield-Southampton (will never sell)
-- little crud 0.5 to 2-mile CSX and Pan Am industrial tracks with zero future use except mini-trails bought for 10 cents on the dollar should they ever go abandoned: Medford, Norwood, Randolph, Taunton (NW of downtown, towards Norton), Springfield, Lawrence, Gardner, South Peabody (
not the one that's any commuter rail candidate...the one that goes through nothing but swamp and industrial park).
Not bad. These purchases pay for themselves at the century level, and MA's got higher % public track ownership than any state in the union right now.
