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I doubt the prospects of a shiny new HQ are going to change their minds. A few years ago, there was an idea to tear down the Superman Building and build Hasbro a modern office tower in its place. (Rendering below.) Many considerations go into talent recruitment and workforce retention besides...

This got held up for months last year when the RIDOT director became the chair of RIPTA's board, so I'm pleasantly surprised to see they got through the logjam and are now underway. Not entirely clear to me whether they plan on running two separate lines. The map doesn't identify the two "loop"...

RIPTA riders have gone without an indoor waiting area since the old space in Downtown Pawtucket was closed and the bus hub was moved to the station. Glad to know this new facility will benefit both rail and bus riders. One thing is for sure: it'll be much more modern than RIPTA's old digs.

I'm glad you raised that point, because that's kind of where I was headed. I think the overlap could impact the calculus on whether to electrify north of Boston Switch. Hopefully this will make more sense if I frame it in terms of why you'd be looking to run service to Woonsocket in the first...

The idea that Site 3 is the only option that can facilitate convenient train movements into Thompson’s Point is only true if you assume that no track infrastructure mods can be made. Seems like they could restore the missing leg of the wye pretty easily, and that would let them access the...

Just to be clear, though, are the only practical options for this corridor to either 1) solve the clearance issues or 2) run BEMUs? These would certainly be the more conventional solutions, but I’m specifically wondering if it would be viable to have EMUs coast under the problem bridges. Why...

While we're still on this sidebar... Not sure if anyone knows, but could you run a Providence to Woonsocket service with EMUs? I know that corridor has protected clearances, but there only seem to be 8 bridge overpasses between Woonsocket Station and Boston Switch, and 3 of them look like they...

The August webinar video shows a slide with public input data around the 31-minute mark. They received 17 comments in favor of Site 3; 10 in favor of Sites 1 and 2 (split evenly, 5 each); and 11 comments were neutral on the choice of site location, but in favor of relocating somewhere. You could...

Reading back through the long-range strategy and insights in the Crazy Transit Pitches - Maine Edition thread that was referenced earlier, it's clear that the current proposal for relocating Portland station is only one manifestation of a broader lack of vision among TPTB. Local rail advocates...

MaineDOT launched a commuter bus service for this market last month, and it's called "The LAP." Relevant quote from the article pasted below: And they voiced similar skepticism when the bill to study extending passenger rail out to Bangor was circulating earlier this year. That bill didn't go...

I watched the replay of their webinar from two days ago. Among the highlights for me was hearing one of their project engineers say that Site 3 would allow a "cross-platform transfer" between the Downeaster (5 trains per direction each day) and the east-west rail service (doesn't exist). We're...

It's worth recalling that RI also split its intrastate rail rollout into two phases, not too dissimilar from SCR. Phase 1 was TF Green and Wickford Junction; Phase 2 was the rest of the extension to Kingston and Westerly, plus infills at East Greenwich, West Davisville, Cranston, etc. Once it...

I agree that they'll need to take another bite at the EIS/EIR apple, but it's hard to see SCR Phase I creating the political impetus to do so. This is a project that depended in large part on geographic equity to push it ahead of other projects with much sounder fundamentals. Phase I will...

First time posting here, but I’m familiar with the RI intrastate rail/”295 belt” service concept. The big question in my mind is whether RIDOT ended up creating a chokepoint between Pawtucket and Providence that now precludes establishing a statewide (or Providence-centric) rail service. In an...