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  1. F

    Portland Passenger Rail

    You know who doesn't nuke the dwells to uselessness with 2-car platforms? Meriden, CT. They're built for 6 cars. Maybe this "possible station configuration" should be more similar to Meriden than it is.
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    Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

    It's a scandal. The 2016-exercised supplemental order of Kawasaki M8's, which was supposed to inoculate for Penn Station Access fleet increases, was for $3.85M per car. Assuming they really are still hard-up for cars, taken with inflation another supplemental order of M8's is still going to be...
  3. F

    Portland Passenger Rail

    Jesus Christ....a 2-car platform??? Are they trying to murder dwell times? Downeaster runs 5 cars every time. Ergo, you must have at least a 5-car platform at all stops but ESPECIALLY IN FREAKING PORTLAND.
  4. F

    Acela & Amtrak NEC (HSR BOS-NYP-WAS and branches only)

    The sooner the better. Per the same Amtrak/NEC employees on RR.net, the Acela 1's have such poor uptime right now that the service has gotten very cancellation-prone when working trainsets are simply not available. They're down to no reserves, as several trainsets are in storage completely...
  5. F

    Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

    GLTPS Phase I better leave a paper trail for which operators get warned and how frequently, or else it's going to do almost nothing to curb the endemic misbehavior. When you're blowing multiple speed zones and full-stop red lights, a buzzer and a flashing light in the cabin is wholly inadequate...
  6. F

    Regional New England Rail (Amtrak & State DOT & NEC)

    "...through Springfield or through Greenfield"??? Does that mean they're finally willing to look at the (far better) Z-shaped option to North Adams? The Fitchburg route was pretty much garbage on ridership given that Fitchburg was the literal only stop ID'd on the preferred service plan for the...
  7. F

    Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

    Jesus Christ...who is hiring and evaluating these operators? So many multi-level fuckups.
  8. F

    2025 Boston Mayoral Race

    Has anyone else even hinted at interest in jumping into the race? Kraft's missteps so far are so pathetic it doesn't seem like there's any way he'll ever gain any traction the way this is going. And it would suck to have an election that's pretty much over before the start of Spring. Even...
  9. F

    Acela & Amtrak NEC (HSR BOS-NYP-WAS and branches only)

    The Amtrak employees on RR.net have been saying a tentative mid-to-late April for start of first revenue service if the FRA signoff happens on-time.
  10. F

    Commuter Rail to New Hampshire?

    There used to be (and probably still is) a fairly sizeable homeless encampment behind the back of CSX/Pan Am Nashua freight yard. You would think the Alderman would be all for commuter rail with the layover yard and its 24/7 onsite security cleaning that up.
  11. F

    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    It's operationally easiest to have it nearest to Reading Station so the turnbacks can be staged quickly around adjoining thru-Haverhill slots and occasional Downeasters that get as-needed re-routed to the Reading Line. They're basically shooting for an identical setup to what exists with the...
  12. F

    Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail (South Coast Rail)

    Doubly dubious because they said they were OK with at-grade through Pine Swamp. Well...if the embankment roadbed is already double-track width what frigging difference does single-track make anyway? There's no clearance envelope constrictions, and animal species that were duly determined to...
  13. F

    2025 Boston Mayoral Race

    It's 8+ months out from Election Day, that's why. "Undecided" is a large percentage of people simply not paying any attention to anything political yet, and aren't going to register a preference (regardless of who they're ultimately inclined to vote for) until they've paid some attention...
  14. F

    2025 Boston Mayoral Race

    28% undecided. He would need to run the table almost completely on turning out those votes to make up the deficit, and that's a very tall order with the way his campaign's signature issues are polling in that same snapshot and the general lack of serious self-inflicted gaffes from the...
  15. F

    Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail (South Coast Rail)

    BTW...this is more like the minimum track layout for operating Regional Rail over Phase II. Triple track on the NEC Readville-Canton like is now planned, because doing this with double-track won't provide the source frequencies (it required skipping everything from Back Bay to Canton Jct. in...
  16. F

    MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

    No. The car drove around the gates flagrantly illegally just as the train was about to pass. Clear-cut, open-shut driver at fault...no guesswork and no lawsuit that will ever be heard in court. The media reports would be outright misleading if they did not lead with the car driver's illegal...
  17. F

    Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

    MN has had trifecta Democratic control the last 2 years, Dem-control House for the last 6 years, and Dem-control governorship for 14 years. Senate was Republican for about 6 years, but it was slim control. That's not very much like New Hampshire, where the wild mood swings put Legislative and...
  18. F

    2025 Boston Mayoral Race

    Yeah. It's not a hot issue at all. People may have a general opinion on where they land, but there's not much intensity behind the picks. Which makes it all the more baffling why Kraft has made that arguably the 1-2 most central issues of his campaign. It's going to fail miserably to bring...
  19. F

    Fall River/New Bedford Commuter Rail (South Coast Rail)

    Except there's precedent there. The Greenbush Line had a very similar long swamp embankment in Scituate that was abandoned the same year (1960) as the Stoughton Line through Hock Swamp, and the Corps was absolutely fine with that one being re-used when the line was being restored from 2005-07...
  20. F

    MBTA "Transformation" (Green Line, Red Line, & Orange Line Transformation Projects)

    No. It means inattentive operators are going to continue going 30 MPH over 10 MPH switches and derailing until 2031, while the T makes a confused face at the NTSB because "but we gave them a flashing light and buzzer when they were being bad!" I guarantee that we will have another oopsie or...

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