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Why did the New Haven RR pay for 79 MPH track if the ROW geometry limited speeds to 50 MPH in practice? What other “bang for your buck” do you get for making that extra level of expenditure in maintenance, besides higher speeds?

It may be worth creating a separate thread focused on the Central Corridor that can sweep up @The EGE and @bigeman312's points in the posts above. (Or alternatively, to cross-post them and continue the discussion in the Regional New England Rail thread, where @Riverside kicked off some good...

https://www.capenews.net/bourne/news/bike-pathway-committee-continues-fight-for-rail-to-trail-path/article_313f3a04-8e09-4c7f-8702-bad33ecf9e4a.html Is there anything more to this insistence on an all-or-nothing, rail-to-trail conversion than NIMBYism? Is the Falmouth Secondary ROW so...

But even if you found some workaround for the switch and freight clearance issues, site access would be the next issue you’d run into. For Palmer to function as a modern-day union station in the way the CCPRC is arguing for, knowing that you will have two separate rail platforms no matter what...

I came across an article yesterday talking about how the towns of Windham and Putnam, CT passed resolutions in support of the old Central Corridor (New London, CT to Brattleboro, VT) passenger rail idea from a decade ago at the behest of the Central Corridor Passenger Rail Coalition. The CCPRC...

https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/new-rockland-rail-operator-says-dragon-will-use-service-on-pilot-basis/article_6c1ec02d-6f73-4b7d-85ad-f09293351ed8.html A couple significant developments out on Maine’s Rockland Branch. The German company that acquired Dragon Cement didn’t shut the plant...

Ellsworth being 25 miles beyond the envisioned end of the line means that to realize any potential efficiencies from operating a seasonal service targeting the Acadia visitors, you’d have to front the money to upgrade the whole corridor to whatever standard keeps train travel times sufficiently...

MEDOT & NNEPRA‘s “lobbying” took the form of providing testimony in opposition to the bill. It wasn’t a big campaign they poured hundreds of hours of staff time into. I doubt it involved much more than writing a letter and/or showing up to read it. Like @markhb said in the post above yours...

Since there isn’t a dedicated thread for Widett, BET, or other maintenance bases, I’ll ask this question here: Are there any operational criteria that influence where maintenance facilities should be sited? For example, when it comes to layover yards, I know it’s generally preferable to locate...

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/fra-amtrak-to-take-over-penn-station-remodeling-transportation-secretary-says/ Official notice letter here. The FRA awarded two separate grants through its Federal-State Partnership last year for NY Penn Station. The Penn Station Capacity...

https://www.centralmaine.com/2025/02/12/waterville-building-razed-to-make-way-for-apartment-complex/ Demolition work began about 6 weeks ago for the Head of Falls Village project. Description from the article: There are a few things I really like about this project, but maybe the biggest is...

I agree it’s overparked. Also, I’ve been seeing the self storage and residential combination more often on these sorts of mill reconversions. Seems to be an insatiable demand for self storage, and if the floor plates of the mill buildings are deep enough that residential units can’t reach in far...

I actually think an optimistic, yet reasonable timeline for getting a Woonsocket train service going would be 15 or 20 years. The success of Pawtucket-Central Falls station seems to have given the state the confidence it needed to feel it was finally safe to poke its head out of the foxhole it...

I share your concern that without deliberate pedestrian crossings and signalization, Davol St could end up being a barrier that pedestrians find difficult or unpleasant to permeate. There’s no significant extension of the adjacent street grid into the corridor of redevelopment parcels, and that...

https://www.wmtw.com/article/rail-line-southern-maine-abandoned/64319462 With the trail lobby buzzards circling overhead, it looks like the bulk of the proposed I-295 Corridor bypass alignment will soon be abandoned, permanently locking the Downeaster into its current, grade-crossing-heavy...

About a week or two ago, RIPTA and its consultant released a new report that documents the preliminary results of their site evaluation process for a new mixed-use transit center. They’ve narrowed their search to two sites, one on either side of the train station: The Francis Street site is...

Yup, and in the 2002 study F-Line mentioned in the post above, they explicitly assumed the cross-platform transfer would occur at Battleship Cove station. But looking at that conceptual design, yeah, looks like the SCR Task Force "tuned out the haters" and did their own thing. For the transfer...

I ended up finding SRTA's South Coast Rail Service Plan, completed about 2 years ago, so after SCR Phase 1 had cut Battleship Cove out of the initial equation. They looked at 3 different service scenarios, among them microtransit and new fixed-route services. The public outreach summary in that...

The MicroConnector service is discussed in a little more detail in this article, too. The gist of it appears to be: 1) SRTA started from a place of not wanting to alter their fixed-route bus networks in Fall River and New Bedford, and 2) they instead decided to offer standalone microtransit...

This brings a two-part question to mind: 1. Why is it sometimes ok to have a center (bi-directional) express track, rather than one express track for each direction? Milford Station is set up the same way, and being in Metro-North territory on the Northeast Corridor, it no doubt handles much...