Cape Cod Rail, Bridges and Highways

Understood about P'town. I thought maybe at least Orleans could work but an armchair overview of the density makes the demand seem doubtful.

What about the Chatham Branch though? Looking at the Google Map shared above, the old ROW looks much straighter than the Main out to P'town or even just Orleans. Density along the southern shore seems higher, and you're much farther from the P'town-Boston ferry connection even than Orleans is. Farther from US-6 too with its grade-separated speeds. Downtown Chatham would be a heavy lift because I don't see an easy way around the airport smack in the middle of the ROW, but a terminus at the airport itself might work as the transit hub for the "elbow" of the Cape, with stops at South Chatham, Harwich Center, and Route 134 on the way back to Yarmouth Junction. Sure, it's not high on the priority list - This would have to be a universe with SCR Phase II well up and running and normal MBTA regional trains running to Hyannis. It's probably even below reactiviation to Falmouth and Woods Hole. But could it be at least possible in a way that the totally DOA P'town reactivation is not?
Chatham's schedules weren't quite as awful. 47 minutes Yarmouth-Chatham over 18 miles in 1930. Stops east of Yarmouth at Bass River, South Dennis, North Harwich, Harwich, Harwich Center, South Harwich, South Chatham, Chatham. Pretty slow, but not as hopeless as P'town. And the ROW, while abandoned pre-1940, is preserved except for the airport because of the adjacent power line ROW. But Chatham is pretty small, and Route 28 is pretty direct...so NYNH&H bustituted that one too in the late-30's with its in-house coach bus ops taking transfers out of Hyannis.

CCRTA's H2O bus does Hyannis-Harwich-Chatham via Route 28 in about 58 minutes, making a lot more stops than the train. Not much difference at all, and substantial improvement possible if you did a streamlined Hyannis-Chatham route up 28. Given the rail priority of keeping frequencies strong to Hyannis, I don't think you'd ever want to fork frequencies at Yarmouth Jct. for the sake of Chatham when the bus has additional performance gears it can achieve. Cape's rail future pretty firmly stares down at Hyannis and Falmouth, but nowhere else.
 
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t the Cape locals made it clear they don’t want improved rail on the Cape? My understanding is that they don’t want commuter rail level transit.
 
Having grown up near Buzzards Bay village, a few thoughts. I'll reference a couple of insightful posts. First:
"Steven Tupper, Deputy Director of the Cape Cod Commission, notes that the project is specifically being undertaken to "improve the reliability of the bridges," which are coming up on 100 years old. Alleviating traffic has not been identified as a project priority by the Army Corps and MassDOT."

And this is why you're not seeing any mention of improving public transportation to or from the Cape, whether its bus or rail. While the claim is this project is meant to merely "improve the reliability of the bridges," the new bridges will have wider travel lanes, as well as new accelration and deceleration lanes for adjacent on and off ramp improvements. As a result, the new bridges will be able to handle a higher volume of traffic.

I suggest paying attention to Cape traffic reports the next couple of weekends leading up to Labor Day. Earlier this month, Saturday reports noted traffic backups heading east on U.S. Route 6 off the Sagamore bridge as far as Chase Road in East Sandwich. U.S. Route 6 eastbound is essentially a parkway (not an interstate). Any suggestions that the canal highway bridges are a "complete bottleneck" are not reality.

Why exactly does it take an hour for the Cape Flyer to go from Bourne to Hyannis? Bad track? All the grade crossings? Speeding that up would be good for the Flyer, but also make it feasible for year round rail service getting people on and off the cape.

The track is curvy, and not at tippy-top maintenance condition (though worlds better than it was a decade ago). It's also unsignaled, which caps the max authorized speed at 59 MPH. NYNH&H in 1955 used to do Buzzards Bay-Hyannis in 51 minutes, making stops at BB, Sandwich, West Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Hyannis. In 1930 they did it in 50 minutes with one more extra stop at Sagamore. Obviously given the faster time and denser stop selection, there's quite a lot of improvement still to be had by doing track replacement to get it up to the top speed within the curves.

Based on observations of Stefan's commuter rail tracker, the CapeFlyer typically operates at 50 to 55 m.p.h. along most of the route between the Middleborough/Lakeville station and Cohasset Narrows outside Buzzards Bay station. On the Cape, though it's a slow slog to Hyannis, at 30 m.p.h. During the early days of the CapeFlyer 10 years ago, it was either a State transportation or Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority official who stated the 30 m.p.h. speed is a deliberate choice. As F-Line noted, in the New Haven days of the 1950s, passengers trains operated at 59 m.p.h. on Cape to Hyannis. I want to say the Cape Cod & Hyannis and Amtrak's Cape Codder services ran at a speed closer to 40 in the 1980s, but I could be wrong. There's no political will for that to happen now, like the lack of political will to press the Army Corps of Engineers to allow more frequent weekend CapeFlyer service across the canal.
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t the Cape locals made it clear they don’t want improved rail on the Cape? My understanding is that they don’t want commuter rail level transit.

No. Bourne residents have voted at least twice to join/keep the town as a member of the MBTA district, in the hope that commuter rail service will be extended down to Buzzards Bay. And repeated polls by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority have shown Cape residents want expanded CapeFlyer service, if for nothing else to allow Cape residents to spend a day in Boston.
 
While the claim is this project is meant to merely "improve the reliability of the bridges," the new bridges will have wider travel lanes, as well as new accelration and deceleration lanes for adjacent on and off ramp improvements. As a result, the new bridges will be able to handle a higher volume of traffic.

Theyll be able to handle a higher volume of traffic not only due to wider lanes, acceleration lanes, and deceleration lanes.

The proposed upgrade adds an entire new travel lane in either direction, going from four total lanes to six, a 50% increase in total travel lanes.

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Traveling east shortly after the Sagamore Bridge the highway will return to two lanes. That kind of establishes its own limit on volume.
 
Traveling east shortly after the Sagamore Bridge the highway will return to two lanes. That kind of establishes its own limit on volume.
Yes, the new bridge may have three lanes each direction, but the right-hand lane is an "auxiliary" lane for the smooth flow of traffic from/to the onramp and offramp at the ends of the bridge. So technically there are only two through lanes each direction. At least that's the story the traffic engineers would tell you.
 
Traveling east shortly after the Sagamore Bridge the highway will return to two lanes. That kind of establishes its own limit on volume.

No-ish.

There's a plan to add a lane on Route 6 EB out to Route 130. (and of course, the Mid-Cape Connector exit does take some of the volume).

Going WB, they plan to get rid of the Cranberry Highway ramps for a new access road on the utility cut, accessed by a whole new roundabout @ Tupper Rd and the 3rd lane will start from that interchange.

I don't think there will be much trouble with being able to handle enough throughput to fully utilize the 3 lanes on the bridge on the Cape side.

(There's also a large number of other interchange projects + reconfigurations proposed).
 
I don't think there will be trouble handling the traffic either, and moving the Cranberry Highway ramps away from the bridge approach is almost a necessity. A third lane out as far as Exit 2 would come with a significant price tag which is outside the scope of the bridge project. In my opinion though, the Cape needs to resist the idea that a lot of pavement will solve its transportation challenges. It's probably not a great idea for the aquifer as well.
 
No. Bourne residents have voted at least twice to join/keep the town as a member of the MBTA district, in the hope that commuter rail service will be extended down to Buzzards Bay. And repeated polls by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority have shown Cape residents want expanded CapeFlyer service, if for nothing else to allow Cape residents to spend a day in Boston.

My understanding is that there was opposition to expanded service because there are concerns about the Cape becoming just a bedroom community for Boston.
 
Cape Bridges got a $372 MEGA grant today as a "down payment" on replacement of the Sagamore, while the 1.06B application to the Large Bridge Project Program is still pending. Also, apparently there's a $350m earmark in a senate appropriations bill, mentioned up thread, but thats still wending it's way through Congress.

Evidently, the phased approach might be working.


 
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Inching closer to reality...

"Massachusetts is set to receive about $350 million in federal money to help pay for the replacement of two aging bridges that carry traffic on and off Cape Cod... included in the fiscal year 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act released by the Senate and House appropriations committees Monday. The new funding comes after the state received a $372 million grant from the US Department of Transportation in December.

Healey said she would first pursue federal funds to replace the Sagamore Bridge, which could cost more than $2.1 billion, officials have said ... because it carries nearly 17,000 more cars on average each day than the Bourne Bridge.

Officials have said that without replacing or fixing each bridge, they’ll be forced to permanently close a lane in each direction by 2032 on the Bourne Bridge and by 2036 on the Sagamore Bridge."


 
"Officials have said that without replacing or fixing each bridge, they’ll be forced to permanently close a lane in each direction by 2032 on the Bourne Bridge and by 2036 on the Sagamore Bridge."
That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. The "closed" lanes could be converted into protected bike lanes.
 
Healey said she would first pursue federal funds to replace the Sagamore Bridge, which could cost more than $2.1 billion, officials have said ... because it carries nearly 17,000 more cars on average each day than the Bourne Bridge.

That's a lot of money for an area which is having serious structural population issues. Maybe WFH will save it but I wouldn't want to bet $2B that the Cape will survive once the Boomers die off.
 
The population seems fairly stable.
Census data shows that Cape Cod’s year-round population has increased since 2010. The 2020 count is 228,996 residents, higher than the count of 215,888 in 2010 and the count of 222,230 in 2000.
Or at least it seems stable enough to justify the replacement of a bridge that no longer meets the current standards for the traffic which passes over it.
 
That's a lot of money for an area which is having serious structural population issues. Maybe WFH will save it but I wouldn't want to bet $2B that the Cape will survive once the Boomers die off.
Tourism traffic will always be a big thing.
 
That's a lot of money for an area which is having serious structural population issues. Maybe WFH will save it but I wouldn't want to bet $2B that the Cape will survive once the Boomers die off.
It’ll be the same fate as everywhere else: the only people who will own property will be international and domestic oligarchs and corporate execs, rented to wealthy tourists or used as investment pieces, with the remaining year round population performing cleaning, restaurant service, and Amazon delivery for the wealthy.
 
It’ll be the same fate as everywhere else: the only people who will own property will be international and domestic oligarchs and corporate execs, rented to wealthy tourists or used as investment pieces, with the remaining year round population performing cleaning, restaurant service, and Amazon delivery for the wealthy.
You are literally describing the Cape as it has been for decades. If anything, year round living on the Cape is better now than it's every been, even a decade or two ago absolutely everything closed off season other than the packies.
 

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