F-Line to Dudley
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Re: Wynn Everett Casino | Everett
No...it isn't possible.
1. The bridge has a superelevated blind curve on the Somerville side that leaves obstructed sightlines for trains coming over the curve.
2. Everett Terminal is a freight clearance route, meaning it cannot have full-high platforms. Lows w/ 1-car mini-highs only. The embankment doesn't flatten out to throw down an interlocking for a passing track until you're behind the T bus shops and have overshot the casino.
3. The bridge is a notorious spot for freight engine stalls trying to accelerate fully-loaded cars over the summit.
Low platforms don't provide adequate safety for keeping passengers out of the track area, where the bridge is an inviting vista. This is a big problem when the obstructed sightlines give the engineer on an outbound trip inadequate braking distance on the downgrade to stop if they catch somebody in the track area coming off the summit. Both Newburyport/Rockport trains and the twice-daily freights have this problem. For a freight that stalls at the bridge summit on the inbound trip, the train will roll backwards for a handful of feet before the emergency brakes on all cars lock; the rear cars will still be passing through the platform at the time they stall and lurch backwards...blind to the engineer.
The ex-grade crossing has no bearing on it. That was a private, limited-liability crossing for Monsato's driveway that was grandfathered when the new bridge replaced the old flat, low-clearance drawbridge. Monsato closed 2 years after the new bridge opened. The crossing has been closed to all but T maint vehicles ever since.
Directly behind the T bus shops is also no-go for station siting because of the direct-abutting terminating electrical towers where the overhead power lines that follow the Eastern Route points outbound get brought down to ground/underground level and run across the street to the power plant. High-security exclusion zone. Far side of the bus shops is Everett Jct., where the freight tracks diverge from the mainline.
That leaves the closest permissible, non-blocked station site at: behind the brewery building, at Santilli Circle a full half-mile from the casino front door and almost as far a walk as from Sullivan.
There is no fudging around the edges and calling it "good enough". There's no DMU solution that will suffice, because all manner of common-carrier traffic has to go through that spot and the freights pose the biggest safety risk. It's too many degrees vulnerable a spot for the FRA to grant approval to construct a station platform there. You are not going to re-grade the entire rail embankment or relocate the electrical towers, either, because underneath the railbed and bus shops rear parking lot are just as contaminated with Monsato runoff as all the other adjacent parcels were (but as long as it's not disturbed it's capped in those spots).
There simply will not be a commuter rail station at the casino's front door, no matter how many "yeah, but..." and "what if..." regurgitations ask the same question as if a different calendar month is going to make a difference. Notice, conspicuously, that Wynn himself isn't proposing a commuter rail station. New Balance proposed and funded one. That developer building the apartment tower on the abandoned slice of the GE Plant in Lynn is proposing it and offering to fund it. Wynn's got the resources and arm-twisting acumen to make that happen if he wanted it to.
He isn't proposing a CR stop there because he can't. He got the bad news on physical feasibility long before it ever had the chance to sneak onto a single published render. There will not be a rail stop at the casino until you get the Urban Ring built alongside on a mode that doesn't have to self-correct for freight train braking distance off a steep blind grade.
No...it isn't possible.
1. The bridge has a superelevated blind curve on the Somerville side that leaves obstructed sightlines for trains coming over the curve.
2. Everett Terminal is a freight clearance route, meaning it cannot have full-high platforms. Lows w/ 1-car mini-highs only. The embankment doesn't flatten out to throw down an interlocking for a passing track until you're behind the T bus shops and have overshot the casino.
3. The bridge is a notorious spot for freight engine stalls trying to accelerate fully-loaded cars over the summit.
Low platforms don't provide adequate safety for keeping passengers out of the track area, where the bridge is an inviting vista. This is a big problem when the obstructed sightlines give the engineer on an outbound trip inadequate braking distance on the downgrade to stop if they catch somebody in the track area coming off the summit. Both Newburyport/Rockport trains and the twice-daily freights have this problem. For a freight that stalls at the bridge summit on the inbound trip, the train will roll backwards for a handful of feet before the emergency brakes on all cars lock; the rear cars will still be passing through the platform at the time they stall and lurch backwards...blind to the engineer.
The ex-grade crossing has no bearing on it. That was a private, limited-liability crossing for Monsato's driveway that was grandfathered when the new bridge replaced the old flat, low-clearance drawbridge. Monsato closed 2 years after the new bridge opened. The crossing has been closed to all but T maint vehicles ever since.
Directly behind the T bus shops is also no-go for station siting because of the direct-abutting terminating electrical towers where the overhead power lines that follow the Eastern Route points outbound get brought down to ground/underground level and run across the street to the power plant. High-security exclusion zone. Far side of the bus shops is Everett Jct., where the freight tracks diverge from the mainline.
That leaves the closest permissible, non-blocked station site at: behind the brewery building, at Santilli Circle a full half-mile from the casino front door and almost as far a walk as from Sullivan.
There is no fudging around the edges and calling it "good enough". There's no DMU solution that will suffice, because all manner of common-carrier traffic has to go through that spot and the freights pose the biggest safety risk. It's too many degrees vulnerable a spot for the FRA to grant approval to construct a station platform there. You are not going to re-grade the entire rail embankment or relocate the electrical towers, either, because underneath the railbed and bus shops rear parking lot are just as contaminated with Monsato runoff as all the other adjacent parcels were (but as long as it's not disturbed it's capped in those spots).
There simply will not be a commuter rail station at the casino's front door, no matter how many "yeah, but..." and "what if..." regurgitations ask the same question as if a different calendar month is going to make a difference. Notice, conspicuously, that Wynn himself isn't proposing a commuter rail station. New Balance proposed and funded one. That developer building the apartment tower on the abandoned slice of the GE Plant in Lynn is proposing it and offering to fund it. Wynn's got the resources and arm-twisting acumen to make that happen if he wanted it to.
He isn't proposing a CR stop there because he can't. He got the bad news on physical feasibility long before it ever had the chance to sneak onto a single published render. There will not be a rail stop at the casino until you get the Urban Ring built alongside on a mode that doesn't have to self-correct for freight train braking distance off a steep blind grade.
