This brings a two-part question to mind:
- 1 center express track. No crossing conflicts between locals and expresses.
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 more traffic than West Station would. Is it mostly a matter of having universal crossovers right near the station?
2. Since West Station doesn’t seem to have any ROW width constraints that would make a four-track station design wildly more expensive than a three-track design, why choose the bi-directional express track? Why subject yourself to the inbound/outbound schedule dependencies if you don’t have to?