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

GP40MC said:
Freetown station: 100% complete
Fall River Depot station: 100% complete
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Given the MBTA's maintenance record, these stations will be in a state of disrepair by the time the line actually opens for revenue service.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
They built something like this under the commuter rail viaduct in downtown Lynn.
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That is super cool, I had no idea this was there:

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F-Line to Dudley said:
Correct. The inner Fitchburg + the former Fitchburg Cutoff were the clearance route into Boston before the Lowell Line was re-cleared in 1979 to allow the Cutoff to be abandoned for the Red Line extension. B&M intervened somewhere around WWII to re-center the tracks with a short length of single so taller cars could reach Boston.

Inbound of Willows Jct. in Ayer there's no clearance preemption anymore, and indeed no freight traffic whatsoever inbound of the ex-Ocean Spray bottling plant on Harvard Rd. in Littleton. The T didn't re- double-track Waltham when it was doing South Acton-Ayer because it makes no difference to current schedules. But it's simple enough to do lumped in with a Waltham platform reconfig when they're ready for :15 service.
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Is there enough space underneath those bridges for two tracks AND catenary wire?
 
WarpedReality said:
Is there enough space underneath those bridges for two tracks AND catenary wire?
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They fit two tracks before, so they can again. The vertical clearance is Plate E (15'9"). The bridges might need to be undercut a little bit for absolute electrification clearance, but they'd be doing that in a few places inbound of 128 and it's not hard so that's baked into the electrification cost estimate.
 
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Anyone who regularly rides the Fitchburg Line knows that it crawls from North Station to Somerville.

What would it take to get its operating speed up to Class 3 (60 mph) over this stretch? In my estimation, that would save five minutes off of every single Fitchburg Line trip.
 
A lot of that is near North Station and the BET yard. You may not be able to fix that.
 
RandomWalk said:
A lot of that is near North Station and the BET yard. You may not be able to fix that.
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Optimization of the terminal district interlockings might get it up to 25 or 30 MPH. It definitely doesn't need to be the 10 MPH it is today; many other systems do it better. But you're never ever doing 60 inside yard limits. There's just too much going on there to do it safely. The terminal districts of some of the best-run systems in the world definitely don't go at high speeds when yard limits are involved.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
$62M for a basic 2-side platform, up-and-over with elevators with pre-existing parking lots and access roads. More than a third more than it cost to build the whole of Pawtucket/Central Falls from scratch. We've lost control. :(
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The same mentality that justifies spending $5M to study and design a simple single platform station in Palmer
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
$62M for a basic 2-side platform, up-and-over with elevators with pre-existing parking lots and access roads. More than a third more than it cost to build the whole of Pawtucket/Central Falls from scratch. We've lost control. :(
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And no provision for a 3rd track on the NEC main line even though there plenty of room.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
$62M for a basic 2-side platform, up-and-over with elevators with pre-existing parking lots and access roads. More than a third more than it cost to build the whole of Pawtucket/Central Falls from scratch. We've lost control. :(
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Planning consultants, supervising project management consultants, supervising contractors, supervising sub contractors. 🫣 at to top.
 
Semass said:
And no provision for a 3rd track on the NEC main line even though there plenty of room.
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They totally ignored the 2010 NEC Infrastructure Improvements Master Plan document that MassDOT signed off on as a partner state. That one specced a quad-track station since it's in 125 MPH territory and there are definite possibilities for Amtrak v. local overtakes there after frequency increases. It's probably not fatal, but a big missed opportunity.

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F-Line to Dudley said:
They totally ignored the 2010 NEC Infrastructure Improvements Master Plan document that MassDOT signed off on as a partner state. That one specced a quad-track station since it's in 125 MPH territory and there are definite possibilities for Amtrak v. local overtakes there after frequency increases. It's probably not fatal, but a big missed opportunity.

Still think the bold move would be to take the Corridor straight at East Junction and tunnel to Cranston RI under the Providence River. The High speed bypass could still make a Rhode Island stop at Green Airport. Marketing opportunities for new markets . Regional Rail and some high speed service for PVD could still take the original route. This plan would also enable freight service to Davisville to be moved off the Corridor entirely . Build a cut and cover tunnel from Appanoug to the west side of East Greenwich and you effectively link the two sections of truly high speed rail in MA and RI. Next step would be a high speed route to bypass Carolina Curve. After that, we are on to by passing Westerly and Mystic. Incremental upgrades.
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BostonBoy said:
Still think the bold move would be to take the Corridor straight at East Junction and tunnel to Cranston RI under the Providence River. The High speed bypass could still make a Rhode Island stop at Green Airport. Marketing opportunities for new markets . Regional Rail and some high speed service for PVD could still take the original route. This plan would also enable freight service to Davisville to be moved off the Corridor entirely . Build a cut and cover tunnel from Appanoug to the west side of East Greenwich and you effectively link the two sections of truly high speed rail in MA and RI. Next step would be a high speed route to bypass Carolina Curve. After that, we are on to by passing Westerly and Mystic. Incremental upgrades.
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Skip Providence?!? Never ever in a million years. Providence was 7th in both Acela and Northeast Regional boardings in 2022, outslugging Baltimore on the Acela. It's got to be a stop on every....single....service.

Alon Levy benchmarked the time savings of doing the East Junction + College Hill tunnel bypass vs. the current routing, and despite a few more miles of 165 MPH territory the total savings were a trivial couple minutes, not enough benefit to pay for it. The Corridor is probably permanently going to be routed over the Attleboro Cutoff, which is why the T should've anticipated post-Gateway traffic growth when designing South Attleboro station. If not a quad-tracker like the NECIIMP specced, then at least a tri-tracker.
 
Any future hypothetical South Attleboro station is just 2.6 miles uptrack from the Pawtucket one. If the Pawtucket one is "too nice," then, practically speaking, given its proximity, hasn't it already cannibalized a critical portion of any ridership at the potential South Attleboro rebuilt station? Also, if it's "too nice," then, MBTA policymakers might be nudged into placing their thumbs on the scales--like, by making daily parking at South Attleboro $5, vs., say, $10 at Pawtucket (just hypothesizing here). The longer ridership gets used to Pawtucket being a nice reliable CR stop in operation.... and the longer any possible South Attleboro rebuild recedes over the horizon... then it seems like the pressure mounts for perverse incentives (liking making the parking excessively cheaper) to help make South Attleboro succeed as a station, in terms of whatever amount of ridership would justify that $62M (if it really sticks to that, in 2023 dollars) rebuild.
 
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