Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England


ConnDOT/Metro-North finally fishing the Waterbury Branch out of the fourth world with aggressive plans to renovate every station with full-highs. 5 stations for $106M (the 6th station is already funded/scheduled under a separate project) and full construction completion in only 3 years. Makes the T's overly long, overly expensive, overly fraught CR station renos look like the dumpster fire they so very are.
 
They also don’t seem to subscribe to the T’s theories about station location far from downtown.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:

ConnDOT/Metro-North finally fishing the Waterbury Branch out of the fourth world with aggressive plans to renovate every station with full-highs. 5 stations for $106M (the 6th station is already funded/scheduled under a separate project) and full construction completion in only 3 years. Makes the T's overly long, overly expensive, overly fraught CR station renos look like the dumpster fire they so very are.
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These are all single platform though, right? That works out to $21 million per station, which is about the same as what the MBTA paid for Freetown and Fall River Depot. 3 years is also not really impressive for construction times, Chelsea was done in around 2 1/2.
 
Interesting that Beacon Falls and Ansonia would have curved high-level platforms. I thought CTDOT always insisted on 100% tangent track for platform siting. Do they see curved platforms as “ok” here because the rolling stock they’ll be using on the line (Alstom Xtrapolis EMUs, converted into unpowered coaches) has end-point doors, rather than the quarter-point doors you get on Metro-North and Shore Line East trains?
 
riptide said:
Interesting that Beacon Falls and Ansonia would have curved high-level platforms. I thought CTDOT always insisted on 100% tangent track for platform siting. Do they see curved platforms as “ok” here because the rolling stock they’ll be using on the line (Alstom Xtrapolis EMUs, converted into unpowered coaches) has end-point doors, rather than the quarter-point doors you get on Metro-North and Shore Line East trains?
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That's exactly correct. Waterbury would be the very last ConnDOT line to be electrified, if ever...so using vestibule-door coaches would allow them to berth at curved platforms.
 
For more information, the 6th Waterbury line station reconstruction, Naugatuck, is currently out for bid. Like the others, it's a single track platform, and estimated to be around $26 million. Interestingly, it is being moved from a curve to tangent track.
 
www.masstransitmag.com

MTA selects Tectonic Engineering to lead construction management services for Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project

The initial $182 million construction contract is the first of four construction contracts for the new line.
www.masstransitmag.com www.masstransitmag.com
Tectonic Engineering notes the major component of the contract involves complex relocation of all underground utilities from 105 St. to 110 St. on Second Avenue at the site of the future 106 St. Station. Utilities requiring relocation include water, sewer, communication and electrical, as well as the shifting of a sensitive oil-o-static line providing high voltage transmission services for Con Ed’s Manhattan customers. Tectonic Engineering says the work will facilitate the subsequent cut-and-cover construction of the station and connections to running tunnels.
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www.denverpost.com

New Moffat Tunnel deal moves daily passenger train to mountain communities a step closer to reality

A tentative agreement between Colorado state officials and the Union Pacific Railroad set the stage to expand passenger rail service in the mountains.
www.denverpost.com www.denverpost.com
If all proceeds smoothly, regular daily passenger train service between Denver and Grand County — a portion of the full corridor — could begin in time for the start of the ski season in late 2026. For several years, Amtrak has run the revived Winter Park Express ski train along that route seasonally, but only around weekends — including from Thursdays through Mondays this season.

The mountain rail expansion could eventually lead to up to three roundtrip services per day between Denver and Craig, with several stops, including Winter Park and Steamboat Springs, along the way.
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The horrifying statistic in that article is the following:
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The FRA says that between 2020 and Sept 2024, it's had 43. In that time, nationally there were 1762 crossing fatalities nationwide - meaning that Brightline in just 235 miles accounts for 2.5% of all crossing fatalities. By comparison, the MBTA operates on 394 miles and had just 5.
 
Stlin said:
The horrifying statistic in that article is the following:
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The FRA says that between 2020 and Sept 2024, it's had 43. In that time, nationally there were 1762 crossing fatalities nationwide - meaning that Brightline in just 235 miles accounts for 2.5% of all crossing fatalities. By comparison, the MBTA operates on 394 miles and had just 5.
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I'm absolutely not going to defend Brightline's safety record. The route is way to dangerous, especially considering how recently it was built. That being said, it would make more sense to compare total revenue miles instead of the system length. It appears that they are running 16 round trips a day, which is much better service than the vast majority of mainline passenger rail services. Again, the deaths and injuries on Brightline are unacceptably high.
 
stick n move said:
This is why grade seperation is important for fast trains. Its expensive though and florida…
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Brightline's got almost 170 total grade crossings over its length. Elimination is functionally impossible on that route. Quadrant gates would help a lot for gate evaders like this most recent incident, but it's not an outright FRA requirement for Class 6/110 MPH track unless it's a quiet crossing. Maybe it needs to be.
 
BeansTheCat said:
That being said, it would make more sense to compare total revenue miles instead of the system length.
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Definitely true, but in the comparison that @Stlin made with our commuter rail, surely the 'T operates more revenue miles than Brightline. That 43:5 Brightline:MBTA ratio is terrible even when adjusted for revenue miles.

And my goodness, how did the fire fighters not follow the safety requirements? If trained emergency responders in Florida don't understand the purpose of the gates, how can we expect casual civilian drivers to get their heads around it?
 
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Frightening statistics coming out of Brightline. Thanks to everyone for helping breakdown statistics.
While grade crossing elimination is not financially feasible, to operate at higher speeds the safety improvements need to be regulated at a much higher level. Brightline has been praised as a private company that has cut through the red tape to provide high speed rail in the US. If that success is offset by their lack of quality safety measures, then one should question how successful they actually are.

HenryAlan said:
And my goodness, how did the fire fighters not follow the safety requirements? If trained emergency responders in Florida don't understand the purpose of the gates, how can we expect casual civilian drivers to get their heads around it?
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I share your concern, but at the same rate how are emergency vehicles supposed to respond to emergencies if trains block them? Granted Brightline should pass a crossing quickly, but if the response vehicle already had to wait for another trainset and has to wait for a second one what kind of damage is being suffered by their slow response time? One would think there would be a communication system between trains and emergency response entities. Kind of like Air Traffic Controllers (maybe this already exists?) that would be able to assist in these types situations.
 
In 2022, Florida had 3,032 fatal traffic accidents. 89 of those were caused by running red lights.
…But ~10 drivers a year die because they also chose to run a red light, but this time in front of a Brightline train. It’s not like these are passive crossings without bells and gates.

Therefore, the alternative to driving should be morally compelled to spend $200+ million to further discourage lawbreakers at crossings, rather than using that to run more trains to more places? And similar services elsewhere shouldn’t even exist unless they can eliminate that risk prior to running trains?

I’m not saying that the penalty for driving around a railway crossing gate should be death. Noone deserves that and each instance is a tragedy. But noone deserves to die because the engine block of some red light runner plowed through their passenger side door either.

Ideally, both would never happen. But insane construction costs regrettably force tough, and often macabre, decisions on where to fund safety and transit improvements.
 
I find it astonishing that quad gates aren't required on Class 6 track. It's easy to misjudge how much time one has to go around the gates (not that one should ever, ever do that), because looking up the tracks you really can't tell how fast the train is going.
 
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