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

michaelw37 said:
It's good to see CT investing in new equipment, but it's also a bit of a missed opportunity. After Fairmount here in Boston and possibly the Empire route from NYC to Albany, I'd say the Hartford Line is the best candidate in the nation for stringing up the wires and running some EMUs. Unlike the T, CDOT is pretty good about high-level platforms and all-door boarding. Electrification is therefore the biggest barrier to turning the Hartford Line into frequent regional rail.

Given the age of the equipment currently running on the line, it was probably inevitable that a new set of push-pull equipment would be needed. But it's still frustrating that CT has no plans to electrify a route that is such a slam dunk.
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Amtrak is the line owner and maintainer for the Springfield Line, so it would take considerably more than just ConnDOT's desire to make electrification happen. You'd need to wait until Gateway is done so Amtrak has more trans-NYC throughput to throw at Springfield Line schedules, and you'd probably need to see some substantial MassDOT build action on the Inland Route before they'd agree to partner-up. But yes, it is an obvious one on the national shortlist of wire-ups.
 
Some might find this trivial, but to me it's incredibly irritating: I just rode in a new--I mean, truly immaculate--double-decker CR car (I assume the single-level cars are never being procured again), and the overhead lighting appears to be Gestapo Torture Cell Contemporary--a shockingly harsh and blinding intensity. Like, military phosphorus flare blinding.

Has anyone else experienced this yet (and feel the same way?). I'm going to query one of the conductors to get their opinion...
 
Semass said:
These look nice:

www.railwayage.com

Alstom Lands $315MM CTDOT Order (Updated) - Railway Age

Alstom and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) on Aug. 9 confirmed a $315 million base order for 60 single-level commuter railcars, with options to build 313 more as part of the
www.railwayage.com www.railwayage.com
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pedestrianobservations.com

Connecticut Pays Double for Substandard Trains

Alstom and Connecticut recently announced an order for 60 unpowered coaches, to cost $315 million. The cost – $5.25 million per 25 meter long car – is about twice as high as the norm fo…
pedestrianobservations.com pedestrianobservations.com

Alon Levy roasts ConnDOT for the not-so-nice price of $5.25M (!) per car. Which is pretty insane when the not-at-all-cheap MultiLevels from the same Alstom product catalog go for about $3.6M per car, and the last supplemental order of Kawasaki M8 full-on EMU's (also not cheap because they're overcustomized beasts) went for $3.85M apiece. These new coaches also apparently don't take any advantage whatsoever of the "new" FRA crashworthiness regs at all, instead built obscenely heavy to the old buff strength regs (Alstom just took the vacated Euro EMU guts, loaded them down with empty-calorie buff weight, and repackaged them as "American" product). :(
 
Can’t recall if this is the correct spot for this type of thing, but damn does the Metropolitan Lounge at Moynihan make South Station’s look like a dump.
F39E73BD-C65F-4C77-A0B6-00C3F1256A34.jpeg
8881A024-C485-4C5D-B14B-37445889A8AC.jpeg
 
beck4537 said:
it sure does. Also, because South station is a dump.
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In fairness, pre-Moynihan, taking Amtrak from NYC anywhere was absoultely nightmarish b/c Penn was/is so fucking gross -- way worse than South Station.

SS has "good bones" -- just like Moynihan -- it just needs a refresh and (importantly; and this applies to NYC or anywhere else on Amtrak's routes) UPKEEP once it's refurbushed. Amtrak and the T have this extremely disadvantageous trait in common: both have the abilities to create nice stations and spaces, but *neither* makes the comparatively minimal investment to keep such highly trafficed areas from degenerating rapidly.

Porter and Alewife, for example -- and South Station after the most recent refurb, for what it's worth -- were pretty fucking stunning. It's shocking what each (particularly Porter. Yikes!) have been allowed to become.

Even the nicest home turns to shit if you don't upgrade and repair as needed.
 
cubalibre said:
Brightline Orlando - Miami is now in service. It looks very nice.

www.nytimes.com

Arriving Now: Fast Passenger Trains From Miami to Orlando (Published 2023)

Brightline will make the trip in three and a half hours, with round-trip tickets starting at $158.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

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Travel time Orlando -> Miami:

Brightline: 3 hr, 33 min
Amtrak: 5 hr, 40 min
Driving: 3-5 hours, depending on traffic

Having ridden Brightline, all of the positives you’ve heard about the passenger experience are true.
 
cubalibre said:
Brightline Orlando - Miami is now in service. It looks very nice.

www.nytimes.com

Arriving Now: Fast Passenger Trains From Miami to Orlando (Published 2023)

Brightline will make the trip in three and a half hours, with round-trip tickets starting at $158.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

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I would hate to burst anyone's bubble, but it was reported that someone was hit & killed by a Brightline train! Word has it that he supposedly committed suicide. The whereabouts or the time of the incident was not given. :eek:
 
Jahvon09 said:
I would hate to burst anyone's bubble, but it was reported that someone was hit & killed by a Brightline train! Word has it that he supposedly committed suicide. The whereabouts or the time of the incident was not given. :eek:
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That's the reality of level crossings.
 
Jahvon09 said:
I thought that those tracks were fenced in!! If not, then, that's what happens & it seems dumb!! :eek:
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Total grade separation is only mandatory for 125 MPH or higher operations. Only the new Cocoa-Orlando extension is fully grade separated and doing 125 for Brightline. Elsewhere Brightline runs on the legacy Florida East Coast railroad, which does have grade crossings and is capped at 110 MPH (Class 6) because of that.
 
A very telling graphic from Christof Spieler on Twitter which he crafted to show how Brightline offers service exceeding NERs and nearly matching Acela using a partly-single-tracked service and 125mph/110mph mixed speeds
- Frequency (all day, 15 r/ts clockface)
- Limited Stops (allowing an average speed of 68mph...pipping the NER's by 2mph)
train-freq-speed.jpg

 
My takeaways from the graphic above:
- Given PTC, the Downeaster could do with more frequency, particularly an early AM northbound, and closer to every 2hours all day (and some periods hourly)
- Frequency on BOS-SPG is probably more important than higher speed.
- Transit worth walking to (concentrating on corridors with limited stops) == Intercity worth a longer "terminal trip" (worth driving/uber/biking to)
- Virginia has bought its half of WAS-RIC and will build its own 2-track bridge across the Potomac in order to greatly increase DC-Richmond

Brightline is able (or trying to) charge fairly high $ for its premium schedule (nearly triple the NECs lower $/mile)

Since we haven't talked Virgnia in a while, I'm reposting their frequency plans, which take WAS-RIC from 10/day to 12/day in 2026 and 15/day in 2030
train2.jpg
 
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MTA just released their 20-year Needs Assessment (PDF), which evaluates many rapid transit and commuter rail expansion projects. They include a mix of popular projects that may already be in planning (Interborough Express, fixing Rogers Junction) and projects that are clearly dumb and confirmed to be low value by these studies (W to Red Hook).

While there are obvious issues such as extremely high cost estimates (almost $2 billion for a 2-stop elevated extension or to add an infill station on an underground line) and even possibly sandbagged projects (Utica Ave), I think the important thing is they're at least actively planning future transit extensions amid the cost blowups.

Does MBTA even have such a list of projects that they're looking into for the future, other than BRT like SL6? I feel that with the exception of Red-Blue, the T has expressed almost zero interest in expanding the system in recent decades. Even projects that did get completed, such as GLX and Silver Line Transitway, were more because they were forced to due to Big Dig.

There are a lot of low-hanging fruits (GLX to Route 16 and Porter, Needham rapid transit conversion) and important projects (regional rail and electrification, BLX to Lynn, GL Nubian branch) that the T really should have started thinking about right now, and that's before we consider more transformative, long-term stuff like NSRL, Urban Ring and GL Reconfiguration. Right now, I'm not even seeing any signs of it. Most studies that examined them seem to be from almost 20 years ago or even older.

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Update: The Program for Mass Transit (PMT) is probably the closest we have for MBTA:
The Program for Mass Transportation (PMT) is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s long-range capital planning document; it defines a 25-year vision for public transportation in eastern Massachusetts. The MBTA’s enabling legislation requires the Authority to update the PMT every five years and to implement the policies and priorities outlined in it through the annual Capital Investment Program (CIP). The PMT also defines the universe of transit projects that can be drawn on for inclusion in the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Long-Range Transportation Plan and in its Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). It is through the TIP that eligible projects receive federal funding. In addition to supporting regional planning, the PMT provides input to the statewide, multimodal, long-range transportation plan developed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
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However, the most recent PMT was from 2009, even though they're supposed to be updated every 5 years. The most recent PMT that included a cost-benefit analysis of transit projects was from 2003, and that's the one that F-Line quotes often.

Edit: Added correct link
 
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Just a note: the [a specific] link [was]definitely not safe for work as a warning to anyone

[Mod note: thanks!]
 
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Notable projects that look likely to be pursued, in some form or fashion:
  • Ridgewood Busway: A busway under an existing elevated rapid transit line in Queens. Notable because its operational savings over the project lifetime exceed capital costs. That makes it a brilliant investment. It takes a mess of bus spaghetti on local roads and re-routes to an efficient busway running under the M train between Fresh Pond Rd and Seneca Ave
  • Utica Nostrand Junction Capacity Improvements: Building subway enhancements in Brooklyn's IRT (numbered lines) with three new crossovers and longer storage tracks beyond Crown Heights-Utica Av to reduce congestion and improve service. I love projects like this. Eat your peas, as F-line calls them.
  • Utica Alt A (BRT): Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route from Kings Plaza to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, with center running BRT lanes and stations. This project would have 16 new BRT stations.
    • This is exactly the type of project we should be emulating here on Blue Hill Ave and Warren St from Mattapan to Nubian.
  • Interborough Express Light Rail Transit: A new light rail line through Brooklyn and Queens connecting 17 subway lines and the LIRR.
    • Essentially their version of the Urban Ring.
  • Second Avenue Subway West Extension to 125th Street/Broadway:An extension of the Second Avenue Subway project in Manhattan, along 125th St, with three new subway stations. Phase 1 opened in 2017. Phase 2 (a northern extension) is under construction now. Phase 3 (a southern extension) is in planning. This would be a theoretical Phase 4 (or even 3) that is predicated upon the completion of Phase 2.
    • Long delays in completing the first phase of this project aside, I love that they have the insitutional capacity and will to plan a true phased approach, and actually get to work on each phase one after the other. A good parallel here would be if the Blue Line to Charles/MGH was Phase 1. Phase 2 to Lynn began after that was complete. Once that broke ground, the MBTA started planning Phase 3 (to Salem) or 4 (to Kenmore). One can only dream.
  • Staten Island North Shore Bus Rapid Transit: A new 8-mile route in Staten Island that would be 5.3 miles of BRT and 2.7 miles in mixed traffic.
  • Staten Island West Shore Bus Rapid Transit Korean War Veterans Pkwy: A new BRT route in Staten Island and Bayonne, NJ that would complement and run perpendicular to the North Shore BRT project.
 
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