Regional Rail (RUR) & North-South Rail Link (NSRL)

Koopzilla24 said:
I'm not sure how possible reprofiling the Franklin Line to begin its incline after is but leveling the platform to be alongside the main NEC as well as double tracking/platforms would better facilitate transfers with regional rail and there could be a center island between NEC #3 and what would be Franklin Branch #2.
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If you're willing to accept a flat junction and lefthand running for local trains, relatively easy actually. Two island platforms at Readville, roughly in the current location, with the tracks from West to East being:

Franklin & Providence Local Inbound | Franklin and Providence local outbound | Providence Express Outbound | Providence Express Outbound

You'd likely want a crossover somewhere on the Franklin Line to get things the right way around, but the gradient would be super easy since the Franklin line has almost a mile to decent to level of the NEC. This sets up a quad-tracking all the way to Forest Hills, with a rebuilt Hyde Park serving only the local tracks, and a new infill station at Cummins Hwy also only serving local trains.
Koopzilla24 said:
but I was also thinking about a rebuilt Quincy Adams with 3 tracks 2 platforms for regional rail via realigning Burgin Parkway a little and shifting over the Red Line tracks in the ROW south though I don't know what's the plan with the former Lowe's lot.
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If Quincy really doesn't want to play ball with a widening of the OC trunk, then this would be an option. That being said, it certainly seems like you could do a similar thing at Braintree, and if we're picking one station to rebuilt garage-less, I think Braintree is the better choice.
 
BosMaineiac said:
The former Lowe's lot is the site of the currently under construction Quincy bus maintenance facility:
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I feel like a fool, I thought that was the lot just south of Quincy Center around the curve. Apparently Google Maps satellite view on mobile is not as up-to-date as desktop so it was showing no construction while when I got back to my computer it was clearly well underway
 
Hint hint…

Caltrain's electrification project is paying off big-time​

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“Caltrain officials say the recently launched electrification project is paying off, after seeing a significant ridership increase since making the switch. The new trains officially took off from most Caltrain stations Sept. 21.
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This October, Caltrain saw more than 753,000 passengers take to its railways, a 54% increase from October 2023, according to a news release Thursday. Comparing August 2024’s “primarily diesel service” to October 2024’s all-electric service, the trains saw an overall 17% increase in ridership. Rather than its typical post-August decline in monthly ridership, the service has seen more than 100,000 additional riders.

“When we broke ground on the Electrification Project back in 2017, we set out to deliver a state-of-the-art modern rail system for the people we serve,” Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard said in the news release. “It is immensely gratifying to see our riders embrace our new service on this scale. If you haven’t experienced the future of transportation for yourself yet, find out what everyone has been talking about.”

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/caltrain-electrification-project-paying-off-19917422.php
 
HenryAlan said:
I'm definitely hoping the CalTrain project serves as a valid proof-of-concept to stimulate more regional rail electrification. But 7 years to electrify a single line is kind of depressing.
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Well, Caltrain spent those seven years building catenary, among other things, and didn't tie their project to the inefficient wunderweapon of battery-electric trains.

Put up the damn wires, MBTA. Join the mid-late 20th century.
 
HenryAlan said:
I'm definitely hoping the CalTrain project serves as a valid proof-of-concept to stimulate more regional rail electrification. But 7 years to electrify a single line is kind of depressing.
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Pretty sad commentary on the USA that CalTrain is some how a "proof of concept" for a technology base that started spreading the Europe a century ago.

America is so exceptional in our blindness to progress.
 
JeffDowntown said:
Pretty sad commentary on the USA that CalTrain is some how a "proof of concept" for a technology base that started spreading the Europe a century ago.

America is so exceptional in our blindness to progress.
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In terms of passenger rail, yes. In terms of freight rail, no, which is part of why we're so backward on passenger rail. There's a reason there's such a market for "Euro Truck Simulator" :)

But that's not an excuse in the Boston Area, where freight rail is basically dead.
 
Particularly notable is the growth in weekend ridership - it's more than doubled, to the point where Saturday ridership is actually approaching weekday ridership. Weekend service went from hourly (or worse) with nearly 2-hour running times to half-hourly with 75-minute running times.
 
Equilibria said:
Well, Caltrain spent those seven years building catenary, among other things, and didn't tie their project to the inefficient wunderweapon of battery-electric trains.
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Oh, they're doing that too. They're spending an absolutely bonkers $80M for one 4-car BEMU pilot set for their un-electrified San Jose-Gilroy tail. Which might cost them close to a half-billion dollars to completely battery-up.
HenryAlan said:
But 7 years to electrify a single line is kind of depressing.
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It was horribly managed. They were originally scheduled to do it in less than 5, but got hit with a 1-year delay in 2019 because they discovered unmapped underground utilities on the ROW and another greater-than 1-year delay in 2021 because of COVID supply-chain disruptions and problems with the signal system's compatibility with electrification.

The operating end results are uniquivocally good, but the actual project slog will go down Exhibit A of a clueless agency unable to cope with top-down management of a labyrinthine web of consultants managing contractors. It's very much the lesson (that nobody in this country is going to learn) on how NOT to manage such a project.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Oh, they're doing that too. They're spending an absolutely bonkers $80M for one 4-car BEMU pilot set for their un-electrified San Jose-Gilroy tail. Which might cost them close to a half-billion dollars to completely battery-up.

It was horribly managed. They were originally scheduled to do it in less than 5, but got hit with a 1-year delay in 2019 because they discovered unmapped underground utilities on the ROW and another greater-than 1-year delay in 2021 because of COVID supply-chain disruptions and problems with the signal system's compatibility with electrification.

The operating end results are uniquivocally good, but the actual project slog will go down Exhibit A of a clueless agency unable to cope with top-down management of a labyrinthine web of consultants managing contractors. It's very much the lesson (that nobody in this country is going to learn) on how NOT to manage such a project.
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This is one of those things that still boggles a little bit. I know that American government has, as a rule, always been pretty hands-off about this kind of thing, but there must've been some documentation about it somewhere, even if in a musty old filing cabinet in some defunct agency's basement. It's not that I'd expect there be a person to be meticulous about this kind of background info, but...shouldn't there be? Wouldn't it be cheaper, in the long run, to pay someone even, like $100k with benefits to dig for this kind of information? How many millions in change-orders and idle labor and other things could it save on projects like these?
 
aquaticko said:
This is one of those things that still boggles a little bit. I know that American government has, as a rule, always been pretty hands-off about this kind of thing, but there must've been some documentation about it somewhere, even if in a musty old filing cabinet in some defunct agency's basement. It's not that I'd expect there be a person to be meticulous about this kind of background info, but...shouldn't there be? Wouldn't it be cheaper, in the long run, to pay someone even, like $100k with benefits to dig for this kind of information? How many millions in change-orders and idle labor and other things could it save on projects like these?
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Consultants managing consultants managing contractors. Every individual entity had cover for not looking into such trivially important things because the chain of command was so muddled, and they all make money on change orders so YOLO. If Caltrain had stronger top-down management it could've been mandated that no stone be left unturned over things like that, but they literally outsourced all of it so in the end it was out of their control.
 
The MBTA board took a presentation today from Keolis on the BEMU program. While the Keolis rep refused to name names, apparently 6 vehicle manufacturers responded to the RFI, and 12 Banks to the financing RFI, and the actual RFPs should go out in a couple of weeks. 6 vehicle manufacturers would probably include basically everyone on the FTA TVM list that currently makes a BEMU - I personally wonder if a "darker horse" candidate such as CAF or Hitachi could be in the cards.

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HenryAlan said:
We'll see where we are in 2028, but Keolis is at least convincingly acting like this is really happening.
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And really, we'll know a lot more sooner than that. The RFPs will give a lot of info to make sure they're aiming for reasonable specs. By next year we'll know if they're picking a reputable manufacturer, and see designs for other infrastructure. There are sanity checks along the way. Keolis's contract ends 2026, right? I wonder how far ahead we'd want to renew that, but we should have some sense ahead of time whether these BEMUs look totally doomed.

I'm still suspicious here, but I agree, it a least looks like Keolis has a plan.
 
bankerandtradesman.com

Lynch: West-East Rail More Important than Boston North-South Rail Link

A top local congressman says he thinks pursuing the North-South Rail Link between Boston's busiest commuter rail hubs may be a waste of time.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com

“Having sat on the Transportation Committee, being a party to the debate that goes on between states that we negotiate with: New Jersey has a tunnel they want; Arizona wants to add 500 miles of highway. There are all these competing — Chicago wants to expand their airport — we’re competing for dollars. We sit as a committee and we review the impact. So if we put our project forward and say ‘We want $20 billion for a tunnel so people don’t have to change trains’ — we lose, we lose, we lose,” Lynch said.
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“I probably shouldn’t be saying this as a member of the delegation from Boston, but let’s be fair, and let’s try to get the most impact. That argument would be valid in Congress, and I think would be a winning suggestion, especially with Congressman Neal if he comes chair of Ways and Means. That’s something that is near and dear to his heart. He would like to see the infrastructure and the rail capacity increased,” Lynch said.
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Aprehensive_Words said:
bankerandtradesman.com

Lynch: West-East Rail More Important than Boston North-South Rail Link

A top local congressman says he thinks pursuing the North-South Rail Link between Boston's busiest commuter rail hubs may be a waste of time.
bankerandtradesman.com bankerandtradesman.com
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He’s right about how it would be perceived at the Federal level.

I think our best chance for Federal money that improves the Commuter Rail system (like we got for North Station Draw) would be for smaller (than NSRL) projects like Old Colony Double Track.
 
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