USPS Complex | Fort Point

Ron Newman said:
South Station has 8 commuter rail lines (9 if you count the Stoughton branch as separate), plus Amtrak. That's a lot of trains. Amtrak may someday want to add more, and the state wants to add new service to Fall River and New Bedford.

To some extent the T just wants to reclaim the track capacity that existed there decades ago when private railroads (New Haven, New York Central) operated the service.
Click to expand...


The capacity issue is already a problem:

The indigo/fairmount line will be limited to a max headway of 20 minutes, due to track limitations.

Expansion of service to Worcester will also be an issue, although I have proposed terminating half of the worcester trains at north station, which has 2 unused tracks
 
You'd have to do a major upgrade to the Grand Junction in Cambridge to send revenue trains along it with any sort of speed.
 
The fellow I spoke with might have been referencing this when he mentioned a section that is posted for 10 mph, but no one dares to do more than 2 mph on it. He said the overall plan would include an upgrade there, allowing them to move some Worcester traffic out of the south side, and perhaps facilitating the connection of the Downeast service to South Station. Or something like that. (I can't make my Southern Pacific Daylight HO train run without derailing, so this is all a bit beyond me.)
 
tobyjug said:
The fellow I spoke with might have been referencing this when he mentioned a section that is posted for 10 mph, but no one dares to do more than 2 mph on it. He said the overall plan would include an upgrade there, allowing them to move some Worcester traffic out of the south side, and perhaps facilitating the connection of the Downeast service to South Station. Or something like that. (I can't make my Southern Pacific Daylight HO train run without derailing, so this is all a bit beyond me.)
Click to expand...

Transferring from NS to SS takes too long, but Worcester trains would have a straight shot into NS.

The reason the track is so slow now is because there are no gates anywhere, and no signals at all across some roads. There are 2 daily freight trains (+ some unscheduled moves) that need to nudge their way across the street to get cars to stop.

Some four quadrant gates could fix that up real fast. And even if trains are limited to 15mph....how fast do trains go between back bay and south station? It feels so slow.
 
There are gates at the two pedestrian-only crossings (at Fort Washington Park and at an MIT parking garage), but not at most of the six street crossings. Four of those streets are quite busy: Mass. Ave., Main Street, Broadway, and Cambridge Street.

You'd also have to double-track the branch.

Edit: I looked at Google StreetView and confirmed that there are gates at the Cambridge Street and Gore Street crossings, but not at Binney St, Broadway, Main St, or Mass Ave. All six crossings do at least have flashing lights, though. I've occasionally been stopped by them while biking on Broadway.
 
Last edited:
Maybe we need a "I've Been Working On The Railroad" thread?
 
Ron Newman said:
There are gates at the two pedestrian-only crossings (at Fort Washington Park and at an MIT parking garage), but not at most of the six street crossings. Four of those streets are quite busy: Mass. Ave., Main Street, Broadway, and Cambridge Street.

You'd also have to double-track the branch.

Edit: I looked at Google StreetView and confirmed that there are gates at the Cambridge Street and Gore Street crossings, but not at Binney St, Broadway, Main St, or Mass Ave. All six crossings do at least have flashing lights, though. I've occasionally been stopped by them while biking on Broadway.
Click to expand...

I dont think double tracking is even necessary, there is a siding for freight, and the length of the line is so short that single track isn't a capacity constraint.

Medford street has gates too. Such a random selection of streets to have gates!
 
Medford Street == Gore Street (the name changes at the Cambridge-Somerville line)

Toby's right, though -- this side discussion should detach into its own thread and be moved to the Transit and Infrastructure folder.
 
Any update on the South Postal Annex for expanded south Station deal?

I though that it was going to happen -- especially since the T has just bought the tracks out to Worcester from CSX and even the yards are now owned by the T - i.e. us
 
Beacon Yard is owned by Harvard.

And the PO is dragging it's feet on this, TBH.
 
the USPS GMF will be built on the block bounded by an extended E street, summer street, pappas way, and an extended cipher street. the harborwalk is currently being expanded along pappas way while that road is being repaired.
 
I knew this move was desired by USPS and they have been lobbying for years now, but never heard a word that it was actually moving forward.

Has USPS reached a agreement either with the City or property owner for a move to the Reserve Channel parcel(s)?
 
Article mentions that instead of rebuilding in Southie away from Fort Point they are considering consolidating in Waltham or North Reading. Well, I'm sorry for the loss of jobs, but I tend to agree. Less mail is being processed, and I see little need for a processing facility on prime urban land (unless I'm missing something?)

I wonder if this is a trend for all of the industrial Fort Point / Waterfront - is Gillette next? Fish Pier? BMIP?
 
I would hate to see Gillette close. I like having at least some manufacturing in our city. Unlike the post office, they don't have some other nearby factory to shift operations to.
 
If there isn't a large mail processing facility near the airport (such as the current one at Fort Point), won't mail delivery be slowed down citywide? It doesn't make sense to truck mail from Logan Airport to Waltham or North Reading, then truck it back into the city.
 
If the government already owns the land in South Boston (which it does) there are no land costs associated with a new facility. IMO, an advantage Boston would continue to have as a location is proximity to Logan, and a growth area, on the revenue side, for the Post Office has been international mail and packages.
 
Ron, how far away do you think Waltham is? We're talking a 20 minute additional journey from the airport and maybe a 15 minute inbound journey back to Boston for delivery. If that were email, though, I'd be pissed! But nobody counts in minutes when it comes to snail mail... or at least, I don't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top