AMTRAK NEC: Springfield Shuttle/Regional/Valley Flyer/Inland Routing

Do TKs 2 and 4 Midland-Hart eliminate a backup move that CSO used to make to get into Hartford Yard?
Andy

Yes

Sadly, what's left of the burned-out 116-year-old Berlin station will be demolished. I had a chance to look at the ruins last weekend while I was visiting family in the area and this seemed inevitable... nothing but four walls left, and the remaining brick is probably heat damaged anyway.

http://www.courant.com/community/berlin ... story.html (URL corrected)

The good news in all of this is that a no one was hurt and a new station is already funded and under construction. It is sad nonetheless.

http://www.courant.com/community/berlin ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To perfect Mr. Nelligan's link

Thank you, Mr. Norman. I have corrected my above link to today's Courant story. BTW, your helpful link actually represents a previous report that I hadn't seen.

Demo team will be arriving on the 17th to begin demolition of the structure.

Does the town have a set of blueprints? Given that the station was undergoing an extensive restoration I'd imagine the answer is "yes." Complete reconstruction might be prohibitively expensive, though, I suppose.

I think this one is "gone with the wind".

the building was no longer used by railroad and served no purpose.
after rebuilding a totally destroyed building, it is not historic any more but a replica.
State is beyond broke so who wiouyld fund it ??

Connecticut is saddled with a lot of old, dysfunctional buildings. There is no shortage of historic attractions around here, and the Berlin station was no Mark Twain House. New Haven has a lovely historic station, and Hartford Station is still there, largely unused. The beautiful waiting room is empty; Amrtak resides in the bus bunker instead. If somebody had a few bucks to invest in station preservation, there are plenty other candidates better than Berlin.

DutchRailnut wrote:the building was no longer used by railroad and served no purpose.
after rebuilding a totally destroyed building, it is not historic any more but a replica.
State is beyond broke so who wiouyld fund it ??

Whoever was restoring it? Was assuming it was a Town of Berlin project, or a private owner. If it's the State-- yes, forget it, they're broke.

The station was not being renovated by a private developer. The building was owned by Amtrak and leased to the state. I believe that the Connecticut DOT was in charge of the project as part of the construction of the new high level platforms and access bridge.

My understanding is the state had no money in it. The restoration was a transportation enhancement grant that pre-dated the Hartford Line communter rail project 90% federal, 0 state and 10% local. That money should still be around at least in part. Also some entity had to have had insurance on the building.

CVRA7 wrote:Also some entity had to have had insurance on the building.

^^This occurred to me after my original post. There must have been insurance on the structure. This wasn't a long-abandoned wreck like Torrington.