More Rail in NE

did anyone catch the little blurb in the Herald about how increasing rail freight would save commuters all kinds of money and time? they had some stats showing that moving 25% of truck freight to rail would reduce traffic congestion substantially. they did not say who did the study, in fact not much info at all; i know it is hard to believe the Herald did a half-a$$ job. anyhow, my question is - move what freight traffic to rail? there isn't much heavy industry, and most trucks are probably making deliveries to stores, etc. plus the tracks and row are disappearing constantly.

As someone who spends much time on Route 495 you could not fathom the amount of freight which motors out of NH and ME on 95 south for parts outside of Massachusetts. I watch it go by every night, all the while paralleling the GRS mainline. Decades of mercantile transition have ballooned the trucking industry in the northeast while freight rail has withered away. The same can be seen on the Masspike every night. Traffic aside the rising costs of fuel will bring about a rebirth of rail in this nation as the economies of transportation transform, one which I am eager to observe. I just hope Guilford doesn't fumble the ball.

Unless someone else is funding the project you can COUNT OUT guilford to make any such improvements...Seeing that the Mellon Bank is one of the if not the richest bank in the world.... Sad to think Tim Mellon used to be a big Rail Buff.

Maybe Tim will buy Delta Airlines now that it has filed for bankruptcy and call it Pan Am!!! Suggested this to a retired Delta pilot friend yesterday;thought he was going to have a seizure right there!!

Seems as if airlines(?) is the main interest in past few years,even though railroads(freight) could be on the verge of a revival,with the fuel crisis. But lest we forget;when Mellon bought up the MEC,BM & D&H,some "experts" predicted that high fuel costs,would drastically move more freight to the rails in the form of piggy backs and coal for the formerly oil fired plants.

Bud

asdfjkl wrote:my question is - move what freight traffic to rail? there isn't much heavy industry, and most trucks are probably making deliveries to stores, etc. plus the tracks and row are disappearing constantly.

What they mean is getting the trucks off the highways and onto intermodal trains for the long haul.

I also find it quite ironic that the Herald is suggesting getting more freight moved to rail, seeing as they get 90% of their paper delivered to the factory by truck, and an average of 1 box car from CSXT every month or so. (FYI the Globe does an average of about 15 to 20 cars per week. ).

Seeing that the Herald had Very Pour service from The RailRoad some years back Im not surprisied......Lack of qualified Conductors and Officials not wanting to pay the shove move killed that.

I know that personally, lol.

Like in the summer. A car arrived at Beacon Park on June 26th, but wasn't spotted until July 27th because as you stated nobody qualified on the night switcher at Beacon, they don't want to pay the utility guy overtime to pilot the conductor, and B733's regular conductor went back on the main for a few weeks.

Do you mean to say that you actually need PEOPLE to run a railroad? What a novel idea!

The New England truck freight traffic is exactly the kind of market that CSX was trying to penetrate with their experimental "Iron Highway" intermodal train, which could be loaded and unloaded with very minimal support facilities, just a small paved pad. Then they got interested in Conrail and the rest is history. They cut the funding for the program, fired all the people who were working on it, walked away from the prototypes, and finally sold them to CP Rail. And the trucks are still all out there on the Interstates.

Speaking of territories in which CSX is too cheap to pay people to qualify, poor Alan tends to get screwed to if one of the regular conductors is off because nobody on the spare boards are qualified downtown.