Ethanol Trains to Revere

arcadia terminal wrote:I may be wrong, but should not the towns be directing their questions on the Ethanol train to the "T". The "T" owns all the track from Fitchburg to the switch off of the eastern route. PAS / Pan Am are the operators, the only actual Pan Am track would be the short 11 mile shove down the branch to the terminal which is almost all industrial zoned not residential.
Are the "NIMBYs" chasing the wrong company?

Peter

This is the correct answer re: the recipient of the NIMBY complaints:

arcadia terminal wrote:I may be wrong, but should not the towns be directing their questions on the Ethanol train to the "T". The "T" owns all the track from Fitchburg to the switch off of the eastern route. PAS / Pan Am are the operators, the only actual Pan Am track would be the short 11 mile shove down the branch to the terminal which is almost all industrial zoned not residential.
Are the "NIMBYs" chasing the wrong company?

Peter

Under the terms of the sale of Boston area commuter lines to the MBTA in 1974, the B&M and it's successors have exclusive rights to all current and all future freight customers on those lines. So, while the MBTA owns the track, complaining to them would be like preaching to the choir, because I'm sure they don't want it either, but they really have no say in it, other than placing restrictions on when the trains can operate on the lines they dispatch, such as between the Willows and Boston.

It just goes to show how ignorant people are about this, as was said earlier there are 3 companies between Ayer and Fithburg that produce windshield washer fluid that recieve a good number of tank cars of Methanol, similar to Ethanol, have been for years without a problem.

mick wrote:Under the terms of the sale of Boston area commuter lines to the MBTA in 1974, the B&M and it's successors have exclusive rights to all current and all future freight customers on those lines.

Just for the sake of curiosity....I'm assuming that provision for this is actually written into the deeds now?

gokeefe wrote:

mick wrote:Under the terms of the sale of Boston area commuter lines to the MBTA in 1974, the B&M and it's successors have exclusive rights to all current and all future freight customers on those lines.

Just for the sake of curiosity....I'm assuming that provision for this is actually written into the deeds now?

I'm not sure that extends to active lines where they filed to abandon freight rights. Pretty sure once they do that and are no longer paying any fees for holding the rights they're done. On MBTA-owned lines that means in the unlikely event there's a must-have customer north of Salem on the Eastern Route they'd have to re-bid because they filed to outright abandon that territory. Believe this also extends to MBTA-owned freight-only lines they've ditched, which then got landbanked by the T only after the freight rights went dormant: Central Mass, Saugus Branch, North Reading Branch, Stoneham Branch, Bedford Branch, Topsfield/Newburyport Branch, Danvers Branch, Greenville Branch. Realistically, though...the northside is 100% operator-landlocked. The only place it intersects CSX territory is the CM in South Sudbury, where CSX has abandoned the F&L and is wrangling with the towns to dump the property. There's zero--nada--risk in them trimming unused freight rights on any MBTA lines. Including if they wanted to trim the Reading Line off the books to save some taxes and rights fees. Need it again? Whoopdee-doo...re-apply for rights. Who's going to outbid them, some shortline that sets up shop with no access to the outside world?


Now, they don't have that protection on lines they owned then dumped--property, charter, and all--in entirety. The Mystic Wharf Branch is the most interesting case there, as the state does have long-term intent on reopening that and it has direct access at BET to both PAR and CSX territories. That would be an open bid if/when it took place. But that's the only instance they'd have any reason to care about losing business to another carrier of any consequence.

The ROW on the north side of Railroad St is entirely vacated, though I thought someone said the trucks were back on that side... The gate clearly has an MBTA property sign though, so I'm not sure how that even happened in the first place.

There are cherry picker cranes parked on the south side of Railroad St on the ROW, but they could be moved within an hour if they needed to be. Other than that, everything looks like fairly easy work. But seeing as we were supposed to see an NS test run last month, and service this year, I'm still perplexed by the lack of ANY work. There's no crossing at all. Any existing tracks in the vicinity of the street, and north of it, are completely ruined from being trampled upon by vehicles and having crap stored on them.

On a positive note, there is 2-4 MBTA flatbeds utilizing the branch, parked between the 145 and 1A bridges. Though, probably only related to the stacks of ties along the length of the Eastern Route from Chelsea to Oak Island (and beyond?).

Those cars are probably for the Eastern Route tie job...

D

It's amazing how fast they can slap down some track for a siding BAM! It's coming, don't know when but, like everything else (grain train, autoracks, Mechanicville, etc.) one day it just shows up.

Does that mean the track that leads to the East Boston branch is finally back in service?

Any update on this?

theseaandalifesaver wrote:Any update on this?

You got me excited when I saw this thread bumped up.

haha. I'm assuming that nothing new has happened over the last couple of weeks.

East Boston Branch Switch officially back in service per MBCR Bulletin Order.
PAR to run crew-familiarization trips in coming weeks on Fitchburg and Eastern routes.
Start-up?..... after Thanksgiving.

mick wrote:East Boston Branch Switch officially back in service per MBCR Bulletin Order.
PAR to run crew-familiarization trips in coming weeks on Fitchburg and Eastern routes.
Start-up?..... after Thanksgiving.

Crew Familiarization trips? What, are they going to learn to traverse a half sunken rickety line with junk and vehicles on the ROW? You'd think they'd at least put down some receiving yard tracks for the tank-cars...

Sir Ray wrote:

mick wrote:East Boston Branch Switch officially back in service per MBCR Bulletin Order.
PAR to run crew-familiarization trips in coming weeks on Fitchburg and Eastern routes.
Start-up?..... after Thanksgiving.

Crew Familiarization trips? What, are they going to learn to traverse a half sunken rickety line with junk and vehicles on the ROW? You'd think they'd at least put down some receiving yard tracks for the tank-cars...

Umm, read what I wrote. On the Fitchburg and Eastern routes, not on the branch itself. The switch to the branch is back in service, that does not mean they are going to use it yet.

mick wrote:Umm, read what I wrote. On the Fitchburg and Eastern routes, not on the branch itself. The switch to the branch is back in service, that does not mean they are going to use it yet.

Yeah, I understand that, obviously I was trying to be funny, but for a long time now there has been no evidence of rebuilding the branch and building new storage tracks and unloading platforms. Have they at a minimum done any work on, say, bulkheads for the shoreline (I don't know what kind of tides, if any, the estuary at that point experiences)? Installing and rerouting piping from the storage complex?