High Level Platforms

I'm excited to see what becomes of Rhinecliff. The platform area there needs a little love, and I'm glad the walkway on the south end is getting some TLC as well. It's a nice little shortcut when you don't feel like parking down towards long-term.

I'm excited too, re Rhinecliff. If Hudson was done too (as was budgeted in the EIS, I thought - and commencing prior to Rhinecliff!) - I think it would save 2-3 mins of dwell on an Albany-Penn journey.

Rhinecliff is pretty straight at least but Hudson is a whole production. Shame as it's a charming bit of theater, but highly inefficient.

Roadgeek Adam wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 2:03 pm If I had my say:
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New London
Windsor (CT)
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all need to be on the priority list. Then figure out what to do with Richmond Main, Providence and Back Bay.

New London and Windsor already have high levels. Windsor's are mini-highs that were just put up a couple of years ago when it was decided to not have any passengers cross an active track in order to detrain/board. So now there are platforms on both sides of the tracks. See:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8519304 ... ?entry=ttu
Eventual plan for NH-H-S commuter rail was to move the Windsor station south of Central St with full high level platforms and a parking garage and probably an up&over. That would get the train off the grade crossing while at the station stop.

New London had high levels installed when the Acela service started. The SB platform is on the south side of the grade crossing, while the NB platform is over the former low level platform in front of the station. The entire situation in NLD isn't ideal... there's no way to get from one platform to the other without using the grade crossing, there's multiple grade crossings with no easy way to eliminate them, and a sharp curve. Its not like trains are barreling through there at high speed, so the grade crossings aren't THAT big of a deal.

So what needs to be figured out about Providence or Back Bay?

I vaguely recall one Acela trip made a scheduled New London stop.

BBY was high-level when replaced in the late 1980s. Presumably CSX objected about their clearance route and either the "temporary" cement platform on the Framingham Line side of the station was jackhammered or maybe the railbed was raised. It's a very large platform but should not be difficult to fix. Would save a lot of dwell time and maybe make fare collection easier.

By the 1990s the only customer receiving carloads would have been the Boston Herald. Unless the South Boston ports and industrial parks still had connection via the B&A.