Ethan Allen Route Improvements

According to Progressive Railroading, track work in Vermont has cut 10 mins. from the Ethan Allen's running time:http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... ice--27612

Vermont Rail System officials recently operated a special train to show local government leaders and legislators ongoing trackwork that’s enabling Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express to speed up service between Whitehall and Rutland, Vt.
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The project began in April and completed work has reduced Ethan Allen Express transit time by 10 minutes. By October, 18 minutes will be trimmed from the service’s schedule, and additional transit time reductions will occur after more work is completed next summer, Vermont Rail System officials said in a prepared statement.

One strange note: the story says that there are still five miles of jointed rail on the route, which limit the EA to 30mph on that stretch. I'm not familiar with the route, but jointed rail can't be what limits the speed to 30mph, can it?

Not in and of itself it can't. Passenger trains used to run a lot faster than 30 MPH on it. There must be another issue, such as the condition of the roadbed, that is setting this restriction.

Interesting news. Had not heard about this before. I find it interesting that NY State is contributing $2.5 million to fix tracks in VT. Or is that an error and the funding is actually coming from VT? Now if VT can get funding to extend Ethan Allan service northward to Middlebury and Burlington to get service over about half of the long sought Western corridor, that would be a big step. Along with NY state getting the funding obligated and put to work on the NYP to Schenectady section of the Empire corridor.

I was wondering about the status of the plans to re-route service further south to Bennington and then north to Rutland. Google search turned up a website for the on-going joint NY and VT study on the options on providing service from Albany to several new stops in NY and then to Bennington and northward at http://www.ny-vt-passengerrail.org/index.html . There is a 5+ MB viewgraph June 7-8 public workshop presentation on the alternatives and issues with providing passenger service to SW Vermont which may be of interest to some: http://www.ny-vt-passengerrail.org/docu ... 072011.pdf

I think there has to be some mistake there. Hard to imagine NY funding trackwork in VT. As you suggest, maybe they meant VT paid for the work. Or maybe NY paid for work between Whitehall and the border?? I paged through the NY-VT study website. Unless I missed it, there's no mention of service between Rutland and Burlington. I guess that was beyond the scope of the study, but I thought they would have mentioned it.

I spent a couple of days recently in that part of VT (doing college tours with my son). Given the congestion on Rte. 7, especially north of Middlebury, I'd think extending the Ethan Allen to Burlington would have a bigger impact than service through Bennington and Manchester (though the station at Rutland is on the wrong leg of the wye at Rutland for service to Burlington).

afiggatt wrote:Interesting news. Had not heard about this before. I find it interesting that NY State is contributing $2.5 million to fix tracks in VT. Or is that an error and the funding is actually coming from VT? ...

The tracks of the VRS, ie, CLP that run from Rutland to Whitehall, NY do run in NY - I believe that the money will be spent on the trackage in NYS. A quote from a slide about this project - http://vtwesternrailcorridor.com/downlo ... t_Plan.pdf

Speeds to be temporarily impacted by NY state tie project Mi. 84.09 (state line) - Mi. 77.35 (WH) - 7,200 Ties to be installed August - September 2011.

See the website - http://vtwesternrailcorridor.com/

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...

Here's an example of how the ride used to be in Vermont on the Ethan Allen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5LJO1d4Nc

Yikes!

giljanus wrote:The tracks of the VRS, ie, CLP that run from Rutland to Whitehall, NY do run in NY - I believe that the money will be spent on the trackage in NYS. A quote from a slide about this project - http://vtwesternrailcorridor.com/downlo ... t_Plan.pdf

Speeds to be temporarily impacted by NY state tie project Mi. 84.09 (state line) - Mi. 77.35 (WH) - 7,200 Ties to be installed August - September 2011.

See the website - http://vtwesternrailcorridor.com/

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...

Thanks for the link to the website. The rather pointed, if not surprisingly blunt for official correspondence, letters from Amtrak, the VT Secretary of Transportation, and the response from VRS make for interesting reading. Although the Amtrak letter could use to be rescanned. <lol> The letters also provide insight into a factor as to why perhaps the western corridor did get not funding from the HSIPR grants if Amtrak was publicly concerned about the ability of VSR to maintain the corridor to the standards required after the track improvements are done.

I see from the HSIPR applications from last April for the Florida HSR re-allocations that the current plan is indeed to extend the Ethan Allen northward from Rutland to Middlebury to Burlington for $80.3 million total consisting of $65.3 million of HSIPR grants and $15 million of state funding. $16.8 million for Fair Haven to Rutland work (some of which may not be needed now) and $63.5 million for Rutland to Burlington. Too bad there is not $2.5 billion of HSIPR funds in the FY2011 budget. If the VRS issues are worked out, VT might have been able to get at least partial funding for work on the extension, maybe complete the Fair Haven to Rutland improvements to get that much done. There is obviously a lot of support in VT for passenger rail and VT does not need that much money to extend western corridor service to Burlington in comparison to most other projects.

When I look at the projected trip times, VT really should be considering 2 daily Ethan Allen trains at some point. $80 million total for once a day train, even if it also helps freight speeds, can be a challenging sell.

As for the youtube video, put me down for +1 on the Yikes response. No wonder Amtrak was NOT happy about the condition of the tracks.

throw some water and detergent in your luggage and do your washing on the way .

When I was qualified to run trains on the VTR, between the monthly and daily bulletin there would be 25 to 30 restrictions for the 25 miles of railroad between WHL and RUD. If you think the main is bad you should see the wye were we turn stuff, been on the ground there a couple of times.

There is another part to this story. A marble quarry run by a Swiss company called Omya is about three miles east of the VRS main, between Rutland and Middlebury. They ship 177 truckloads of marble a day to a processing plant that makes calcium carbonate. The number of trucks is capped at that number. They all use Vt Route 7. Omya has offered to contribute $20 million toward the cost of a 3.5 mile spur from VRS to the quarry, and plans to run two 20-car trains of marble a day between quarry and plant, removing all those trucks from the highway.

After nine and a half years, they have a NEPA "record of decision" and are ready to go. The state, however, would like to use the $20 million plus some other money they have as a contribution toward Federal funding (possibly through a TIGER grant) for an upgrade of VRS between Rutland and Burlington, both to handle 286,000 lb. freight cars and to run Amtrak trains (extension of the Ethan Allen service). They came to see us at USDOT, hoping they wouldn't have to go through another 9-year NEPA process. Unfortunately, if there is Federal money involved, they do have to do some sort of environmental review.

Meantime, while all the good folks in Washington are protecting the environment with endless studies, 177 trucks roar back and forth daily on Vermont Rte 7. You have to love the workings of the National Environmental Protection Act.

Good news is that the spur will get built in the near future, and VRS will start moving the marble. Whether the Ethan Allen will go to Rutland is more speculative.

Man , thats alot of marble . if its any consolation the same kind of thing happens here with our resource management act .
very frustrating , particularily if your trying to do something good for the enviroment . ( for e.g , putting in a small hydroelectric plant , you need a consent to take the water out of the river , and another one to put the water back in , further downstream . few bother . ).

In 2008 under a pre-stumulus Capital Assistance to States - Intercity Passenger Rail Service program, VT had been awarded $581775 for a 2-mile track reconstruction on the Ethan Allen route. The project called for replacing D&H era 90-lb. rail with CWR between MP 96.42 and 98.6 with a total price tag of $1.2 million. Not sure if the project has been completed.

Andy

Think some of that money was spent on upgrading the route between Manchester and Bennington.

A follow-up story re the trackwork west of Rutland:http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/arti ... CFRONTPAGE

Vermont Rail Systems, the railroad responsible for maintaining the tracks traveled by the Ethan Allen Express passenger train, has moved from poorest-performing Amtrak host in the country to a top performer in just 12 months.

As a result of investments in repairs and new track and ties, Amtrak officials said travel time between Rutland and Whitehall, N.Y., the first leg of the trip to New York, is 15 minutes faster, and travel north is 25 minutes faster.

The number of minutes the Ethan Allen ran behind schedule dropped from 11,068 for December 2010 to 135 for December 2011.