by F-line to Dudley via Park
Larry wrote:To answer Noel's question, is it not the same problem today why this is not being used, The ST, Guilford, B&M and now Pan Am owed the line from the Springfield Armory to the the MA/CT Line, so in hense why the had it ripped up and sold the land underneath so no one could use this right away. With the NVN-SPG line being upgraded in near futrure, this line becomes more important today then ever to move freight from the North to places in CT. I know they have tried to get the land back but Politicians in State of MA are not helping.It's never going to be completely encroached because either Guilford or PC poached some coin allowing a major gas main to be installed underneath it. No structures can ever be built on the ROW as long as the gas main is there, and whatever is there has to be able to be dug up at-will to service the pipeline. So the only things blocking it are some driveways, this jungle gym, and a couple patches of grass abutting parks. The paved trail in Longmeadow is even rail-with-trail'able since most of it seems to be offset ever-so-slightly from where the tracks were (I'm guessing because of the pipeline). It can happen if Amtrak's got the muscle to lay down demands about punting freights off the Springfield Line. It's just too bad MA has been so flippant about lifting a finger to do any more than that. I-291 in CT and those last 2 road bridges before the B&A junction: those are the only overhead structures on the entire line. Double stacks into Hartford...right there.