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Then why is Baker proposing billions of dollars to bring the system up to speed? Because it's easy to make proposals. It's a bit harder to pay for them. At the moment the MBTA wish list is unfunded, and until such time as our wise and generous legislature comes up with a funding plan for major capi...

Many pre-Amtrak long distance routes offered both premier and secondary trains. The latter were typically slower and made more stops, were often heavy with mail and express, and often used older equipment. While details varied between railroads, there could definitely be differences in the level of ...

Because the nature of a study/wish list/planning proposal is to throw out all sorts of scenarios for discussion. But HSR along the Mass Pike is a fantasy that will never come to pass. Let's start with something realistic, like one or two morning eastbound/afternoon westbound trains between Springfie...

A little surprised they don't appear to be considering electrification of the CSX corridor. There isn't enough current or likely future passenger traffic to justify the very high capital costs involved. You could make an argument for the line east of Worcester if the MBTA ever chooses to electrify ...

Regarding Providence, it wouldn't bother me if Amtrak added some stops at suburban T. F Green Airport, but the current downtown station is quite convenient to the city's business and entertainment district and a five-minute walk from the transit center at JFK Plaza. Of course the old Providence Unio...

However, when I woke up and stretched my legs in Providence, I saw that 2 P42s showed up (I’d guess in New Haven maybe) and were leading the train! Furthermore, the pantograph on the electric motor was down. Is this normal? It's not uncommon. Amtrak likes to perform catenary maintenance in the midd...

This has to be the smallest train (by number of seats available) ever run by Amtrak. It was certainly an anomaly for the Northeast Corridor, but as a historical point I can think of two other single-car Amtrak runs from the 1970s. At that tine, some off peak New Haven-Springfield shuttles consisted...

I was under the impression that the "mail" trains carried passengers in one direction, but not the other. Or maybe it changed over the years. It seems like there were different versions of the mail trains over time. When the mail trains first began running in the (mid?) 1980s, both the no...

Hmm, I think this was actually built by Penn Central, but of interest: http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/colonie.htm Yes, the Colonie-Schenectady station was built by Penn Central in 1969 when PC closed the passenger line through downtown Schenectady and rerouted trains via the Selkirk Branch. That l...

I have always shared Mr. Tadman's unease with the use of the term "power cars" to describe the Acela locomotives, although I acknowledge that it has become the accepted term. Originally the term as applied to a trainset (as opposed to a stand-alone HEP source) referred to things like the e...

Tadman wrote:I'm curious how many trains Niles saw to Detroit, which is basically the same metro area on a different line.

Per Ronald Dale Karr's comprehensive route history The Rail Lines of Southern New England, the Collinsville branch was abandoned in 1968.

The first of the CRRC cars have gone into service in Boston on the MBTA Orange Line, and they are desperately needed NOW to replace an elderly fleet that is no longer reliable. By all accounts they are well-built and welcomed by riders. Personally, I am not expecting that Chinese intelligence will b...

Route 128/Westwood (opened 1970s/80s?) The current Amtrak/MBTA station at Route 128 opened in 2000, but that location has been an intercity and commuter stop for decades, since the New Haven RR opened the first Route 128 station at that site in 1953. The current building is actually the third. The ...

Another old guy here who remembers watching and photographing the Union Freight Railroad, but it was hardly suitable as a busy north/south passenger link. The UFRR never had passenger service of any kind... it was basically a low speed, street-running access to the Boston waterfront back when marine...