NH2060 wrote:^^How would P&W feel about the ROW being turned over to Amtrak for high speed trains though? Does the line from East Providence to Attleboro have get much freight traffic? Or should I say.. does P&W use it all that much?
If the PVD-Boston Switch-South Attleboro segment truly gets maxed out at some point in the not-to-distant future and a separate Amtrak ROW is needed but building an adequate approach to get to the tunnel itself is easier said than done perhaps Providence could see its own "mini-Big Dig"? 
P&W does a single daily local on the East Providence Secondary and East Junction Secondary. E. Providence Sec. is the one that passes over the NEC at the state line then runs on a street median before ending about a mile north of the old drawbridge. East Junction Sec. is the 'old NEC' alignment that starts in Attleboro and meets the E. Providence Sec. in the same spot just north of India Point and the drawbridge. P&W installed a brand new piece of
connecting track where the branches converge so they could tear out the old junction and all the India Point tracks. So the branches are now functionally one single V-shaped branch coverable without reversing. I don't know how often they take the NEC shortcut back home from Attleboro these days or if the schedule has them going Central Falls-E. Providence-Seekonk-Attleboro and then reversing back the way they came.
There's 1 large customer in Attleboro literally sandwiched between the NEC, E. Junction Branch, and the former MBTA layover yard with 3 sidings full of tank cars connected to the branch side. So they do go literally to as far to the end of the line as they can without physically touching the NEC. Looks like 1 other active customer in Seekonk and couple of not-so-active looking sidings in Seekonk and East Providence, but beyond that most of the old alignment is residential or woodland much like the NEC is in Attleboro. I doubt it would ever be a problem. East Providence Branch is by far the denser half of that run with George Bennett Highway is wall-to-wall sidings. But that branch will never be a candidate for passenger service because of all that street-running trackage.
South Attleboro station is slated in Amtrak's NEC Infrastructure Master Plan for a total teardown/rebuild with platforms relocated onto 2 new track turnouts. It'll become a 4-tracker in the immediate station vicinity, while the rest of that NEC stretch remains a 2-track railroad. Solves for the commuter rail dwell times at least. On-NEC freight was never an issue. CSX's 2 Mansfield-Attleboro dailies stick mostly to the 4-track portion, P&W's Port of Davisville run crams all loads into a single run per day to avoid chewing schedule slots, and the only other freights between Route 128 and New London are one-off customers in Stoughton, Kingston, and Groton that get very intermittent run-as-directeds. Canton-Mansfield, Attleboro Jct.-Boston Switch (except when P&W takes the overhead shortcut home), and Kingston-Groton have zero freight traffic whatsoever.
The bigger problem is simply the overcrowding in Central Falls and Pawtucket between Boston Switch and downtown. You have the P&W main immediately converging, with a couple miles of high/wide-clearance FRIP track needed to reach the main P&W yard. They may keep their on-NEC moves miserly, but that yard is the anchor for all RI freight so they must spend all day puttering around that facility in close proximity to passenger trains. You then have the replacement Pawtucket station in final design for construction in 5 years that'll serve Providence Line trains, Providence-Woonsocket on the P&W, and (in some service iterations) the northern turnback station for in-state Westerly commuter rail. And you have the large new MBTA layover yard opposite the P&W yard, which will get bigger and busier still or need to spread out to additional sites within half-mile or so of there when it becomes home base for all permutations of RIDOT in-state commuter rail. That stretch of track between Boston Switch and downtown is going to get oversatured in years you can count on 2 hands, nevermind in 2040. And much of that congestion is unsolvable.
