PanAm Railways announces new direct intermodal service between Port Saint John and the Boston marketplace. http://ow.ly/5AgF30f6lS4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Pan Am / DP World Intermodal Announcement
- Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Moderator: MEC407
Good news. Hope it works out. D1 needs some work to speed things up, though, correct?
Rockingham Racer wrote:Good news. Hope it works out. D1 needs some work to speed things up, though, correct?Well, Waterville-Rigby is pretty much 25. Will be by the time snow flies. Irving running a tie job from 185 eastward.
Waterville-Keag is 10, all the way, but Transit times from SJ-Rigby are 12-24 hours better than running down CM&Q to NMJ. So, its not all about track speed, its about velocity. If they can keep the service reliable, make the interchange in a timely fashion and keep the train moving. Now, thats not to say some trackwork couldn't stand some work, its all 10...But the service can work, in theory anyway.
Hopefully they run it as a dedicated train.Not tack it on the freights...
Peter B&MMEC
pnolette wrote:Hopefully they run it as a dedicated train.Not tack it on the freights...Plenty of room on WAMA/MAWA, and those trains actually do a pretty good job holding their schedule. I'm wondering if this will be the catalyst that brings WAAY/AYWA back. Lump the IM from SJ onto the water and haul it all...Should work pretty well.
KSmitty wrote: Plenty of room on WAMA/MAWA, and those trains actually do a pretty good job holding their schedule. I'm wondering if this will be the catalyst that brings WAAY/AYWA back. Lump the IM from SJ onto the water and haul it all...Should work pretty well.If IM volumes from St. John are reasonable, I think that segregating IM traffic bound for D1 and points beyond would be vital.
the addition of PS intermodal has definitely played a role in making POWA / WAPO more reliable, but westbound IM traffic can easily lose a lot of precious time in the Rigby choke point
Perhaps the time is " ripe " for Pan Am to apply for T.I.G.E.R ( Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery ) Funding for the Keag to Waterville section. Apparently, they did not apply for one last year .... as Maine Northern RR, EMRY and CMQ I believe, have each taken advantage of the TIGER program in recent years.
The deadline to submit an application for the FY 2017 TIGER grant program is Monday, October 16.
Since the TIGER grant program was first created, $5.1 billion has been awarded for capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure over eight rounds of competitive grants. Throughout the TIGER program, these grants have supported projects that have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region. TIGER grants have historically achieved, on average, co-investment of 3.6 dollars (including other Federal, State, local, private and philanthropic funds) for every TIGER dollar invested.
The deadline to submit an application for the FY 2017 TIGER grant program is Monday, October 16.
Since the TIGER grant program was first created, $5.1 billion has been awarded for capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure over eight rounds of competitive grants. Throughout the TIGER program, these grants have supported projects that have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region. TIGER grants have historically achieved, on average, co-investment of 3.6 dollars (including other Federal, State, local, private and philanthropic funds) for every TIGER dollar invested.
Co-investment is the key word there. They aren't going to accept any grant that required they pony up with any matching funds. They want someone else to foot the entire bill, just like NS, MassDOT, NNEPRA, etc and so on. By the same token they won't agree to any performance stipulations.
I have a hard time believing this will amount to anything other than a sprinkling of carloads at 10 MPH, reliable or not.
I have a hard time believing this will amount to anything other than a sprinkling of carloads at 10 MPH, reliable or not.
Last edited by newpylong on Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Highball wrote:Perhaps the time is " ripe " for Pan Am to apply for T.I.G.E.R ( Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery ) Funding for the Keag to Waterville section. Apparently, they did not apply for one last year .... as Maine Northern RR, EMRY and CMQ I believe, have each taken advantage of the TIGER program in recent years.
The deadline to submit an application for the FY 2017 TIGER grant program is Monday, October 16.
They were originally part of a $20 million TIGER public-private partnership back in 2015 with NBSR, MNR and CMQ . The original plan was to bring Waterville - NMJ up to 25. PAR backed out of the project in 2016 due to the requirement to keep the track up to the 25 mph standard for a certain number of years.
It probably wasn't the wisest decision on the part of Billerica, but at the time they couldn't see future carload volumes justifying continued line rehabilitation and upkeep.
Realistically, there would need to be a significant volume of IM traffic to justify continued major trackwork, and I suspect that this will probably only be a few dozen carloads per week, at least to start.
Trump's Proposed FY18 Budget ends TIGER grants.
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With the potential of Poland Springs operating in the Lincoln Me. area, which surfaced a few months ago, it was stated at the time, rail could be a vital entity to make that happen. Today's Pan Am / DP World announcement, the Lincoln traffic potential from PS, plus the increasing NBSR interchange traffic at Keag, could now have the needed " multiplying ' effect for the basis of getting the Keag / Waterville section enhanced.
Between Poland Spring and now this Saint John news, has there ever been such great interest in short- and medium-distance intermodal using rail? Not just New England, but nationally. I used to think of it as just long-haul business, but that seems to be changing right here in New England.
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Guess it remains to be seen how often this service operates either as a dedicated train or as spine cars tacked onto existing trains. Shades of the Guilford "East Wind" that ran Bangor - Springfield in the '90s for a short while...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEC-MAINE-CENTR ... 2821094902" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEC-MAINE-CENTR ... 2821094902" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I wonder how much traffic we will really see. It said service starts right away but I doubt we will see anything but a load/container here or there for a while. We shouldn't be seeing enough to create a WAAY/AYWA again right away. I'm guessing not even by the end of this year.
You will likely see WAAY start up again toward the end of fall, when the water needs to be kept moving to prevent it from freezing. Right now temps are still warm enough that it doesn't matter if the water sits for a bit.
