RRspatch wrote:The problem here isn't the two track B&P tunnel, but the railroad layout south of Baltimore all the way to Washington. Between Washington and Baltimore the railroad layout is -
Washington (CP Avenue) to New Carrollton - 2 tracks (2 & 3)
New Carrollton to Winans - 3 tracks (1, 2 & 3)
Winans to Bridge - 4 tracks (A, 1, 2 &3)
Bridge to Baltimore station - 2 tracks. (2 &3)
North of New Carrollton ("Carroll") MARC uses Track 1 while Amtrak uses track 2. This is fine as it keeps the slower MARC trains out of Amtrak's way. The problem is in the southbound direction where Amtrak and MARC both share Track 3. Back in my corridor dispatching daze it was not that uncommon to hold a southbound MARC local at Baltimore for a late running Metroliner. Until the railroad is four tracked between Winans and Carroll with slower MARC trains on the outside tracks you're going to get delays like the one you mentioned above. I'm not sure how HOT the ACELA's are these days, but back in the 90's delaying a Metroliner with something as lowly as a MARC or SEPTIC local was unheard of.
Um... not quite for third reasons. First, Amtrak stops at BWI Airport, which is between GROVE and WINANS. That's quite a stretch where Amtrak northbound and MARC northbound are sharing track... and it constantly screws things up enough that if anything breaks down on track 1, MARC has to service Halethorpe and West Baltimore from across track 3. Why?
WINANS isn't a full line interlock -- it only splits track A from track 1!
Second, Amtrak uses track 2 in both directions. Nice if you can manage the skip. But two ways on the same track? That slows things down. It'll be better if they four-track it all the way down to AVENUE from WINANS (and expand that interlock, oh, and fix BRIDGE as well) so that Amtrak can dedicate one track for one direction all the time.
They're working on doing GROVE to WINANS, by the way...
Third,
you can't ignore the B&P Tunnel! Let us review: That is a two-track, 30MPH bottleneck, and is primary issue that Amtrak and MTA have identified as being the killer of NEC service from Washington to New York.
It's been studied to death. The solution is there. Do you want a 50MPH bump in the speed limit *and* four-track service into Penn Station that dedicates a pair of tunnels to MARC and another to Amtrak, which speeds things up even more?
Let me tell you one thing: I'm sick and tired of having MARC Train 406 having to hold south of BRIDGE because of a late-running Amtrak train. I can't wait until it's built.
