JeffersonLeeEng wrote:http://www.delawareonline.com/story/new ... /98325318/
If plans come together smoothly and financing is ironed out, the earliest possible date for a commuter train extension south of Newark would be 2020, one year after a renovation to the Newark train station is complete.
I pulled some supporting docs through what Wikipedia had pointed to, and the effort is "True third track and new platforms." I look at my local stations (Odenton, BWI) plus Baltimore Penn Station, and my initial thoughts say "Yeah, you need four tracks and three platforms."
Then the questions of "How many trains stop at Newark, DE and when, if we're going to turn trains there?" and "Wait, what's there now?" pop up.
Here's the station off of WikiMapia. It's already four tracked, but no center platform... and why is it low platform?
Amtrak's Northwest Regional's stops there only at most three times a day in any one direction, and at weird times. SEPTA is at most ten times a day on weekdays in any one direction, mainly during rush hours, with additional connecting bus service by Delaware's DART bus to Wilmington; on weekends, it's seven times a day in any one direction with two hour headways. Looking over the schedules, and it's looking like SEPTA's got some deadheading and some idle time in there, but there's enough slack that they could turn MARC trains at Newark right now... except that we'd need some station and track work.
Trace the line to the west in Wikimapia. Between the IRON interlocking and PRINCE interlocking, you got areas that are two and three track wide. IRON shrinks the line to three tracks, BACON shrinks it down to two, and PRINCE expands it back out to four. Go further into Baltimore, and you got even more issues of two tracking. Without expanding out those two-track sections, you're going to have a tough time finagling the schedule to make it work. Add the fact that Martins State Airport MARC stop and Perryville MARC stop are only one platform (not two on the sides).
That's just to Newark. Wilmington itself will need to be four tracked or even five-tracked for MARC to turn there under current conditions. There's just too much of a load from SEPTA and Amtrak combined to allow it to happen.
"Build/Fix" is looking more of an option in order to give Amtrak some breathing room to make it work.