Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the operations of MTA MetroNorth Railroad including west of Hudson operations and discussion of CtDOT sponsored rail operations such as Shore Line East and the Springfield to New Haven Hartford Line

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, nomis, FL9AC, Jeff Smith

 #1476136  by GirlOnTheTrain
 
Mod note: There is already an established thread about service to Greenfield in the Amtrak forum. Your thread has been deleted.
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=156555
 #1476138  by lordsigma12345
 
Backshophoss wrote:There might be some "minor" issues that need to be done before the Amtrak ticket office can move to the new digs,give it time,
the move will happen.
I’m sure. Have you heard anything specifically? It seemed they were getting close to being done recently. I know one reason they were waiting before was the new platform C not being done but now that CTrail is starting I think it would have been good to move for that.

But if they aren’t ready they aren’t ready. My bigger point is they should leave the new digital signs off and direct CTrail people up there until Amtrak is ready so you have one waiting area for trains. Splitting it and having separate waiting for ctrail and Amtrak I think is just going to make things more confusing for people especially because of the fact that you may be riding one operator or the other depending on the time of your commute. I think the less confusing the better for a new service. Also I believe at Springfield Amtrak is handling passenger boarding assistance for CTrail so passengers with those needs need to go to the Amtrak window. And that’s important there due to the low level platform.
 #1476217  by Backshophoss
 
One of the issues could be"Punch list" items in the space need to be finished.
An other could be the lease(rent) cost, as MassDOT is the landlord.
Could be waiting for the local phone Company/Comcast to get the DSL/Data links up and running.
 #1476254  by lordsigma12345
 
Backshophoss wrote:One of the issues could be"Punch list" items in the space need to be finished.
An other could be the lease(rent) cost, as MassDOT is the landlord.
Could be waiting for the local phone Company/Comcast to get the DSL/Data links up and running.
Hopefully with the first one appearing to be moving along more rapidly in recent weeks (seems they finally installed the glass and partitions) the second one may be close to being resolved. That one obviously would be the big hangup. Hopefully they'll have it all worked out in time for the completion of the new platform in the fall. You'd think they'd have worked this out long ago. However I have heard lease cost in the building is a problem in general - I'm sure its related to what SRA is charging MassDOT.

As I said before I think it would just make sense to make it more straight forward and simple for passengers until these issues are resolved. Keep the new LCD screens off until everything is worked out with Amtrak and they move (as much as Im sure the city wants the signs to be used) and just put signs out near the new CTrail ticket machines directing people to the old Amtrak waiting room and have the Amtrak agents do the boarding announcements as they do now for their own trains. Amtrak trains provide more than half the service at Springfield that is usable through CTrail tickets, so only having a subset of the trains on the new LCDs and announced over the PA just makes it more confusing.
Last edited by lordsigma12345 on Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
 #1476257  by Traingeek3629
 
I wonder when someone will tell CDOT that using the new Hartford Line service, my world did not get any bigger, and my trip actually just got slower compared to the average time it takes to get up 91 on weekday rush hours (1 hour 23 minutes) and the timing of the current Amtraks. (81 minutes) The CTrail trains will take 94 minutes, and the only amenity onboard I can even think of is bathrooms. Oh, wait...
 #1476354  by NH2060
 
Some vids from today via the YouTube:

(Looks like one of the MBB coaches could use some paint on the roof :P )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meDHJQSV4LE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpFHuEq1QU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sU5ya5KRkQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSHl55nT9hU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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