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

 #1473949  by YamaOfParadise
 
I agree, it doesn't look bad at all, it's just a shake from the classic/nostalgic NH livery that they've used on SLE.

Also, it looks like there are benches on those platforms, if you were just asking if they existed or not, they just blend in really well with the railings in back at night.
 #1473981  by lordsigma12345
 
The CTrail ticket machines have been uncovered at the new Springfield intermodal center and turned on. Additionally it looks like the Amtrak station will be moving into the new center pretty soon - this week they have installed new glass window panels for their new ticket office and have begun putting the counter unit back together. The city built the new Amtrak area open with no glass barrier for the staff and Amtrak decided to make some modifications including adding the glass. For a while they seemed to be in no hurry - I believe with the new elevated platform not done yet they wanted to wait as long as they could, but suddenly they have picked up the pace on the work - it may be that they need to move before the Hartford Line starts as I heard they are going to be using the current ticketing/waiting area as a crew rest/lounge space for the CTrail crews - there is already an Amtrak crew base that uses the far side of the old station building nearest the elevator and two modular trailers located next to the building. Amtrak's new space is quite nice and includes an open air main greeting/customer service counter that will be the main ticket office, an enclosed service counter that is equipped for checked baggage, and a back support space that includes a staff break room, agent office, station manager office, police office, restooms, and server room. They are sharing the space with MASSDOT who will have an office in there as well. The open air ticket area will have a gate that will drop when they are closed - but as I said before Amtrak did add glass window panels above the counter to add a little security. Passengers will wait in the new waiting area in the historic main concourse of the station with new amenities including wifi, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, car rental, and convenience store as well as connections to intercity and local bus service. The center has been open for bus passengers now for almost a year and a tunnel connects it to the old current Amtrak station.

I will take and post some photos once the rail station moves in/
 #1474126  by lordsigma12345
 
Indeed they probably would have been better off leaving them powered off until they were ready to finish programming/setting up/whatever. That does look like a half-arsed installation.
Last edited by GirlOnTheTrain on Fri May 25, 2018 11:25 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: do not quote posts immediately before yours.
 #1474353  by Arlington
 
lordsigma12345 wrote:I believe electrification was actually considered at the VERY beginning of the planning phases of NHHS but the idea was eventually abandoned due to cost.
Once traffic and frequency build, it wll be easier to make the case to electrify.
 #1474396  by Traingeek3629
 
Electrifying the NHHS corridor would be a COMPLETE waste of time and money. EMUs would be totally useless with most of the stops 10+ minutes apart, (Windsor-Windsor Locks and Wallingford-Meriden are exceptions) not to mention if the M8s were used, the service would be a lot slower because the M8s maximum speed is 80 mph in service, rather than the 110 mph that the current equipment supposedly reaches. If daily ridership on that corridor gets above 3,000, maybe my stance would change. For FY2017, daily ridership on the Shuttles was a dismal 671. I'll be fair and add another 200 for the regionals. Still under 1,000. There is just not enough money coming from that line to make electrification feasible.
 #1474412  by njtmnrrbuff
 
It's better to keep the SPG Line a diesel operation. Yes, the Genesis units have poor acceleration but look at the bright side-the stations are not super close to each other-not like where I live in Montclair, NJ. Of course, the ridership on the 470 series trains was dismal because of the trackwork.
 #1474428  by lordsigma12345
 
The ridership dropped substantially due to the track work and because a big chunk of weekday trains were substituted by buses for over two years. There have also been some weekends where all service on the line has been bus substituted. They have not really done a good job of advertising now that the buses are over with - I have heard several people still say that they run all buses between Springfield and New Haven not knowing that has ended. Amtrak also makes this worse because on their mobile app all the Shuttles show up as thruway bus connections even though they are trains - they really should correct that - that inaccuracy isn't going to help ridership.
 #1474469  by Kilo Echo
 
The Amtrak app on my Android phone still listed shuttle service between NHV and SPG as bustitutions yesterday. While the so-called full site on my phone was slightly more accurate, it did not reveal the $24 fare (offering seats at $47 only).
 #1474471  by blockline4180
 
Will be interesting seeing the new "X marks the spot" distasteful CTDOT scheme slapped onto the rebuilt P40's.. At least I'm assuming they will eventually get it?
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