SLE Central Corridor New London-Norwich and Extension to Westerly, RI

[boatsmate]

Which Bridge are we reffering to?? Old Saybrook Draw?? Is it because of its age?? are they looking to replace it anytime soon??...

[Jeff Smith]

It's the bridge to the West of New London; not sure what it's called. In any case, USCG limits the number of trains/times that it's closed.

[The EGE]

There are three bridges between Old Saybrook and New London. Just to the east of Old Saybrook is the Connecticut River bridge, due to be replaced by a high-level span. There is the Niantic River bridge which was just replaced with the slightly higher span. Then, just south/west of New London there is the Shaws Cove bridge which serves a single small marina with only a few fishing charters. It's a lot less politicized than the other two bridges.

[Jeff Smith]

All aboard for the Central Corridor line

Very nice. I'll be duplicating this post in Amtrak PV thread.

Fifty business and college representatives and politicians boarded five historic passenger rail cars Thursday morning at Union Station in New London for a ride along the New England Central freight rail tracks, north to Norwich, Willimantic and points in Massachusetts and Vermont.


The Central Corridor Line Rail Coalition, the sponsoring organization, hoped passengers would note the economic and tourism potential of the proposed $150 million Central Corridor Rail Project, a plan to upgrade the existing New England Central Railroad tracks from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., to handle heavier freight traffic and add passenger rail cars.


The luxury of train travel of a different era hit passengers as soon as they stepped into the Congressional Car or the Pennsylvania Railroad president's own private car Thursday. Bennet Levin, owner of the President's Car, told his guests that this very car carried the body of Robert Kennedy home after he was assassinated in 1968.


The Congressional Car at the opposite end of the train served congressmen and senators on trips from Washington, D.C., to Boston, owners Bryan and Deborah Belliveau of Newington said. On Thursday, dining tables bore white tablecloths and vases of flowers, and silver trays beneath the windows held bowls of candy.

[Noel Weaver]

All aboard for the Central Corridor line

Very nice. I'll be duplicating this post in Amtrak PV thread.

Fifty business and college representatives and politicians boarded five historic passenger rail cars Thursday morning at Union Station in New London for a ride along the New England Central freight rail tracks, north to Norwich, Willimantic and points in Massachusetts and Vermont.


The Central Corridor Line Rail Coalition, the sponsoring organization, hoped passengers would note the economic and tourism potential of the proposed $150 million Central Corridor Rail Project, a plan to upgrade the existing New England Central Railroad tracks from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., to handle heavier freight traffic and add passenger rail cars.


The luxury of train travel of a different era hit passengers as soon as they stepped into the Congressional Car or the Pennsylvania Railroad president's own private car Thursday. Bennet Levin, owner of the President's Car, told his guests that this very car carried the body of Robert Kennedy home after he was assassinated in 1968.


The Congressional Car at the opposite end of the train served congressmen and senators on trips from Washington, D.C., to Boston, owners Bryan and Deborah Belliveau of Newington said. On Thursday, dining tables bore white tablecloths and vases of flowers, and silver trays beneath the windows held bowls of candy.

Nice article and I hope they enjoyed their ride BUT I do not think this is a practical rail route for regular daily passenger train service. There are some in New England that could succeed but I doubt if this is one of them. This line is basically a slow route with a lot of restrictive curves, no signals, a lot of road crossings and other obstacles and although they might be able to overcome some of them, the cost would not justify the work.
Noel Weaver

[The EGE]

NECR is planning to rebuild the line from the Vermont border to New London for 286k freight anyway (similar to the upgrades to the Vermonter trackage in Vermont). I don't have the technical knowledge to say about signals, but I suspect there will be crossing work done. Central Corridor would just be a cheap passenger service piggybacked on the freight upgrades.

[johnpbarlow]

Perhaps the NECR's thought here is that fed govt has shown a willingness to spend tax payer $ for High Speed Rail (eg, raising Vermonter max speed from 59mph to 79mph is some locations!), so why not ask for more $ for passenger rail and get the freight improvements you need (eg, 286K) paid by someone else. Guilford/PanAm has done this for years with MBTA/NNEPRA $.

[FLRailFan1]

How is that proposed rail doing? It seems it would be nice.

[AlphaOneSix]

I can't see any real use for it other than getting college kids to parties at UConn and other colleges, or the casinos for the weekend.

[NH2060]

Not going anywhere anytime soon from what I can tell. The one thing it has going for it is that NECR *supposedly* is receptive to passenger trains on their line.

[TomNelligan]

There is nowhere near enough on-line population along that route to justify the capital cost and operating subsidy that would be required. Amherst lost service but Northampton picked it up, and the two cities adjoin, so that area still has trains. Carless casino patrons already have SEAT bus service from New London station, plus the dozens of charter bus routes that already exist. And how many UConn kids are headed to points along the former Central Vermont line rather than places like Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield County that are more practically reached by bus service connecting with trains at Hartford? Politicians propose a lot, but paying for it is something else.

[ebtmikado]

What I see to be the problem in many of these cases is that a small, simple proposal like this one, where the concept is to operate self-propelled DMUs on a branchline, connecting at both ends with longer distance service, is that as soon as interest in the concept is considered, it becomes over-enginered into something which is too expensive, and too over-built. If it could be kept as just that: a branchline, with speeds of maybe 50-60 MPH, connecting with trains on the north-south trunk at Brattleboro, east-west at Palmer, and the NEC Shore Line at New London, it could possibly become viable.

Lee Carlson

[Jeff Smith]

A bit dated, but "in the news": The Day 02.10.2015

Brief, fair-use quote of relevant portion:

Local legislators’ bills aimed at improving region’s transportation infrastructure

...

...Bumgardner, who serves on the Transportation Committee, has proposed a bill that would require a study of the feasibility of extending passenger rail service from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., as well as from New London through Stonington to the T.F. Green Airport in Providence.

...

[Jeff Smith]

And: Norwich Bulletin 2015.05.28

The portion relevant to passenger service:

The corridor runs from New London to Brattleboro, Vt., and hits Mohegan, Norwich, Willimantic and other local communities along the way.
The federal money combines with a $2 million pledge from Darien-based Genesee & Wyoming, which maintains the line, to strengthen miles of jointed rail that does not meet the 286,000-pound national standard to accommodate modern freight capacity and passenger train cars.

[Jeff Smith]

I was confusing two recent items, the Central Ct study (Waterbury - Hartford) with this study recently, so in the course of a google search decided to add a few things. Here's an interesting YouTube:

NECR Central Corridor Express, New London, CT To Brattleboro VT. Part I

I assume there's a part II

And a wap of Mikepedia Commons (purposely transposed spelling started by accident).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_C ... _Rail_Line" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;