Noel Weaver wrote:I think the best way to do genuine high speed rail between New York and Boston is to by-pass Connecticut altogether. it can be done although the cost would be huge. Utilize the Long Island Rail Road ROW mainline from New York to Greenport or rather Orient Point. Tunnel under Long Island Sound to about Westerly, R.I. area and from there to Boston you already have a decent railroad with no drawbridges and probably a lot less NIMBY problems as well. Keep the present route to serve Connecticut but run all premium services over a new route. The cost would be extreme but probably no more than a new ROW through Westchester and Connecticut and you get rid of the major capacity problems between New York and New Haven as well as the drawbridges all along that route. If this was Switzerland it would have been done by now but this is not Switzerland. You would need two brand new tracks to be used only for the new trains between New York and Boston. Existing tunnels under the East River and maybe existing ROW through Queens but new elevated ROW or maybe a combination of elevated and tunnel sections through western Long Island. East of Ronkonkoma there probably would not be any ROW problems except for grade crossings. No intermediate stops for the most part although maybe one stop somewhere around Riverhead to serve Long Island. Talk about putting people to work, this would definitely do it. Outlandish, maybe, but I don't see much hope for getting through the State of Connecticut where NIMBYs and boaters rule over common sense and the good for all. New York - Boston in two and a half hours could probably be done going this way provided you don't have major speed restrictions through any areas. As I said the cost would be in the billions plus but it will probably not be any cheaper through Westchester and Connecticut. Oh well, I can dream can't I.
Noel Weaver
NW:
I wanted to reply sooner to your suggestion about an NEC routing via Long Island but I could not find your post originally thinking that this was placed in the Future NEC section.
A route via Long Island would more then likely generate significant NIMBY opposition that would be similar to or even stronger then a Connecticut shoreline routing would be. The needed tunnel under Long Island Sound would be prohibitively expensive in its own right.
It is hard enough for proponents of the 10 mile Floral Park-Hicksville Third Track Project let alone the thought of adding two more tracks for the NEC across Nassau County (sticky in LIRR Forum).
To serve Long Island adequately the NEC route would need TWO new stations: one in the vicinity of the Nassau-Suffolk County Line to serve the area around Republic/NYS Route 110 which now is the central part of a major office and other employment corridor along with the one mentioned in or around Riverhead 40 miles or so east which would serve the East End and its resorts primarily.
There will again be more construction needed to turn the Ronkonkoma-Greenport route from what is a single track line with limited service to a HSR route with an extension to Orient Point to access a proposed LI Sound tunnel to eastern CT or SW RI. A third station could be added in Ronkonkoma especially if the Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) terminal is relocated to the LIRR station area.
A Inland Route via Hartford and Providence would make far more sense then any Long Island route could be not withstanding what the cost and any NIMBY opposition would be.
It remains to be seen how Amtrak fares during the Trump years let alone getting this expensive new NEC project built knowing that there are other major priorities such as new Hudson River tunnels to NYP being one of the best examples that need to be addressed...
MACTRAXX
EXPRESS TRAIN TO NEW YORK PENN STATION-NO JAMAICA ON THIS TRAIN-PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING TRAIN DOORS
