Central Connecticut Rail Study Hartford-Waterbury (Busway)

#NoJoy: Hartford Courant

The cost is astounding; it seems most of it would be for Terryville, and signalling.

Fair-Use Relevant SNIPS:

DOT: Bristol Passenger Rail Would Be Too Costly

6/17/16

BRISTOL — Re-establishing passenger rail service between Berlin and Waterbury would cost more than $500 million and attract no more than 800 riders a day, state transportation planners reported Thursday.
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Just restoring the privately owned 24-mile rail line to good condition for moderate-speed freight trains will cost more than $100 million, the DOT said.
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The study estimates that it would take $530 million to improve Pan Am's rail line to federal standards for passenger trains to run. Pan Am Railways currently runs only a few trains a week over the line, mostly to serve seven businesses along the tracks.

Trains are limited to 10 mph because of the condition of the rails and trackbed, and at most grade crossings a conductor must climb off the locomotive and walk into the crossing to ensure traffic is stopped.
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In many areas, the rails are worn and uneven, wooden ties are missing and drainage systems have deteriorated. The DOT estimates it would cost $140 million to bring the route up to good enough condition to accommodate 25 mph freight trains, and another $30 million to reach the 40 mph level.

Just rehabilitating the 1911-built Terryville tunnel, which has water seepage and some crumbling concrete, would cost tens of millions of dollars, the DOT said. For a full upgrade of the tunnel, reconstruction of tracks and the trackbed, modern signals and grade crossings, the cost would hit $410 million, the DOT said. To add three new passenger stations and buy two full trains, the price would reach $530 million, it said.
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The biggest blow? They estimate FasTrak would be much cheaper.

You gotta love it when the cost of practically completely rebuilding 24 miles of railway (including bridges, tunnels, grade crossings, etc.) would cost as much as it DID cost to clear and pave 9 miles (I repeat NINE MILES) of a "road for buses". Quite a comedy of errors here..


In all fairness though the state just borrowed another $177M to finish Phase 1 of the Hartford Line and with the latest dire financial picture of CT being what it is now -at roughly $960M in the red- really isn't the time to do it. However, that time may come when the 84 rebuild is on the horizon. Even if they really don't have the money. The state cannot afford to send that much traffic onto either 6, 15, 91, 95, etc. Critical arteries in CT would be gridlocked for years and would ruin the state's economy even more.

I'd add this; 800 passengers daily for a single line doesn't seem bad. And 800 cars off the road helps.

Pardon the belated post , but I think 1,500 pax daily or so would need to be achieved to make it viable enough. The "Old Put" carried around 2,000 per day in 1956/57 on just 7 weekday RTs -before the schedule was cut down- and that line was under threat of abandonment for some time.

What were the initial projected ridership numbers for Ten Mile River and Wassaic prior to the Harlem Line extension in the late '90s?

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/p ... ail--51020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unrelated to CTFastrak, but there's always hope..... just curious, anyone know the ridership numbers?

L.A. Metro receives proposal to fast-track Orange Line conversion to light rail

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) has received an unsolicited proposal from Fluor Enterprises Inc. to accelerate conversion of the Orange Line bus rapid transit (BRT) route to a light-rail line.

The proposal calls for a public-private partnership (P3) to make that happen, Metro officials said in a press release yesterday.

Metro's Office of Extraordinary Innovation is assembling a review team to evaluate the concept. The team will decide whether to advance the proposal to the next phase of review, decline further review or proceed directly to a competitive solicitation, Metro officials said.

"Since we announced our new unsolicited proposal policy to the public one year ago, we have been gratified by the strong response," said Metro Chief Innovation Officer Joshua Schank. "We are seeing innovation at its best in the proposals and we look forward to delivering projects and programs — supported by P3s — to improve the quality of life of our region."
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The Orange Line BRT route opened in 2005 and has surpassed "even the most liberal ridership projections," Metro officials said. In 2012, the route was extended from L.A.'s Canoga Park neighborhood to the Metrolink and Amtrak station in Chatsworth, Calif.