city planning student with questions about railyards?

Hello all,

I am a graduate student at Virginia Tech University getting my Master’s degree in City Planning. I am currently doing research for a paper that has to do with Railyards.

I want to look at Railyard closures and their impact on the urban landscape. So I want to find out about any railyards that are close to cities and that have closed or that have plans for closure in the future. I would also like to know about any type of development that has occurred on former railyards around the nation.

I know what the major RR companies are and I plan to call them and ask for this info, but if anyone knows of any webpage that has this info listed I would appreciate the URL because it would save me a lot of time.

The idea behind the paper is that such a large amount of open land that railyards are composed of does not open up frequently in urban areas, especially large cities like NY and D.C. So when such a large swath of land does open up the potential for impact upon the urban locale is great. Whether it’s a stadium, housing, a mall, or whatever, the developments that are going up on these closed railyards are significant and I would like to better understand the planning process that surrounds their development.

Any info would be of great help.

Thanks,
Aurash

Two big California Yards that come to my mind are Southern Pacific 's Taylor Yard in LA and Bayshore in South San Francisco. Both yards were abandoned in the 1990's or late 80's.

You may get more answers in the general operations forum .

Hey -

In Atlanta in the old L&N Freight yard located within spitting distance of downtown was converted to the Georgia Dome, Georgia World Congress Center, CNN Center, and Omni (now Philips arena). This redevelopment happened in the 1970s - they added a station to the heavy rail system they were constructing at that time, which is why the Philips arena station is so close to Five Points and Vine City. There is also the old Bellwood Yard located just NW of downtown which has not been redeveloped, though the old steel mill nearby (136 acres) is now home to a Live/work/play thingy - www.atlanticstation.com

Also in Atlanta there is speculation and various plans around for what would happen if CSX closed Hulsey Yard just east of Downtown (just east of MLK MARTA station), though CSX says it doesn't have any plans right now to close the yard. Just search around at Georgia Tech's or Georgia State's City Planning website for student projects or try this site: http://www.beltlinepartnership.org/ (which to keep semi-on topic contains part of the section GDOT wants to use for the High Speed Trains that one day in the very distant future could connect Atlanta and Charlotte).

In Boston, there are always plans for the Alston/Brighton Yard of CSX just west of Backbay and south of Harvard, though I'm not sure if anything will ever come to pass.

Potomac Yards on the old RF&P in the Wahington DC area- much of Crystal City and other up-scale buildings occupy much of this former yard, though some land remains vacant still.

aurash wrote:Hello all,

I am a graduate student at Virginia Tech University getting my Master’s degree in City Planning. I am currently doing research for a paper that has to do with Railyards.

I want to look at Railyard closures and their impact on the urban landscape. So I want to find out about any railyards that are close to cities and that have closed or that have plans for closure in the future. I would also like to know about any type of development that has occurred on former railyards around the nation.

I know what the major RR companies are and I plan to call them and ask for this info, but if anyone knows of any webpage that has this info listed I would appreciate the URL because it would save me a lot of time.

The idea behind the paper is that such a large amount of open land that railyards are composed of does not open up frequently in urban areas, especially large cities like NY and D.C. So when such a large swath of land does open up the potential for impact upon the urban locale is great. Whether it’s a stadium, housing, a mall, or whatever, the developments that are going up on these closed railyards are significant and I would like to better understand the planning process that surrounds their development.

Any info would be of great help.

Thanks,
Aurash

Nothing to do with High Speed Rail

Come down to Miami.
There is a massive project underway, within 5 miles of downtown Miami. The property was an abandoned rail yard. Under construction are hundreds of high-rise luxury condos, as well as big-box retail. I just drove by there last week; it is truly a massive undertaking. In fact, the city is looking to establish a streetcar line to connect this area with downtown.
Google "Midtown Miami" and you'll find more specifics.

Interesting topic nonetheless. I definitely know about Potomac Yards. Not too far away for a VTech Grad student. Most of it only now is being developed, the master plans coming together.

To make this HSR related,

If/when this country finally realizes that HSR is wonderful and useful and should be constructed, will there still be access to the hearts of our big cities (outside of the NEC of course) for a non-shared HSR network?

In response to the last post - I would have to say a qualified yes. Yes, as long as the HST are able to utilize and share regular tracks like the TGV and Thalys. The tracks are still present and in good condition in most of our major cities outside the NE Corridor such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, etc. - the exception is that they are primarily used for freight, though often at quite a high density. Like the TGV, it is entirely possible to construct (and probably even more feasible given our lower density) dedicated high-speed mainlines outside of populated areas that can significantly reduce travel times, while maintaining access to the central cities via existing and operationally sufficient rail lines.

Even Columbus Ohio, a city with no current passenger rail service, has a multi-track, decent rail line running through the central city. It runs under the current Convention Center and is the former NY Central Mainline. The entire point of HST trains is non-shared outside of urban areas and shared tracks within urban areas because that way you don't have to replicated or construct dedicated track within urban areas. No (well, almost no - Antwerp is one exception) HST have dedicated track within a built-up, urban area.

gt7348b wrote:In response to the last post - I would have to say a qualified yes. Yes, as long as the HST are able to utilize and share regular tracks like the TGV and Thalys. The tracks are still present and in good condition in most of our major cities outside the NE Corridor such as Charlotte, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, etc. - the exception is that they are primarily used for freight, though often at quite a high density. Like the TGV, it is entirely possible to construct (and probably even more feasible given our lower density) dedicated high-speed mainlines outside of populated areas that can significantly reduce travel times, while maintaining access to the central cities via existing and operationally sufficient rail lines.

Even Columbus Ohio, a city with no current passenger rail service, has a multi-track, decent rail line running through the central city. It runs under the current Convention Center and is the former NY Central Mainline. The entire point of HST trains is non-shared outside of urban areas and shared tracks within urban areas because that way you don't have to replicated or construct dedicated track within urban areas. No (well, almost no - Antwerp is one exception) HST have dedicated track within a built-up, urban area.

I have been watching the Antwerp station being built over the last few years but haven't been there for a couple of years. Is it finished? The High Speed line to Netherlands must be nearly finished.

My impression is that in the US there are huge areas of low density suburbs that make it difficult to find new rights of way for high speed lines, even outside the cities. That may make it more expensive if they have to buy and demolish properties, or tunnel under them. (Of course as the price of oil products rises these suburbs will become less desirable and perhaps the value of the properties will decline.)

Lille built a new station alongside the previous terminal station, and that needed some tunneling. Both Antwerp and Lille have needed new stations because their original main stations were terminals where trains would need to reverse if going onwards.

The Antwerp Station is almost complete. The plaza on the front of the station facting the Astrid Hotel is still one big construction site, but the basic tunnels are in place and they are installing the track and electrical systems. I know the HSL-Zuid (the livery and operator between Amsterdam and Brussels that is a joint-venture of the Dutch National Railway and KLM) is scheduled to start service in April, 2007, but I read (Le Soir I think) that through service is supposed to start through Centraal on Jan 1.

I'm going up there probably on Tuesday so I'll post anything new I find out.

Do you really attend Virginia Tech? If so, then you should know that the name of the school is not Virginia Tech University!

Just giving you a hard time...but I hate when the media calls it that!