Commuter train coming to Manchester, NH

Press release from Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce:

As each of you are well aware, the Greater Manchester Chamber of
Commerce has made the idea of getting commuter rail to our city one of
our top three strategic goals during 2005 and 2006. We have been
working very closely with our economic development partners in Nashua,
the SNHPC, and our Mayor's Office to see that this goal becomes a
reality.

Today, I am happy to say that we are taking a very important step toward
making this goal become a reality in the future. The Chamber will be
joining with several other partners to actually bring a commuter train
into the City of Manchester this Monday!

Guilford Lines [sic] has agreed to bring a commuter train from Lowell, MA, up
through Nashua into Manchester this Monday in order to show that it is
indeed feasible. Bringing the train into our city will bring much
needed public attention to the issue of commuter rail, and will serve as
a wake-up call to our region's political leaders that there are strong
forces coming together to make commuter rail a reality.

Each of you are invited to join us this Monday morning, at 11:45am, to
welcome the train as it rolls into downtown Manchester. All of the
media, and a large number of our political leaders will be present to
witness this, and you will surely not want to miss it! Please join us
on Monday, October 24, at 11:45am, behind WMUR Studios at the
intersection of Depot and Bedford Streets. Parking should be available
in the parking lot of BeeBee Shoes. The event should last no more than
a half hour, so you can get back to your offices and other business.

Chris Williams

J. Christopher Williams
Vice President
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
Where History Invites Opportunity
(603) 666-6600
[email protected]

This surely is justified, I wish you lots and lots of luck.
I bet Guilford will cooperate with this venture too.
Noel Weaver

Glad to hear that, too. But major money will need to be spent, it seems, to make the service time-competitive with the road.

Is the State of New Hampshire's DOT behind this financially in any way? They don't seem to be very pro-rail there.

Aww poops. I have school on Monday . Oh well. If this goes well maybe I can be on one of the first commuter trains bound for New Hampshire in a few years time. You still have to remember that the MBTA barely has any equipment to run its commuter rail system as it is. And contruction is underway for the Greenbush Line and the Worcester/Framingham line may get more trains running daily, the percentage of equipment used during rush hour is probably gonna be stretched to 90% or more. If the Manchester Line gets enough support for the MBTA is run trains up there and no additional equipment will be purchased, you can expect Lowell trains running every 3 hours.

The last time I saw cost estimates for extending Lowell service to Nashua, purchasing another trainset was included in the pricetag. This would allow each train the extra time to go to Nashua. I would imagine that 2 new trainsets would allow for Manchester.

In my state, rail service is entirely dependent on politics - even more so than in Massachusetts, hard as that may be to believe. Forget transportation planning, demographic analyses, or engineering feasibility studies. The problem has been that there is absolutely no support for passenger rail - and very little for freight rail - anywhere in state government. Not the governors, not the Executive Council (with the exception of North-country councillor Ray Burton) and most definitely not the Department of Transportation, for whom the word "rail" may as well be a foreign language. As Hallowe'en approaches, I am being haunted by apparitions of Jimmy Carter driving a Fiat railbus.

PBM

What type of train? MBTA? Guilford business train?

If MBTA/NH/MA/Fed come up with $ to rehab the track from Lowell to Manchester for commuter rail, that's 40 more miles of track upgrades that GRS won't have to pay for. Now if GRS could get the T to run commuter rail service to Greenfield or even N. Adams....

johnpbarlow wrote:Now if GRS could get the T to run commuter rail service to Greenfield or even N. Adams....

LOL!!

And while we're being wild, why not have Amtrak start a service to replace the current Lake Shore Shuttle, and run it right through to Chicago?!!! Numbers 38 & 39 would fit, and we could call it "The Minuteman".

The Nashua Telegraph published a nifty "travel log"-style report on the demonstration train.

Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/9odb8

Here's what irritates the crap out of me:

The NH politicians, both local and state, act like this is some sort of new and exciting adventure that has never before happened in New Hampshire. It's like they're completely oblivious that the Downeaster has been providing high-quality passenger rail service to a very populated part of their state for the past almost four years.

The article is a bit bizarro-world: Fink promoting passenger service?

I think T service to Nashua and Manchester is a good idea but NH et al should proceed with both eyes open when dealing with GRS execs. Obviously the author knows nothing about the Downeaster tribulations.

Wow, Fink was THERE?? Geesh! I wonder what the train average train speed was...

NellsChoo wrote:Wow, Fink was THERE?? Geesh! I wonder what the train average train speed was...

The article said 25mph, which sounds about right -- most of Guilford's tracks that haven't been upgraded with government funds usually max out at 25.

That is true. And Lawrence has a trainmaster?
Since when?

And Fink would like to initiate service to Wilton???!
Well, why not? More free up-grades to his decrepit railroad! He knows a bargain when he sees one!