COMPASS RAIL: Pittsfield / Springfield / Boston East-West Passenger Rail

This project just received a $50 million boost!

https://www.masslive.com/springfield/20 ... -bill.html

The Massachusetts Senate approved nearly $17 billion in borrowing to fund the state’s transportation system, including nearly $50 million in spending earmarked for the east-west rail project.

The sweeping legislative package — a modified version of Gov. Charlie Baker’s bond bill proposed last year — would authorize billions of dollars in transportation investments over the course of years to fund road and bridge repair programs, MBTA improvements and regional transit authority electrification, among many other things. The $50 million for east-west rail will be set aside as a down payment on preparatory work as a state-sponsored feasibility study nears completion.

Great news. Can't wait to see this route realized to its full potential!

$50M - very vague on what this pays for.

Lawyers, consultants, and politicians (or their friends/family), mostly

BandA wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 2:15 am $50M - very vague on what this pays for.

The Senate version of the Transportation Investment bill details what the $50 million may be used for.

Trains In The Valley has the wording posted on this page of their website:
https://trainsinthevalley.org/current-l ... achusetts/

Cool. East West is better bang for the buck than Southcoast I think.

They need to line up matching Fed grants before they start spending! And pick which option they want.

In the past work caused me spend many a winter weekend in either Boston or Hartford. Hated to have to go to New Haven to get to Boston and only 3 trains. Always slept thru many trips.
Yes Springfield needs at least every other hour service.
1. Maybe a set up like Virginia has with CSX can be implemented / I would suggest 2 Main tracks Palmer - Springfield to start as that portion is fairly straight and will satisfy CSX the most and can be made 90 - 110 MPH fairly easy.
2. The 36 track miles between Wocester and Palmer should get another 3+ mile siding somewhere at a strategic location.
3. Next MA should purchase a new ROW to build a separate 2 MT bypass of of part of the extremely curved section not part of item # 2 . That portion should be built to 125 MPH operation.
4. then build another 10 mile section just like #3.
5. Then close the distances from Wocester - Palmer with a somewhat shorter straight section giveing approximately 25 - 28 mile HrSR line . That would connect to the SPG - New Haven line giving approximately same times BOS - NHV.
That would give an important detour for Amtrak for those time the shore line is closed for any reason.

I'm glad the state's going to work on this. 3x a day from Chicago to Champaign and 0x a day from Boston to Springfield or Worcester to NYC? True, there are a lot of buses running down the pike and the company always objects to state-funded competition (can{t say I blame them), but fast frequent trains stopping BOS BBY Framingham Worcester Palmer Spg would could become a busy spine funneling passengers to Peter Pan branches to (1) the Connecticut River Valley especially the side of the river without the trains (2) Stockbridge, Gt. Barrington, Pittsfield, N. Adams (with even a request stop in Hancock (3) Blackstone Valley plus Webster (Now departing on track 7: 9:15 train to Springfield and intermediates, with connecting bus service to N, S, E, and Westhampton, Greenfield Deerfield and the other fields, and Lake Chargogagogmanchaugagogchaubunagungamaug. All aboard please!)

Conceivably, some of those trains could go up to Greenfield, since this is part of the future plan to run that way to Montreal anyway.

I think one great way to run it would be to run half of the roundtrips as extensions of the 400 series NHV - SPG trains and then run the other half as ALB-BOS trains. As far as Greenfield the existing Valley Flyer service is probably sufficient for connecting to this new service. I don't think the CT river line can accept any additional passenger trains without PTC. Amtrak could end up running this service, or MassDOT could go with a private operator like Keolis (MBTA operator) or TASI (CTrail operator.) I'd personally rather see Amtrak due to the connection possibilities at SPG and possibly ALB if they can go that far.

what is the likely cost difference between hiring Amtrak, Keolis, Tasi, Cape Cod Railroad (or Iowa Pacific )

Or Vrigin???

Just guessing that if the project does happen that MassDOT/MBTA branding will prevail, just the way that the tie bundles in Deerfield were tagged with Ts during the Knowledge Corridor rebuild. Whether MassDOT will use the possibility of another vendor to cat's-paw Keolis or whatever other entity might then have the CR contract into "responsible" bidding is a possibility.
Central and Western Mass. legislators used to be able to scream and shout about T wastefulness during budgeteering, but that got reduced with Fitchburg, Worcester, and then Knowledge Corridor improvements. If service is extended to Springfield and even beyond, then the Commonwealth will be one be big and slightly less unhappy family.

If this happens, what stops would be added between Worcester and Springfield?

The B&A runs through a lot of nothing. If they decided to stop at any towns along the way, this is what I would think would be up for consideration:

Rochdale
East Brookfield
Brookfield
West Brookfield
Warren
West Warren
Palmer - The Steaming Tender is campaigning hard to bring a train station back to the town, they think it would bring tourist money in.
Wilbraham/Ludlow

They won't serve all of them (or possibly any at all), only the ones where they think will generate high ridership. Since these towns are not part of the "MBTA district," they are not obligated to provide commuter service (similar to how the Cape Flyer only stops in strategic/higher demand places, and does not provide any "commuter" services)