Connecticut New Haven Line and Shore Line East Service Levels and Cuts

daybeers wrote: ↑Tue Oct 08, 2024 9:05 pmIt's a major wetlands area there. Most of the shoreline shouldn't have been built on in the first place because of them, but here we are. Money talks.

It was built like 150 years ago. There are ways of dealing with that, but it costs $$$. That area is kinda wet, but is wedged in-between the station and some houses.

I'm not sure Madison would support the ridership for a second platform, especially with the reduced schedule. CT spent quite a bit on the second platform at Clinton which opened two years ago, and I don't think ridership spiked.

The second platform fixes the whole direction switching things, and uncaps the service level with Amtrak.

SLE 4-car set on Track 2 at Stamford. Note that the shoes are attached.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Thu Oct 24, 2024 10:21 am SLE 4-car set on Track 2 at Stamford. Note that the shoes are attached.

Does that mean the clearance problems have been corrected?

Yes

That's good. Even though it likely doesn't make sense to do direct service to GCT or via PSA in the future, at least for fleet interchangeability, that's a good thing!

Improvements are coming to Madison SLE station. Noticed on CTDOT's web site that a project will go out to bid on 11/19/2025 for a "facility rehabilitation" at SLE Madison. I'm guessing this may include the second platform and an "up and over". This is the last SLE station with a single side platform. Its completion will allow SLE to run on either mainline and not have to cross over, and it will allow Madison riders to not be impacted by either single track projects or reverse peak trains which have bypassed Madison in order to stay on Track 1.

How they get through the wetlands issue to build the Track 1-side platform? We shall see.

Mind sharing a link?

daybeers wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2025 11:29 pm Mind sharing a link?

There's nothing really to share... no project plans yet. They won't come out until the bids get opened. But here is the link to the "State Projects Scheduled For Advertising"...

https://portal.ct.gov/dot/bureaus/finan ... uage=en_US

... so until bid day, there's just a "line item" mentioning SLE Facility Rehab for Madison station. That's it.


Also on the list... Hartford Line - Enfield Station, with an advertising date of 5/21/2025.

shadyjay wrote: ↑Sat Jan 11, 2025 11:08 amThere's nothing really to share... no project plans yet. They won't come out until the bids get opened. But here is the link to the "State Projects Scheduled For Advertising"...

https://portal.ct.gov/dot/bureaus/finan ... uage=en_US

... so until bid day, there's just a "line item" mentioning SLE Facility Rehab for Madison station. That's it.


Also on the list... Hartford Line - Enfield Station, with an advertising date of 5/21/2025.

It's listed as a Scope Code K, $20M to $29.9M, which is definitely the second platform. It's also too new to need any other sort of rehab.

That suggests to me that they have the land issue dealt with.

Another big advantage is the confusing as heck station platform assignments. I was at OSB on Saturday and a number of people were looking around trying to figure out what platform to go to, since SLE essentially reverses the entire Shore Line from Old Saybrook to New Haven, and creates some weird dispatching in regards to the 3 track in OSB.

With the completion of the other half of Madison station, Amtrak at OSB and SLE will be able to run right-hand. Although technically it will obviously remain under Rule 261, it will look a lot more like the New Haven Line and other lines where the physical station infrastructure was designed for Rule 251, and the railroad essentially still operates as Rule 251 on the outer tracks, even though it is technically signaled for Rule 261. On the Shore Line, Acela will need to run "wrong-iron" sometimes to pass other traffic, but otherwise, most traffic should be right-hand running.

That should make it a LOT easier on the dispatchers and more user-friendly at both OSB for Amtrak and the entire SLE route. WB SLE will always have a natural stopping point on the 3 track at OSB, and EB SLE could still pull over to let Amtrak pass and stop between BROOK and SAYBROOK on the 4 track, or it could cross over at SAYBROOK to 3, make the station stop, and cross back over to 2 at VIEW.

IIRC, the completion of Madison will also raise a contractual limit that Amtrak has on the number of SLE trains that CDOT can run due to the left-hand running switcharoo that they currently have to do.

Another highly anecdotal observation that I've seen (since I haven't been down that way very much since COVID) is that SLE is pretty much a failure as a commuter rail system and very much a success as a regional rail system. I see huge seasonal traffic flows of people with suitcases presumably headed to NYC or points onwards, as well as lots of people getting picked up and dropped off on the weekends. The parking lots seem lightly used, but there are plenty of pickup/drop-off traffic plus taxis.