CSX Boston and Albany Line

Does anyone know the rights Amtrak has to run on the B&A main? Limits? Costs?

Can someone unconfuse me? The 2016 NNERI report on possible Inland Route service mentions 20+ round trip freights per day. The talk in this forum seems to indicate 4-6 a day.

Breaking the the Inland Route on the B&A line down into 3 segements:
- Framingham - Boston: zero freight trains
- Worcester - Framingham: up to 4 freight train movements/day - B722 Worcester-Westborough turn on Sun- Thurs and Q436/Q437 daily manifest trains
- Springfield - Worcester: up to 12 freight train movements/day - Q436/Q437 daily manifests, Q426/Q427 daily manifests, B740 turn local Worcester - Palmer on Mon-Fri, and effectively 6 daily intermodal trains (Q008, Q012, Q013, Q014, Q017, Q019, Q020, and Q022)

Plus there are occasional ethanol and coal trains that operate west of Worcester.

When it comes to Inland Route/Western MA passenger rail via the B&A, the volume of trains is not the biggest issue, but, instead the time windows. The B&A hosts a lot of time-sensitive highly-rated freight traffic and both passenger services that have been put in practice or are discussed have operated or likely would operate in those time windows required for premium traffic. Pre-Covid the B&A hosted 14 road trains, 12 east of Springfield, plus some coal and ethanol unit trains as well as locals.

Thanks

All of which renews the questions of when CSXT might sell Worcester-Springfield to the Commonwealth and/or the Commonwealth would reinstall the second main with crossovers...

Nice to see B&A finished auto traffic volume now rebounded to almost half way to pre-Covid levels and the possibility of reinstatement of the dedicated rack trains as well as intermodal volume closing in on pre-Covid levels driven by a big jump in refrigerated traffic as well continued increases in small-shipment premium traffic.

This past week auto traffic has had a few days with big leaps leading to big trains with Q436 handling the E. Brookfield autos approaching and getting into that 10-12,000-foot range and with one dedicated ~125-car westbound rack train. And, to remind us that we're never too far away, even at the summer solstice, this upcoming season's road salt has begun moving on the B&A.

When did Q008 start running to Worcester?

I got the CSX train symbol info from http://railroadfan.com/wiki/index.php/C ... Intermodal which is frequently curated but perhaps not 100% accurate.
OTOH, when I look at the ShipCSX IM shcedule web site I see the attached schedule indicating that E St Louis and Indy containers originate on Q008 but arrive Worcester on Q022. So maybe Q008 isn't running to Worcester....

Another B&A Covid "new-normal" milestone reached this past week or so with a few dedicated eastbound Q264 autorack trains and higher frequency of westbound Q263 autorack trains running. Intermodal volume remained pretty strong as well.

I saw an 85 car Q263 heading up the hill past the Chester Museum webcam yesterday afternoon. With the reopened factories it looks like automotive traffic is starting to catch up. Good sign for now.

For a first, this past week nightly westbound movement of Amazon trailers to Chicago on the B&A. Since there's nothing moving eastbound, appears to be a re-positioning move.

Hey all, I’m planning a trip to the Boston Line next weekend... staying in Palmer Friday and Pittsfield Saturday. What are the current train movements looking like? I also bought a new scanner and would like to program the frequencies if you happen to know what CSX and Amtrak uses. Thank you! Lou

Also New England Central will arrive in the mid to late am and Mass Central used to dep in am both in Palmer. MCER right across diamond from CSX