Downeaster Trackwork & Upgrades

gokeefe wrote: I think there may be more than meets the eye to this. Only time will tell.

My thoughts exactly. I certainly hope so.

The 2nd rail train just came through Freeport tonight @ 9:45pm heading to Brunswick. I heard them blow several times at the Hunter rd. crossing. I walked over to West st. and caught them approaching there a few minutes later. BM330 was leading along with MEC 517. They stopped at the stops, the flashers came on and they paused for a few seconds, then they blasted the horn several times and slowly continued on towards Bow st.

Peter

Man, they are making progress. Thanks for the update, Peter.

MEC 515 is currently tied down in Brunswick with ten Maine Central ballast hoppers. Arrived around 23:30 last night. I'm guessing the ballast has something to do with the track upgrades...

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20100 ... 130686.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20100 ... 330574.jpg

Thanks Dan for posting pic's of the rock train. I heard them go through Freeport around ten, but didn't have a chance to see the train.
Last week I spoke to one of the Pan Am "white hats" at the Grant road crossing. He said they won't be replacing the ties until sometime next year on this upgrade, just the rails.
More than likely that load of ballast will used on the lower road after they finish installing the new ties.

Peter

Double Stack wrote:Thanks Dan for posting pic's of the rock train. I heard them go through Freeport around ten, but didn't have a chance to see the train.
Last week I spoke to one of the Pan Am "white hats" at the Grant road crossing. He said they won't be replacing the ties until sometime next year on this upgrade, just the rails.
More than likely that load of ballast will used on the lower road after they finish installing the new ties.

Peter

I'm a little confused. Why would they ship ballast to Brunswick now if it won't be used until next year?

dnelson wrote:
I'm a little confused. Why would they ship ballast to Brunswick now if it won't be used until next year?

Sorry about that. I was referring to the "Lewiston Lower Road" upgrade, Grimmel's to the Brunswick wye that's taking place this week. I'm sure the ballast for the Downeaster line won't show up until next year.

Peter

Double Stack wrote:Sorry about that. I was referring to the "Lewiston Lower Road" upgrade, Grimmel's to the Brunswick wye that's taking place this week. I'm sure the ballast for the Downeaster line won't show up until next year.

Peter

Understood. I was confused by what you meant, since the line from Royal Junction to Brunswick (to Waterville) is the old MEC Lower Road.

the welded rail has been laid on the side of the tracks as far as route 9 jct in cumberland as far as i know and the track has been replaced as far as webster rd in freeport and on 10/9 the rail setting machines were parked on the siding at depot rd in yarmouth

the solid rail has been set on the sides of the track as far as just past route 9 jct but has not been installed yet but has not made it to the falmouth road crossing in falmouth yet. I went past yarmouth jct the other day and noticed the PAMAM crews were doing a lot of work between east elm st and the diamond but the solid rail has not been installed between east elm st and the granite st overpass

Feds award $600K to NNEPRA to study possible improvements to the Downeaster:

Portland Press Herald wrote:The federal government is awarding $600,000 for a study on how improvements can be made on the Maine's Downeaster passenger train line to expand service, cut travel time and increase the number of daily trips between Portland and Boston.

Read more at: http://www.pressherald.com/news/Maine-P ... -rail.html

$600,000 for s study???

Portland Press Herald wrote:the funding will build upon previous studies to provide more information for planning on the passenger rail line.

How much money do they need to spend to study? Couldn't they put that money into Beech Grove to rebuild a few more cars, or train and hire addition crews?

This is such a simple thing, you want to add more trips, cut travel time and expand service heres how you do it.
A) Get more equipment, i.e. revitalize some of Amtrak's OOS cars and locomotives...
B) Upgrade the track class, and replace or upgrade crossings. Then you tell the engineer to pull the throttle out a couple more notches.
C) Pick a target city, repair tracks to said city, and then add it to the schedule.

There I just solved all those tricky 600K questions, can I get my money now???

/rant

Smitty,

See my reply on the Downeaster Thread. Hope that helps. The main reason most of these 'studies' cost so much money is because the railroads and the Maine DOT rarely have records that are comprehensive enough to provide information sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the study. Thus, you have engineers who are required to go around and essentially collect this information from scratch. For $600,000 you are probably employing one or two lead engineers with a handful of assistants for about a year to a year and half. They'll have to go around and drive everywhere, visit the sites for proposed improvements, document them, including possible environmental issues (of which there are probably none). They'll also have to walk the entire line from end to end (of proposed improvements) and finally generate a report that meets federal standards with the required documentation. All of this must be done to professional standards for the field which are usually fairly extensive.

As mentioned in the thread the main reason why this has to be done is because NNEPRAs project proposes to add new track which will substantially 'disturb' the ground. IF all that was proposed involved, as you mention, a track class upgrade environmental reviews would only be necessary for new station sites etc. (if that, as reuse of an old building probably is not reviewable). Although I hate bureaucracy and waste I really do enjoy the clean water and air that we both live near. Places like Annabessacook Lake (between you in Monmouth and me in Winthrop) are clean today because of nitpicky rules like this. In the long run I think it's worth it. 'Marketing studies' on the other hand, especially when done more than once usually are the true 'consultant feed'. Just look at what the state has been doing with the Mountain Division and how many times they've done 'feasability studies' that often yield conflicting results. Environmental review is actually a very objective process based on empirical scientific standards which are relatively easy to determine. Feasability studies are full of 'ifs' which are usually accompanied by speculation and the interests of the funder.

First, sorry I might have gotten just a little carried away. But 600K could do a lot of good other places. Plus, I just reread the article and did not see where it says this money is for environmental studies. I have no (major) problem with environmental studies,as you pointed out, you can't go swimming in central Maine without being in a lake that the tracks run around, over or through. But they are already rebuilding track to Brunswick and stations will start to appear, if the havn't already, Isnt it a little late for an environmental study?

This just seems like a lot of money, for little gained. If I did my math right (and who knows, I'm not awake yet.) That same amount of money could pay 20 first year teachers. At my highschool that would be mighty helpful right now, having just lost 2 and a half programs. Sorry for the semi-political detour.

I just think the money money would be better spent on equipment maintenance, track maintenance, or crew costs. Because after Brunswick, its going to be a while before the DE runs any farther north. Unless NNERPA can get MORE federal money, PAR certainly isnt going to pay to rebuild track to Lewiston/Auburn, and NNERPA certainly doesn't have the funds.

KSmitty wrote:First, sorry I might have gotten just a little carried away. But 600K could do a lot of good other places. Plus, I just reread the article and did not see where it says this money is for environmental studies. I have no (major) problem with environmental studies,as you pointed out, you can't go swimming in central Maine without being in a lake that the tracks run around, over or through. But they are already rebuilding track to Brunswick and stations will start to appear, if the havn't already, Isnt it a little late for an environmental study?

This just seems like a lot of money, for little gained. If I did my math right (and who knows, I'm not awake yet.) That same amount of money could pay 20 first year teachers. At my highschool that would be mighty helpful right now, having just lost 2 and a half programs. Sorry for the semi-political detour.

I just think the money money would be better spent on equipment maintenance, track maintenance, or crew costs. Because after Brunswick, its going to be a while before the DE runs any farther north. Unless NNERPA can get MORE federal money, PAR certainly isnt going to pay to rebuild track to Lewiston/Auburn, and NNERPA certainly doesn't have the funds.

Smitty,

mkellerm posted the following on the Amtrak Downeaster Thread:

mkellerm wrote:They didn't have the environmental documentation done for the Plaistow-Portland application last time, which was one of the reasons it didn't get approved. This will fund that documentation, so that they might actually get funded next time.

I'm taking his understanding to be correct. It would make a lot of sense especially since this was the reason that NNEPRA was turned down for a loan from the FRA for the Brunswick extension several years ago. Thankfully by the time they came around in the funding cycle the loans had turned into grants!

I think NNEPRA rightfully assumes at this point that there will be funding available for these types of improvements, possibly on a grant basis for quite some time to come. So in answer to your conditional, yes, I think NNEPRA can get more federal money and possibly quite soon (2-4 years). If NNEPRA can get their ducks in a row they may be looking at a new award of money shortly after completion of the Brunswick extension.

Yes, you're right the money could go to a lot of other things. My father-in-law who worked as a custodian for Winthrop Schools got laid off. However I strongly support spending on projects such as this because they seem to offer more potential for economic revitalization than almost anything else. Infrastructure projects in general often help spur economic growth and of these transportation projects are often the very best at creating long-lasting growth. At the present time passenger rail service restorations seem to be a really good fit for what Maine needs to accomplish in terms of economic development.