Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

Anyone have any recent pics or info about South Acton? I went through there yesterday morning but it didnt look like they had made any progress for a while from my side of the train.

No work has been done since they stopped work late Fall, early Winter. It looks like they are in the process of restarting work now.

From the wording of the alerts, it sounds like June 29th will wrap up the work between South Acton and Brandeis. The following weekend will probably start full-line suspensions (unless they skip that weekend for 4th of July).

Found this today. It is an update from February 2014

• From April 26 through Jun 29th: •North Station to Brandeis limited service only, No weekend service past Brandies/Roberts

• From July 12th through Oct 11th: •No Weekend Service on Entire Fitchburg Line

• From Oct 18th through Nov 22nd: •North Station to Brandeis service only, No weekend service past Brandies/Roberts

• Normal service on Holiday Weekends • Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day

Work is expected to start on my stretch of track in Waltham this year with grade crossing replacements at Moody Street and Beaver Street and new signals and warning system at South Street, Moody Street, Elm Street & Beaver Street.

Also hearing the Clematis Brook culvert is being replaced this Summer.

I was driving through Ayer today and they are installing a new turnout on the number one track -I can't say for certain but it looked like it is going to the east end of the West Main St. / Greenville Branch track. Instead of being near the station it is between the RT 2a-111 overhead bridge and Groton-Harvard Rd. crossing, east of CPF-AY.

Got a chuckle out of this alert today. I wonder if the legions of displaced commuters can be accommodated elsewhere during construction:

The parking lot at Silver Hill Station on Fitchburg/South Acton Line will be closed on Wed May 7 and will reopen Tue May 13 for construction.

Affected stops:
Silver Hill

(Before anyone misses the sarcasm, yes, I've seen Silver Hill before.)

neman2 wrote:I was driving through Ayer today and they are installing a new turnout on the number one track -I can't say for certain but it looked like it is going to the east end of the West Main St. / Greenville Branch track. Instead of being near the station it is between the RT 2a-111 overhead bridge and Groton-Harvard Rd. crossing, east of CPF-AY.

Went through Ayer again today (5/10)- they were removing the old turnout to the West Main/ Greenville. It looks like from the survey markings in this area they are going to undercut(lower) the track under the West Main St. bridge at CPF-AY.

I've been watching the new signal bridge at Baker Ave in West Concord. I've noticed that the new signals are in operation for the normal operating direction, but the signals for the reverse direction are still not operating. (They're turned 90 degrees.) I think they may have installed something to physically detect the trains as well, as I saw a track crew working a few weeks ago.

Map of signal location: http://osm.org/go/ZfIepGI4K?layers=N" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

neman2 wrote:

neman2 wrote:I was driving through Ayer today and they are installing a new turnout on the number one track -I can't say for certain but it looked like it is going to the east end of the West Main St. / Greenville Branch track. Instead of being near the station it is between the RT 2a-111 overhead bridge and Groton-Harvard Rd. crossing, east of CPF-AY.

Went through Ayer again today (5/10)- they were removing the old turnout to the West Main/ Greenville. It looks like from the survey markings in this area they are going to undercut(lower) the track under the West Main St. bridge at CPF-AY.

I passed through Ayer today (5/24/14) and the number 1 track has been lowered and the West Main St siding has been reconnected where the turnout used to be. As I mentioned previously, a new turnout to the siding has been installed east of the CPF-AY crossovers. The number 1 track is now considerably lower than the number 2 track. I expect they will lower the number 2 track in the future, however because this will involve replacing the East wye turnout and a portion of the track on the wye they may wait for a 3 day holiday weekend shutdown?

octr202 wrote:Got a chuckle out of this alert today. I wonder if the legions of displaced commuters can be accommodated elsewhere during construction:

The parking lot at Silver Hill Station on Fitchburg/South Acton Line will be closed on Wed May 7 and will reopen Tue May 13 for construction.

Affected stops:
Silver Hill

(Before anyone misses the sarcasm, yes, I've seen Silver Hill before.)

Why Silver Hill and Hastings are even stops at all escapes me, and what is more puzzling is why some trains to and from all the way out to Fitchburg have to stop at BOTH of them. I hope when the work is done the T will consider adding more Boston to South Acton turns, especially at peak hours, that will be the only trains that serve Hastings and Silver Hill (and to get greedy, how about Waverly and Belmont?). The rare "shorts" that need service from Hastings and Silver Hill to any station west of South Acton could transfer at South Acton. The gaps in the schedule that currently exist because of the majority of trains going all the way to Fitchburg would also be filled by additional South Acton, or Littleton locals. Examples of this are the fact that there is no inbound service for stops east of South Acton for an entire hour during peak hours weekday mornings(albeit because of the express), and there is a 90 minute gap late mornings inbound on weekdays. If you have a noon appointment in Boston, you must take the inbound that arrives in North Station at 10:18 AM.

cpf354 wrote:

octr202 wrote:Got a chuckle out of this alert today. I wonder if the legions of displaced commuters can be accommodated elsewhere during construction:

The parking lot at Silver Hill Station on Fitchburg/South Acton Line will be closed on Wed May 7 and will reopen Tue May 13 for construction.

Affected stops:
Silver Hill

(Before anyone misses the sarcasm, yes, I've seen Silver Hill before.)

Why Silver Hill and Hastings are even stops at all escapes me, and what is more puzzling is why some trains to and from all the way out to Fitchburg have to stop at BOTH of them. I hope when the work is done the T will consider adding more Boston to South Acton turns, especially at peak hours, that will be the only trains that serve Hastings and Silver Hill (and to get greedy, how about Waverly and Belmont?). The rare "shorts" that need service from Hastings and Silver Hill to any station west of South Acton could transfer at South Acton. The gaps in the schedule that currently exist because of the majority of trains going all the way to Fitchburg would also be filled by additional South Acton, or Littleton locals. Examples of this are the fact that there is no inbound service for stops east of South Acton for an entire hour during peak hours weekday mornings(albeit because of the express), and there is a 90 minute gap late mornings inbound on weekdays. If you have a noon appointment in Boston, you must take the inbound that arrives in North Station at 10:18 AM.

IMHO those stops are "mandatory" because some influential residents of that area have the political power/pull to insure trains stop there. Affluent towns with political connections always get what they want.

J

To my knowledge, all S. Acton turns are about to become Littleton turns in the near future.

Silver Hill and Hastings are even more bizarre because they get multiple trains per day. Silver Hill gets two inbounds a day, and Hastings five. Compare that to Plimptonville, which gets one train a day (all-stops local).

Don't recall seeing or hearing about it, but in an 0735/05-30-2014 drive-by, it sure looked like the North Leominster garage is open. Most of the barrels and all the drift fence was gone, and there were actually cars inside. Also, at Wachusett during an 0610 drive-by -- unknown if it's Extension-related -- there was a pickup in a newly-cleared stretch of woods north of 1 and west of the Rte. 31 UGB. Also, fresh stone had been dropped on the dirt at the southeast abutment.

IMHO those stops are "mandatory" because some influential residents of that area have the political power/pull to insure trains stop there. Affluent towns with political connections always get what they want.

Yeah, this gets it right. Weston has many people with a lot of $$$$, and they have the pull to
keep their stops. IMHO, Silver Hill is (almost) a legitimate stop; it's about half way from Lincoln
to Kendall Green, has a "station" "Continuous Service Since 1848!", and a few parking spaces.
Hastings, on the other hand, is simply a stop by the road. If they dropped that and sent the
Hastings folks to Kendall Green and Silver Hill, everyone would benefit. But, as always, $$$$
prevail; a few selfish people in Weston will make everyone else on the Fitchburg line wait for
them, many times a day. Such is $$$$$ocracy; he with the most money gets his own way.