I-90 Allston Interchange/West Station/Grand Junction project

The State of Massachusetts should not be spending money to benefit largely tax exempt Harvard University, a University where 85% (or more) of the students are from out of state. The destruction of Beacon Park must have had real pain for the few remaining rail-dependent companies in eastern Massachusetts. It has also led to shifting some loads to trucks on the Ma$$ Pike. In addition, watching trains on the B&A east of Framingham is very boring now!

The end result was beneficial for both freight and passenger rail. On the rail freight side, Beacon Park was antiquated both in terms of freight demand and lacking doublestack container capability or potential. Demand had and continues shifting away from Boston out to/toward the I-495 beltway/beyond and necessary doublestack capability, requiring the biggest portion of funding from public sources, could never have been financially justified east of Framingham given the astronomical cost no matter how it was funded.

Companies were forcibly relocated to facilitate this abandonment. It is not a natural response to an economic reality as many abandonments unfortunately are. Beacon Park was busy up until the day service ended. Had it not been for Harvard smacking their lips at their opposite riverbank, it would still be in service.

Houghton Chemical? One consignee worth a carload or two a week (that could be transloaded elsewhere)? Everything else at Beacon Park was transloading, warehousing/distribution and intermodal destined or originated elsewhere. Demand had already shifted away from Beacon Park when the land was sold, accelerated soon thereafter, and continues.

Wrong location. No doublestack. No Plate F on the Grand Junction. Conrail and CSX didn't want or need to be there. The majority of their customers didn't want or need to be there. However, what was necessary to set the wheels in motion was a measure of public funding, no matter the motivation behind it. But, even without the land sale, because of CSX's business needs and the Commonwealth's transportation desires, very likely Beacon Park would have met the same fate by now.

As to economic reality, that's the underlying reason why demand had already moved far enough away when Beacon Park's land was sold and why it continues. Housing, retail, biotech, and higher education drive economic value multiple times the value of freight transportation demand-driving activities. Consequently, it's the freight activity, like rail-based intermodal, transloading and warehousing/distribution that is displaced to make way, moving to places where the land is cheaper, as was the case for Beacon Park and what was also seen on the ex-B&M.

All for the best.

The NYC was broke.

The Turnpike Authority should've wanted a straight road, not the shenanigan that was built.

The Pike could've been a straight road with rail operations moving to the area where the Pike is now. Straight road means better flow of traffic, even if you have a toll booth in the middle of the stretch.

I was just curious as to why things — by everyone involved — weren't done correctly the first time.

Oh, wait, we're in Massachusetts.

They might as well put the highway and railroad underground from Cambridge Street south. Stitch back together the neighborhoods torn apart in Allston, open up land for redevelopment in an area very close to the city. And turn Storrow into a four-lane boulevard with lights and traffic calming measures.

On topic: It would benefit transportation in the city and make rail from the western suburbs more appealing and more useful.

Even after Beacon Park's closure, wasn't there a CSX local (B721) that ran from Framingham east to Boston via the B&A. It last ran in 2018 because it seems to have lost a lot of customers, and often only had a few cars.

The B721 would run the the east end of Beacon Park and via the Grand Junction to service Houghton Chemical and Everett. Traffic dwindled when PanAm and CSX made an agreement to handle those Everett cars & CSX was able to get closer to AYER. The whole track closings and utility of the east end of Beacon was in flux.

I remember the day Houghton started disconnecting their tracks from the remnants of Beacon Park. Picking up 2nd Trick Worcester desk: B721 came east from Framingham around 3pm with a double digit healthy size train. They shove into the 3.3 switch, and just have enough room to clear the main line switch, but couldn’t clear the hand throw to head East to the GJ.
They stayed bottled up under the Pike for PM rush hour, with no way to get their consist split. At the tail end of hush hour, and with a Keolis pilot, they bring their train east of CP 3, cut off their train and run the CSX power east of Cove, back west to CP3 and around their train.

With that light engine move, I think I only managed to sting 2 trains for a handful of minutes, the Heart to Hub had plenty of fluff in the schedule anyway. Another car or two, and that rush hour would have looked vastly different. After that eventful afternoon, B721 became smaller and smaller.

I remember that move. Was working the Northside Terminal Desk!

D

type 7 3704 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 6:23 pm Even after Beacon Park's closure, wasn't there a CSX local (B721) that ran from Framingham east to Boston via the B&A. It last ran in 2018 because it seems to have lost a lot of customers, and often only had a few cars.

Yes, and the customers were lost intentionally, 2018 was the height of PSR at CSX., I believe that was the year they bulldozed the hump in Atlanta overnight without warning.

To be fair the city of Boston is also part of the problem, new traffic sources were trying to use Beacon Park before PSR, notably garbage way back around 2008 or 9, basically the head end garbage that was on the old Q421, or BOSE. There was enough traffic to run a unit train out of Beacon every day and a company that wanted to do it. But that was quickly shut down.

Boston wants to be known as a tech hub, so they actively pushed many industries west of the I-495 ring. Hence Worcester and Ayer are the new hubs for freight even though they were never designed to act as that.

B721's traffic declines had nothing to do with PSR. If anything it had more to do with the shift of perishable traffic to containers and trailers and the lack of Plate F beyond Beacon Park on the Grand Junction as the old Plate C refrigerated cars began to be retired. Not one customer was "lost intentionally" and, in fact, traffic has only grown since PSR, reversing what had been going on before.

The MSW traffic transloaded at Beacon Park, which ran for a while on B721, was lost to regional landfills within pre-PSR pursuits, but has now returned to rail.

Boston didn't push anyone anywhere, economics did and in response to a world class ecosystem of higher education, medicine, technology and biotechnology that's lead to a lot of growth. When it comes to growing metropolitan areas and rail moving outward and away, Boston's not unique.

The deal closing Beacon Park and PSR have both allowed CSX to grow traffic, solidify their long-term position in New England, and plan for and act on the continuation of the same trends that lead to the Park's (and E. Cambridge/Somerville's) rail freight demise.

I notice they've recently added some new tracks, and this past weekend there were a bunch of freight cars parked there. I thought the land had been sold to Harvard, which was going to turn it into office apace.

There is a lot of discussion in the CSX forum about this starting around September
https://www.railroad.net/post1630347.html#p1630347