Lowell Industrial Track (STB reopens abandonment filing)

http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... enDocument

New STB decision on Monday about the Lowell Industrial Track's status. PAR filed to abandon in 2008, but it hit some sort of obscure snag over historical preservation surveys and has been spinning off in space for 4 years now. New amendment removes that historical provision, so the abandonment filing is reopened. Weird delay. It's not like anything's going to go here that'll disturb those mile markers other than a (beneficial) extension of the Bruce Freeman Trail from its current not-very-useful terminus at Industrial Rd. (sandwiched between the 495/3/Lowell Connector interchange) to downtown where it would be a whole lot more useful.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... enDocument

New STB decision on Monday about the Lowell Industrial Track's status. PAR filed to abandon in 2008,

"Abandon" or "railbank"? They mean different things.

Would it be possible to extend the trail all the way to the mainline and the parallel it under the highway so it can run up to the station?

RussNelson wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... enDocument

New STB decision on Monday about the Lowell Industrial Track's status. PAR filed to abandon in 2008,

"Abandon" or "railbank"? They mean different things.

Abandon. PAR owns the line...hasn't been used in close to (20?) years. The next filing would be opening up a sale negotiation window with the state for transfer of the line for purpose of landbanking, then after that the filing by the state to change the line to landbanked. Same as the Watertown and Hampton abandonments are headed when their paperwork is done processing. PAR doesn't have any interest in retaining this one for reactivation since its Lowell ops are being relocated to Lawrence after the Western Route improvements work is done and Bleachery Interlocking is reconfigured to separate the freight main-->Lowell Jct. tracks from commuter rail interference.

CSX's Framingham-South Sudbury leg of the F&L has been under similar filing status since 2007. Abandonment order was served, the filings from CSX and the towns opened up a 180-day negotiation window for selling the ROW, and they've been re-filing successive 180-day negotiating windows ever since as a formality until the state comes in with the money to snap it up and file the final landbanking paperwork. The line retains its OOS designation until either the sale is complete or the parties drop the extensions of the negotiating window. Which the towns aren't happy about because it's holding up the southern Bruce Freeman extension and the state's made no indications it's going to step in and complete the sale. 2 other CSX lines--Saxonville Branch and the Milford Branch in Ashland and Holliston--are in similar purgatory. The towns are trying to fundraise themselves to acquire them, but are way way short of the asking price...so 180-day negotiating extensions it is for yet another year. Holliston did work out last Fall a "lease" agreement with CSX to grade a barebones crushed gravel trail for $300/mo. rent and liability on the OOS trackbed until the sale can be completed. They haven't offered that on Saxonville or the F&L.


These PAR lines could similarly land in that state of filing-extension suspended animation. My guess is they'll buy Lowell and Watertown in a package when the Wachusett extension of the Fitchburg Line gets built and past the last community opposition details with the layover yard. MBTA's certainly not interested in running on foreign in-state trackage after what Guilford did to them in the 1980's over Gardner, so that'll be a formality before the first commuter rail train pulls into the new station. And it makes no sense to stage separate deals for the abandonment filings when they can do it all at once, so those lines will probably go together to the state whenever Wachusett hits some "safe" project milestone. I have no idea what their trigger would be for another package deal with CSX after the state shot its load on the huge one a couple years ago. Unless they're actually putting feelers out for the Framingham Secondary over Foxboro commuter rail--which I can't see happening near-term in this budget environment--there's not a lot of high-value property left worth making a deal over. Maybe the state extracts some minor collateral from them for pitching in to secure CSX a new Worcester-area engine shop, since the new yard doesn't have one. But otherwise those lines and the southern B. Freeman extension are going to be in 180-day filing purgatory for years to come.

BostonUrbEx wrote:Would it be possible to extend the trail all the way to the mainline and the parallel it under the highway so it can run up to the station?

Probably not because there's little room on the bridge over the river to fit a path next to 5 active tracks on that combined segment of ROW before the freight main splits off. But it could probably dump out on Canada St./Quebec St. and be a short trip up Lincoln St. to downtown. Too much industrial property the few blocks north of there with indirect access to the street grid. Would take years to flip that land for redevelopment to have a shot of going all the way up to the wye and dumping the trail out onto Lincoln at the bridge for a straight shot downtown and to the station.

But that's a small detail. Getting it the extra 1 mile into real downtown residential density and a not-scary walk within half-mile of the station is a big improvement over where the trail currently ends. It's barely skirting 400 ft. over the Lowell/Chelmsford city line in a big box store parking lot sandwiched on 3 sides by expressway. I doubt very many people in Lowell are currently enticed to bring their bikes down there and enjoy what's a really nice trail. Getting the terminus out of no-man's land would really blow the lid off its utilization.