BandA wrote:We know they plan to sell property in East Providence. Is that good or bad? I assume it is bad for railroading because it will be developed for something else like condos or offices and precluded forever from freight.
That's been in the works for years. It's
South Quay on Veterans Memorial Pkwy., with straight shot to I-195 Exit 5 and loading docks on the river. They're developing it for multimodal shipping, primarily trucks because of the easy access to 195. This is a real estate development of theirs, not a railroad development...so rail access is a secondary consideration. It does mutually serve the railroad by indirectly bolstering the truck shipping presence in RI, so that's why they purchased the property years ago and have high hopes for the development.
In the event one of their new South Quay tenants does request rail access, RIDOT is required to restore the 2 miles of East Providence Secondary track it ripped up to build Waterfront Drive...per a land swap agreement with P&W when the abandonment proceeding was processed. New ROW reservation is provisioned on the median between Waterfront Dr. and Water St., and you can see on Google to the south that the East Bay Bike Path on the ex- Bristol Branch dives off the ROW and bolts itself to Veterans Pkwy. on a side path to stay away from the South Quay property.