Railroad Forums
Moderators: sery2831, CRail
BandA wrote:http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/5 ... rcel18.jpg what a great idea! and no problem with rising sea levels + save billions. wouldn't want to be in it during a nor'easterThey were designed for ski resorts, they operate fine in anything but strong winds.
Dmdogs900 wrote:Could the Needham line be covered.Extend the Orange and Green lines and remove it from the commuter rail system.
rr503 wrote:Through routing using the wyes at NS or SS would cause some horrible crossing moves, no?Not to mention allowing NEC trains to go to New Hampshire and Maine, reducing the waste that is SSX, and allowing for the redevelopment of South Station.
The rationale for suburb-to-suburb through running is not so much that you're just linking suburbs, but that you're doing so while serving the densest (ie core bound) market, and that you're making much better use of your equipment and infrastructure in the process. A lot of it just comes down to how cheaply you can build core infrastructure (NSRL wouldn't be costing anywhere near this much elsewhere on the globe) and how well you can manage land use in the suburbs -- the latter being important as job/human density near stations (something which isn't all that present today in many Boston suburbs) is strongly correlated with transit ridership.
Eastern Route to inner Fitchburg line would make sense if there are new stations created along the inner Fitchburg.Back around 2001-2002 or so, I did a reverse commute from Beacon Hill to Waltham via CR. There was a pretty solid contingent of commuters that came in from the Newburyport/Rockport line, hopped platforms to the Fitchburg, and hiked out to Waltham. The Waltham Citibus was running at the time and its 8am departure coincided nicely with the train's 7:55am arrival. When the train was late, the driver would wait. There were about 15-20 of us each day on that particular schedule. I can imagine that a through train with a connecting shuttle at Waltham would get a fair number of riders.
jonnhrr wrote: Philadelphia had a few things going for it that Boston does not, which explains some of the price differential:Actually, it wasn't. After the tunnel opened, SEPTA dropped all diesel service and started running the system more as an S Bahn than a US style commuter line. Admittingly, and a lot of Phily railbuffs don't like hearing it, but most of the diesel lines had no ridership. SEPTA in general didn't have much - they ran a lot of one/two car trains at the time. It's not like today where three car trains seem to be the minimum most of the time. Also, some electric service was cut back - they were short on equipment, made worse because the grades in/out of the CCT were killing the 30's vintage Blueliners.
- The entire system was already electrified.
- One end (Suburban Station) was already underground so it was a simple matter to extend the existing tunnel further. No ramp needed at that end.True.
- Major real estate development (Market East and conversion of Reading Terminal to a convention center) that gave additional justification for the project.True. Interestingly, the project had been planned since at least the 60's - I've seen artists renditions in books that old.
Made me wonder whether as part of NSRL you could eliminate the current North Station entirely, as Philly did by eliminating Reading Terminal? Ideally an underground station adjacent to the existing Green/Orange line station, with 4 tracks and platforms where all trains would be through trains. Downeaster would have to be extended at least to South Station for this to work.Perhaps, but then it becomes a natural to pair up the system into an S Bahn type operation, which then makes electric operation almost a per-requisite. A link posted earlier suggessted that this could be done for a billion or so if the (T) could acheive French-level electrification costs. I don't see why that's not possible (It's not like the French don't have unions, environmental studies, NIMBY, or protests...). Of course, you'd need equipment. The most logical way would be electric locos until the push/pulls get retired, then buy EUMs to fill their place. There are effectively two proven locos to chose from in the US now (ALP-46A and ACS-64),and both work well enough, though they'll get blown out of the water by any competent EMU (and the Silverliner Vs)