brattleboro vt station

article in today's brattleboro reformer:
https://www.reformer.com/local-news/bra ... faa20.html

Looking at Google Maps, it seems they could use more parking. Maybe a second level in the lot across the street. Or, are they planning to relocate the station?

Long overdue. Brattleboro is a very popular stop and it deserves something better than a basement and a platform which is also a parking lot. Every time the train stops, traffic backs up into New Hampshire over the bridge, and through downtown. The bridge will be replaced with one to the south and will cross over the tracks above grade, so that's a big relief.

Perhaps a new station can be built on the east side of the tracks. Reactivate the "B&M track" from the yard south of the station to the West River Bridge. This could accommodate a full length high level platform and keep the existing main track for freights. This would also give them a good time to extend the CTC through here and make the switches powered so a train can come right in on the platform track without a stop. A replicated small town station could be built with some parking. There's a garage nearby so you don't need too much.

Article is paywalled, so don't know where the new station would be, but Railpace said groundbreaking was taking place c 1999 (and it never did... shocker). Given the steep walls of Brattleboro from the station, north to West River, there aren't too many options to the north for a station.

According to the propose3d design, the station will be ADA compliant and will have a new station building, renovated platforms and track changes.

Wow... that's exactly where I picked out in my mind where a new station would go (limited options as I stated above).
And the site plan (won't enlarge) looks like it retains 2 tracks, while making the B&M rail the platform track.

16,765 / 365 days = 46 passengers per day in 2019. How is that a very popular stop? Passengers should have a waiting area that is out of the weather + awnings.

another article in the brattleboro reformer:

https://www.reformer.com/local-news/amt ... 425d8.html

46 people per day is a very good average for a town of about 12000, and I know more people in the area.

Compare to Erie PA, city population just under 100K, regional population about 300K, 43 passengers per day average.

I know there are a lot of variables including train times, but still Brattleboro is doing pretty good.

I do see that they are in what was the Union Station, it looks like just a basement but is the track level, the street level is a museum now and looks like it was waiting room and ticket office. A lot of stations were multiple level due to space and elevation differences.

Mattoon, Illinois, still is. It used to serve the IC downstairs and the Big 4/NYC upstairs at street level; only the IC tracks are left, but you still enter the station at street level and go down.

urr304 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:44 pm I do see that they are in what was the Union Station, it looks like just a basement but is the track level, the street level is a museum now and looks like it was waiting room and ticket office. A lot of stations were multiple level due to space and elevation differences.

If you check out this photo, you can see a large picture window with newish looking concrete surrounding it. This is where an elevated walkway used to continue out, with stairs down to 2 platforms. I'm guessing it was sometime in the late 1960s, following the demise of passenger service in Vermont, when this walkway was removed and the window put in place. Amtrak has used the basement level, accessible just to the right of the locomotive, since it restored service to VT in the early 70s. The platform is also used for some limited parking, and the stop is an engine crew change point. The platform is extra low... not even at rail height. Couple that with the adjacent bridge to NH, and traffic backs up well into NH at train time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Sta ... tation.jpg

More shots of the existing setup here... the second track, not presently used, is I'm guessing what they plan on reactivating. The track is intact from the yard south of the station to the West River Bridge, though some brush clearing will be required.
http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/brattleboro.htm

From a local online publication, a look at the site plan: https://www.ibrattleboro.com/wp-content ... 00x375.jpg

Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:02 pm Mattoon, Illinois, still is. It used to serve the IC downstairs and the Big 4/NYC upstairs at street level; only the IC tracks are left, but you still enter the station at street level and go down.

For what it's worth, although Brattleboro was a "Union" station that wasn't because this was a junction, per se. The B&M operated between Brattleboro and White River Junction over the CV on trackage rights. South of Brattleboro the B&M/CV collaborated on an early example of directional running as far as East Northfield, with the B&M on the east side of the river handling northbound traffic and the CV on the west side handling southbound, if I recall correctly. The only reason the station is on two levels is geographic-- all of Brattleboro is built on a steep hill sloping down to the river, and the tracks are on the riverbank.

hrsn wrote: ↑Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:08 pm From a local online publication, a look at the site plan: https://www.ibrattleboro.com/wp-content ... 00x375.jpg

Higher def design drawings (including a site plan, floor plan, and parking lot elevation) were posted by Trains In The Valley in this post earlier today
https://trainsinthevalley.org/2020/11/3 ... oundup-37/

Ridgefielder wrote:

Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:02 pm Mattoon, Illinois, still is. It used to serve the IC downstairs and the Big 4/NYC upstairs at street level; only the IC tracks are left, but you still enter the station at street level and go down.

For what it's worth, although Brattleboro was a "Union" station that wasn't because this was a junction, per se. The B&M operated between Brattleboro and White River Junction over the CV on trackage rights. South of Brattleboro the B&M/CV collaborated on an early example of directional running as far as East Northfield, with the B&M on the east side of the river handling northbound traffic and the CV on the west side handling southbound, if I recall correctly. The only reason the station is on two levels is geographic-- all of Brattleboro is built on a steep hill sloping down to the river, and the tracks are on the riverbank.

Thanks. I thought that was what was going on -- why a fairly small down had a concourse out over the tracks, also -- the passengers were coming in above track level anyway. I was thinking that with the upper-level tracks gone, Mattoon looks about the Brattleboro would have when the whole Brattleboro station was in use, not that Brattleboro once had tracks. A better match, although much bigger, would be St Paul, Minn., where the city is on a bluff over the river and the tracks are twenty or thirty feet down, closer to the river. The topography and the station are pretty much just Brattleboro x 2.5 in all dimensions except the gauge (and except for the name: Brattleboro Union Station, St. Paul Union Depot, which always makes me think of something more like what you see in Windsor or Glenn&Jackson ).

Was the previous Brattleboro station more or less where the new one is going to be? In the picture it looks like it's on the downhill side across from a bluff (or the edge of a sidehill cut), but that could probably be anywhere for half a mile either way.

article in the brattleboro reformer 12/18/2020:

https://www.reformer.com/local-news/amt ... afd4e.html