Purchasing the MR-90s from EXO as an interim solution would be great, but haven't they already been mothballed since REM is well underway and the line has been closed? Curious to know the status of those and if they're even under consideration for the pilot program. I've heard some chatter about whether or not they'd be any use in a pilot with respect to their acceleration, but my take from the pilot program isn't that it's about whether we ought to 'prove' that electrification is a thing we
can do so much as it's a thing we
should do and we need to figure out what pieces need to change along the way.
BandA wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:03 pm
M8's would be excellent for a pilot program. But outside of off-peak/weekend service why would you want to run EMU's on your busiest line instead of less expensive push-pull equipment? Do they plan to couple/uncouple the EMUs at the terminal?
IMHO, I've sent enough T-Alerts to feel that push-pull equipment is really unfair to the crews, especially when you need to engage in a rescue. With EMUs, you do gain the convenience of being able to break apart a train in the terminal, rather than having to pull it into the yard. That's less train to monitor in an incident and with modern couplers, it's easier to get it out of the way. Even with EMUs, you're talking about significantly improved reliability so you have to subject passengers and crews to fewer incidents that require a rescue.
Break apart the EMU set and send the rest to the yard for mid-day layover maintenance - cleaning, inspection, etc. It's less about how expensive the equipment you're running is and more about the operational flexibility you gain by:
- not having to watch fuels and water levels
- not requiring passengers run up and down the platform to the one open door on the train (dwell)
- not having to pay energy/fuel for train you're moving but not using to carry passengers
- having improved reliability
You definitely won't need to break down all sets for off-peak or weekend service (e.g. Newburyport/Rockport weekend trains will likely be at least 6-cars long for the fair weather months of the year). And it'll depend on how many cars will comprise an EMU set. In the UK, many sets are averaging 4 cars long, which is a decent size when you think about being able to scale up/down capacity. Wachusett could probably use 8-car sets for all inner-495 services and then cut to 4-car sets for mid-day and weekend service without significantly impacting frequency.
End of the day, there's a lot operationally that can change with EMUs, including breaking/connecting sets in the terminal and really, that's an opportunity to bring the best operational practices to Boston... the ones that won't get immediately nerfed by antiquated US railroad rules....