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  • NYC to Maine... 9 hours?!

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1611135  by charlesriverbranch
 
johnpbarlow wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:43 am Also, I wouldn't characterize the majority of the trip east of Westerly RI where the tracks leave the Long Island Sound coastline as being very scenic. :wink:
It goes by fast, though; most of it is 125-mph territory (150 mph if you on Acela).
 #1611136  by charlesriverbranch
 
Maverickstation1 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:41 am The Downeaster Service is run by the Northern New England Rail Passenger Authority, with Amtrak as the contracted operator.
The service has been a huge success and the target market is Boston, and Southern Maine.
The focus of the service has never been New York City.
NNEPRA is an agency of the state of Maine. Only the state of Maine subsidizes the service; New Hampshire and Massachusetts do not. A local advocacy group, Train Riders Northeast, is pushing for a Portland - New York City service that would run via Worcester, bypassing Boston. I can't see that happening any time soon, though.
 #1611147  by markhb
 
charlesriverbranch wrote: Tue Nov 29, 2022 8:16 am
Maverickstation1 wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 7:41 am The Downeaster Service is run by the Northern New England Rail Passenger Authority, with Amtrak as the contracted operator.
The service has been a huge success and the target market is Boston, and Southern Maine.
The focus of the service has never been New York City.
NNEPRA is an agency of the state of Maine. Only the state of Maine subsidizes the service; New Hampshire and Massachusetts do not. A local advocacy group, Train Riders Northeast, is pushing for a Portland - New York City service that would run via Worcester, bypassing Boston. I can't see that happening any time soon, though.
Massachusetts, although it doesn't directly subsidize the service, does provide something of a sweetheart deal for usage of the MBTA tracks and slots at North Station, so NNEPRA treats them as providing assistance to the service. Which, in reality, boils down to a higher fare per mile for trips that have one end in New Hampshire, which doesn't contribute to the service at all.

TRNE is indeed working on a Maine-NYC connection, but I believe they're somewhat agnostic on the Grand Junction vs Worcester Main routing. I personally favor the latter because I believe there could be potential for lateral intercity service in the Merrimack Valley (Haverhill - Lowell - possibly Ayer but that would mean either a backup move or a new platform).
 #1611159  by FatNoah
 
I personally favor the latter because I believe there could be potential for lateral intercity service in the Merrimack Valley (Haverhill - Lowell - possibly Ayer but that would mean either a backup move or a new platform).
I would favor this kind of routing as well. Portland, Haverhill, Lawrence, and Lowell would all be good collectors of NY traffic from Maine, New Hampshire, and Northern Massachusetts. Lowell could be a transfer for future NH service as well.
 #1611170  by edbear
 
The original routing for the State of Maine Express when it was created in the early 1900s was NY-NHV-HFD-SPG-WOR to then WN&P route. About 1914 the Boston & Albany route was cut out and the State of Maine at different times operated from New Haven via the Air Line to Willimantic then Putnam, New Haven-Hartford-Putnam, New London-Putnam, all these routes to Worcester and then via Providence to Worcester its final routing. The shift off the WN&P to a Lowell-Lawrence routing came long before the WN&P was downgraded in mid-1920s.
 #1611195  by Station Aficionado
 
Real life thought experiment: earlier this month, we drove from NOVA to Lynchburg (actually we went up into the Blue Ridge beyond Lynchburg, but no trains go there). The distance was give or take 170 miles and Apple Maps tells me that, at this light-traffic hour, the actual driving time is 3:05. Let's assume that's how long I actually spent behind the wheel. Now, there was a "comfort"/stretching stop of, oh, let's say 10 minutes. And there was lunch--Dr. Ho's Humble Pie, North Garden VA--we created our own with bacon and cheddar--really damn good. I'll call that a 45 minute stop (although the actual time was more like an hourish). What was our average speed?

The closest Amtrak stop to our house is Burke Center, but I can't find a mileage listing for the station there. So let's use ALX. The fastest Amtrak trip from ALX to LYH is 3:11, covering 165 rail miles. What is Amtrak's average speed?

Now, I'm sure some of the folks posting here would never, despite pathetic pleadings from wife and kids, even consider a restroom or food break all the way to Portland. But many of us are not made of such stern stuff. I'm not suggesting that the Amtrak route from NYC to Portland is as fast as a real-world drive, just that some folks have on rose-colored glasses in estimating the true time it takes to drive somewhere. It doesn't require HST speeds for a train to be competitive enough time-wise for other factors (lack of stress, etc.) to enter the equation.
 #1611236  by markhb
 
Google Maps right now reports the drive time from NYP to POR as roughly 5:32, with 684 & 84 being a couple of minutes faster than taking the Merritt Parkway. It is 6:17 taking Amtrak to South Station and then the bus to Portland, and 7:25 taking the subway to the Port Authority and from there a Greyhound to South Station and the same Concord bus to Portland.

For a pure train routing on the easiest direct route to implement, we have to make the assumption that travel time from Springfield to either Boston station (BON or BOS) is the same, and we have to fudge transfer times. That being said, Google and Amtrak give the following transit times:

3:24 NYP-SPG (NER / Hartford Line)
2:28 SPG-BOS (Lake Shore, and it must be a train since they're selling rooms)
2:30 BON-POR (Downeaster)

That's 8:22 exclusive of transfer times in Springfield and Boston and assuming a hypothetical Inland Regional would take the same time to arrive at North Station from Springfield as the LSL does to BOS.