by l008com
I was googling around and somehow came across this PDF that includes two commuter rail projects, one in Reading and one in North Woburn. Does anyone know anything about these projects?
They list the addition of a turning track at reading station, and "improvements" to the siding at wilbur interlocking.
So first, does does a turning track mean? I assume that does not mean a Wye! Does this just mean double tracking through the station? If so, that does make a lot of sense. Do some trains still stop at Reading? I thought these days, everything went all the way to Haverhill? Either way, ending double-track right before a station instead of right after seems like a crazy design choice that is only going to have a negative effect on bottlenecking. I think I was a kiddo in the late 80s when they last rebuilt reading station and clearly built it to be used as a double track station.
The other project is "improvements that would reduce conflicts with freight and amtrack downeaster" at Wilbur interlocking. But what does this mean? There is already a siding there, and it already is used. And you can't access a platform from that siding. And there aren't very many freight trains anyway. So it's very unclear to me what this project actually IS?
Still kind of crazy that this project doesn't include extending the overhead walkway to a pedestrian entrance right off New Boston Rd in this area so all the neighborhoods West of the station including several new dense developments right up the street, could have walkable access to the station instead of having to walk miles around to get there. (the new New Boston Rd bridge is going to cut that walk-around distance significantly but the platform is practically right next to the road, just extend the walkway, build a set of stairs, improve neighborhood sidewalks in the area and I realize I am getting WAY off topic here so ignore this last part. Maybe I'll start another thread about it. But what about these two projects in this document? Any additional info?
They list the addition of a turning track at reading station, and "improvements" to the siding at wilbur interlocking.
So first, does does a turning track mean? I assume that does not mean a Wye! Does this just mean double tracking through the station? If so, that does make a lot of sense. Do some trains still stop at Reading? I thought these days, everything went all the way to Haverhill? Either way, ending double-track right before a station instead of right after seems like a crazy design choice that is only going to have a negative effect on bottlenecking. I think I was a kiddo in the late 80s when they last rebuilt reading station and clearly built it to be used as a double track station.
The other project is "improvements that would reduce conflicts with freight and amtrack downeaster" at Wilbur interlocking. But what does this mean? There is already a siding there, and it already is used. And you can't access a platform from that siding. And there aren't very many freight trains anyway. So it's very unclear to me what this project actually IS?
Still kind of crazy that this project doesn't include extending the overhead walkway to a pedestrian entrance right off New Boston Rd in this area so all the neighborhoods West of the station including several new dense developments right up the street, could have walkable access to the station instead of having to walk miles around to get there. (the new New Boston Rd bridge is going to cut that walk-around distance significantly but the platform is practically right next to the road, just extend the walkway, build a set of stairs, improve neighborhood sidewalks in the area and I realize I am getting WAY off topic here so ignore this last part. Maybe I'll start another thread about it. But what about these two projects in this document? Any additional info?
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