Track Next to Convention Center

What is the track on the side of the convention center used for and what was it originally used for

The convention center property used to be a New Haven freight yard. The track connected to New Haven main at South Bay (near present T Cabot Yard)

Southwest of Cypher St. it is MBTA red line test track. Lots of discussion here----https://www.railroad.net/plan-to-use-tr ... 65430.html

So guess I'm old now, because I remember when this was put in as part of the big dig redesign of this area. The track (referred to as track 61) was intended to maintain freight rail access to the South Boston Waterfront. As far as I know there was never a revenue run down this track to the waterfront/docks since there are no active customers down there.

If you go to google earth you can see the tracks running down to the water. Follow Haul Road from the Convention Center to Drydock Ave and eventually to the docks.

Over the years there have been rumblings here and there about getting customers in this area online but honestly, I think this line is dead forever.

Wikipedia has a write up of the track here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_61_(Boston)

If there is ever a war in Europe (cough, Ukraine, cough) you would need some tracks. Or imagine if there were tracks to a container terminal (oops no space for a yard).

Or if China tried to forcefully pursuade Taiwan to reunify and started a war with us.

I believe they rebuilt the part the goes Infront of the convention center when the center was built too

I was there just 3-4 years ago and noticed how NEW the track and the right-of-way looked, like it was just recently built. It looks like the tracks were cut just after Pumphouse Rd. though.

I was there for the past few days for a conference. Where it runs along the side of the convention center before it goes under Summer St the is a large quantity of what looks like new track material piled up. Ties, switch components ect, piled on the ROW. Some of the ties look longer than regular ones could it be for the Red Line test track third rail?

That material is for the Red Line Cabot yard project, the third rail is already installed on the test track.

Whatever happened to the impractical, illogical Track 61 shuttle that was promised by the MCCA? There’s a thread on here talking about it with a lot of info on why it’d never work.

So that Boston Railway Terminal Alco S3 #0409 that was over by the BCEC that was owned by George Marsh (before the City of Boston illegally scrapped it in November of 2013) was never in service in the area?

One thing I know it was used for was for shipping long steel pipe piles that were used for bridge footings on the Big Dig project. They were delivered to the site via Track 61 to the yard pre-convention center.