Customers in Boston-proper

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

-- Reactivating East Boston Branch and its yard. After all, it almost happened before the NIMBY's torpedoed Global Petroleum's ethanol-mixing operation.

Did they really? Or did Global just not want to fight it and put the plans away?

IIRC, all the NIMBYs "accomplished" was a state law about moving ethanol/petroleum products in the urban core, which the state has no legal right to do. Unless I'm missing something here.


I'm still shocked that MassPort doesn't push activating the Mystic Wharf Branch. Meanwhile they have all this big talk of expanding Track 61 at a higher cost. Mystic Wharf is already functioning as an autoport and salt off-load operation. But the Fid Kennedy Wharf is going to suck up all their money and time?

What is the deal with that "new" secured building that Massport built at the end of track 61? It seems to be capable of loading or unloading ships through the 15 pipe-like things on the roof. Is that the purpose of those things? Have they actually ever been used?

I thought it was weird that Massport was going to build a cement facility at the new Marine Terminal (plans now scraped) when there was this unused facility also on Track 61.

And I wonder if Massport made a play to retain Eimskip at this spot since there is an actual ship-to-rail ability at this location with never used (?) pier trackage.

With these existing relatively new unused facilities at the end of a useable rail line, it would seem that Massport isn't really all that serious about getting freight rail to the Port. What incentive is there to reactivate Mystic Piers when they aren't even using facilities that have been sitting there dormant for years?

From what I managed to dig up from a 2013 Massport Strategic Plan progress report they've got a bulk cargo and cold storage facility by Cargo Ventures, Inc. listed as "imminent" for the first rail user down there. Of course, checking Cargo Ventures' website they also list construction beginning 2010...so everything is way out-of-date there.

Also don't know if Massport ultimately got its TIGER grant for the Track 61 reconstruction or if it's still sitting in the queue for consideration on the next round of awards.



Massport's really bad at updating their website. Compared to MassDOT it's all moldy and hard-to-find.

[Tracer]

Hey f - line what is the tiger grant (is the $ for the bridge to the terminal)?

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Hey f - line what is the tiger grant (is the $ for the bridge to the terminal)?

It was $14M, filed under "Track 61" improvements on their planning docs. Cost would cover the track extension to Marine Terminal and Boston Marine Industrial Park. What that exactly entails in terms of geographical location of the spur tracks or yard/storage space I don't know, since the blurb wasn't any more detailed than that. Some much older study docs showed yard space being part of the plan, but the entire Marine T master plan has changed so many times since then I don't even think the would-be customers bear remote resemblance to what they were thinking 8 years ago.

Be nice if Massport's website wasn't stuck in 8 years ago and they had any sort of updated master plan available. In the whole 2014 announcement about a passenger dinky on Track 61 to the Convention Center they were promoting how the dual freight use would lower the cost of track rehab enough to make the passenger service an easy grab, so that part of the short/mid-term plan clearly hasn't changed. It would be nice to get a more accurate picture whom this freight is going to be serving. And whether that Cargo Ventures facility is still a go.

[BostonUrbEx]

Americold track at Widett Circle is empty tonight. Are they still a regular customer for CSX? Roughly how often do they receive cars and around what time would the job come by to spot the cars?

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Americold track at Widett Circle is empty tonight. Are they still a regular customer for CSX? Roughly how often do they receive cars and around what time would the job come by to spot the cars?

Once per week, though don't know how reliable an average that is anymore. Pretty sure these are run as-needed and not on a set timetable. Being at Widett it is obviously pinned into the dead of the night after all commuter rail/Amtrak revenue moves have ceased...after the first wave of non-revenue moves for positioning trains into overnight storage have ceased...but well before the first wave of pre-dawn non-revenue moves positioning trains out of overnight storage have begun.

Since this is a light move staged direct out of Readville and not Framingham or Walpole, the Americold cars would've been delivered to Readville on the last regularly scheduled yard-to-yard swap and have been sitting there in the yard since day or evening. Then been seen lashed-up and idling up to a few hours before departure time to Widett. So Readville's the obvious tipoff and first place to start spotting.