Boston Railway Terminal

[OHanrahan]

Where's the bulldozer?

[CSX Conductor]

There is no way to get from there out to Castle Island/Conley Terminal unless you plan on bulldozing most of Broadway.

Basically, you will never see rail down @ Conley again. The closest thing you will see is pieces of the old rail in the street on E.1st street around City Point.

Currently many containers come off ships at Conley Terminal are trucked over to CSXT's Beacon Park Yard for rail service.

[GeepDude]

I'm not very familiar with the rail layout of southie past BRT and the convention center, and I know its unlikely that trains will return, however Massport has expressed a desire for direct rail access to their marine industrial park, (north of conley) that they are currently developing.

[CSX Conductor]

CSXT is supposed to go back out to the Marine industrial track (toward Black Falcon Pier). Still haven't heard of anything on new business in a while though.

[Stephen]

ProRail:
The pictures on NERail and the discussions above are incorrect.
The "corridor" depicted is part of the Silver Line (read Trackless Trolley) bus extension to the World Trade Center.

The location of those ROW pictures is actually parallel to the Silver Line ROW and about two blocks to the southeast, so I believe that they are unrelated.
- Stephen

[bncsx]

They could do what they used to, and run the track along first street, all the way to Conley. As memory serves, there used to be 4 tracks leading too and from Conley.

[CSX Conductor]

Never see it happen.

1) Too much $$

2) Too much automobile traffic to deal with

3) Amtrak would never want a train full of containers cutting through their yard. (As it is now you couldn't hve more than about 1000 to 1500 feet of train anyways because the train would have to be shoved into South Station and get behind the signal @ Tower One in order to connect to CSXT's Boston Line.)

[Stephen]

FYI,
The string of cars that I first noted at the beginning of January are all still on the BRT trackage. Seems a bit odd that they would be there for over a month.
- Stephen

[CSX Conductor]

Now with all of the snow from the blizzard, that might have delayed getting down there. Not sure, but I will try to find out.

[Stephen]

Thanks.

[AM@BRT]

Geez, you stop paying attention for a while, and everybody goes off half-cocked!

Where to begin?

We are still in South Boston, AS WELL AS Pine Street Yard, Pawtucket, R.I., and Allens Avenue, Providence, R.I.

ProRail: The "corridor" mentioned is NOT related to the Silver Line, it IS to carry the "Boston Terminal Runner" under D Street, alongside the Haul Road. The track will be reconnected to the Marine Industrial Park, in fact the load of rail mentioned by Stephen is for that purpose.

We were seriously bogged own during the winter between the weather, heavy volume, and trying to operate in several places at once.

The boxcars contained tie-plates for MBCR, and were a MOTHER to unload!

There will certainly never again be a street-railway connection to Conley Terminal (or anywhere else!), basically for the reasons cited by CSX Conductor. That is not to say that another solution to this problem could not be found, but the greatest obstacle to such a connection is the MBTA. The MBTA's "rail" operations are managed by a bunch of bus-drivers, who have no inkling of how to run a railroad, and no inclination or ability to apprehend such knowledge.

Our locomotive is presently stored inoperable, the prime-mover "stuck" last winter. We do plan to restore it to service, but we do not have a schedule for same.

I have never heard of any proposal that CSX should pave our facility for parking for the Convention Center (BCEC). Parking lots in urban areas (such as Boston) require FEDERAL permits, which are not in place, to my knowledge. Also, the BCEC has a large area available west of their building, which was acquired and cleared so as to be available for the planned future expansion of the BCEC (Hah!). Also, the original legislation for the BCEC prohibited the facility from hosting "gate" shows, as they would require too much parking, which would not be available. The South Boston community does not want to be besieged by traffic whenever there is a show there. The present requirement is that one park in the garage at the Marine Industrial Park (for $20!) and take the "free" shuttle buses provided to go to and from the BCEC.

That's enough for now...

[FatNoah]

The MBTA's "rail" operations are managed by a bunch of bus-drivers, who have no inkling of how to run a railroad, and no inclination or ability to apprehend such knowledge.

Have you been reading the MBTA forum? That's pretty much the consensus there as well.

Regardless, thanks for chiming in. It's good to see that there will be some rail activity in the area!

[efin98]

It's the beurocrats that run the T, the "bus" guy and his cronies ceased all connections when they forgot where they came from and what it actually takes to get the job done.

In other words, it's a consensus all around!


Here's a question: is it even possible for the company to expand beyond it's current operations? Is it content with it's meager work?(to me anyway, you may see it otherwise)

[Stephen]

Alan,
Good to hear that you guys are still keeping busy.
I certainly have seen more cars moving into and out of your space over the last two months. Flats, gondolas, box cars, and even bulk head flats, you sure are getting things delivered in and on all kinds of cars these days.
I even managed to catch a daytime CSX drop for you guys.
Since your locomotive is down, is CSX spotting cars for you when they drop them off, or are you making longer crane moves to unload cars?
Best of luck,
Stephen

[MikeB]

Do the cars go to BRT come into town via the Beacon Yard?