I grew up with the old Eastern to Newburyport. As of 1936, it was double track Northey Point to Portsmouth. Nothing encroaches on that between North Beverly and the current Newburyport station. At Hamilton/Wenham and Ipswich, the current track is on the old easterly RoW. It remains there through the curve past the bank, and on to Newburyport. The current track moves from one side to the other several times between the End of Double Track at North Beverly and the Ipswich River bridge; this is evident from the MoW access road on the other roadbed. The Rowley station was built for a second track on the west side of the current platform.
Ipswich already has a long passing siding. There's a longer siding between Hay St. and Rt. 1 in Newbury, which I don't think has ever been used for a scheduled meet. The design of the Newburyport station allows the siding to be extended east. Going nearly to Low St. would give excellent operational flexibility without stopping trains near any residences.
From Parker St. to Merrimack St. in Newburyport, the RoW is three or more tracks wide. From Merrimack St. to Rt. 110 in Salisbury, it's 2 tracks. On that part, it's quite practical to give the RR 20 feet and the bike path 10, but there will be complaints. But as has been said, none of the existing trail was done with any thought to co-existing with a revived railroad.
Now that I'm retired, I plan to walk the RoW east from Salisbury once it's frozen enough I won't return covered in ticks. Some 85 lb. rail is still in the woods west of the nuke in Seabrook, but I think everything else is gone. I haven't looked into why Seabrook didn't daylight their underpasses, but it might have something to do with keeping trucks from short-cutting through the residential part of town.
Ipswich already has a long passing siding. There's a longer siding between Hay St. and Rt. 1 in Newbury, which I don't think has ever been used for a scheduled meet. The design of the Newburyport station allows the siding to be extended east. Going nearly to Low St. would give excellent operational flexibility without stopping trains near any residences.
From Parker St. to Merrimack St. in Newburyport, the RoW is three or more tracks wide. From Merrimack St. to Rt. 110 in Salisbury, it's 2 tracks. On that part, it's quite practical to give the RR 20 feet and the bike path 10, but there will be complaints. But as has been said, none of the existing trail was done with any thought to co-existing with a revived railroad.
Now that I'm retired, I plan to walk the RoW east from Salisbury once it's frozen enough I won't return covered in ticks. Some 85 lb. rail is still in the woods west of the nuke in Seabrook, but I think everything else is gone. I haven't looked into why Seabrook didn't daylight their underpasses, but it might have something to do with keeping trucks from short-cutting through the residential part of town.