Commuter Rail to Rhode Island Discussion

[MBTA F40PH-2C 1050]

the MBTA announced that there will be two more stations built, there will be the one at T.F. Green, (Warwick) and then there will be a station built at North Kingston

here is the article

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO14237/

there was a mentioning of 5 double deckers being bought, are these the wones that are already in the order, or 5 more, bringing the total to 38?

[Ron Newman]

Will the North Kingstown station be on the NE Corridor mainline, or on one of the spurs that heads off towards the ocean?

[Ron Newman]

Also, I hope this will lead to:

- Saturday and Sunday service to Providence (currently, weekend service ends in South Attleboro)

- a stop in Pawtucket

[MBTA F40PH-2C 1050]

nope, it says in the article, still no weekend service for Rhode Island trains

[Ron Newman]

I don't see what good an airport connection is if it's only on weekdays.

[Robert Paniagua]

I read about that in this morning's Boston Metro. But they won't be able to use the K car Double Decker, since they are banned after PVD, thus requiring only single level's to be used.

[Ron Newman]

Why do the double deckers not fit south of Providence?

[octr202]

From earlier discussions on here, its apparently in the Amtrak employee timetable that they are banned west of Providence.

What we don't know is where that specific physical restriction is -- it could be anywhere between Providence and New Haven, the ETT might just ban them east of Prov. since right now they don't have any reason to be out there anyways.

[Diverging Route]

the MBTA announced that there will be two more stations built, there will be the one at T.F. Green, (Warwick) and then there will be a station built at North Kingston

here is the article

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO14237/

there was a mentioning of 5 double deckers being bought, are these the wones that are already in the order, or 5 more, bringing the total to 38?

These are the five cars already funded by RI in the current purchase (900-932). As has been stated before, there are no "specific" cars funded by RI; rather it funds the an increase in the pool of available cars by five. So if only singles run south of PVD, so be it. The MBTA/MBCR needs the flexibility to run whichever cars it needs to on different runs. Remember: train sets are not dedicated to specific lines; they wander around the system on predetermined schedules, modified as required by maintenance issues, etc.

[CSX Conductor]

From earlier discussions on here, its apparently in the Amtrak employee timetable that they are banned west of Providence.

What we don't know is where that specific physical restriction is -- it could be anywhere between Providence and New Haven, the ETT might just ban them east of Prov. since right now they don't have any reason to be out there anyways.

For one, the catenary is lower. I honestly cannot re-call any other clearance restrictions since they are close to the same height as an F40.

I don't see what good an airport connection is if it's only on weekdays.

I beleive it is mainly for commuters heading to work in Boston M-F, just like Connecticut's Shore Line East. Also, perhaps some Acela Regionals will service the T.F. Greene stop.

[Arborwayfan]

If they find that lots of weekday travellers are using the commuter rail to get to Green airport, the T and RI might be more interested in extending Saturday service. The same goes for weekday service, by the way; the T would probably be pretty happy if they could get morning passengers from Canton Jct. or Attleboro or whereever to TF Green, to take up some of hte empty seats on the trains going out for to come back on the midmorning runs. (Are there trains that go back out now, or is it still just in in the morning and out in the afternoon?) They won't do it on spec. If people in Providence or Attleboro or whereever say and show that they will use the service, they'd have a better chance. Maybe a pilot project with buses would show interest?

[CSX Conductor]

Providence passengers already have service to TF Greene via bus. RIPTA has local bus service which goes from Downtown to the airport. Bonanza also serves TF Green on many trips to/from their Pawtucket Terminal as well as a stop in downtown Providence.

[Ron Newman]

Bonanza stopped running to TF Green a couple of years ago.

[Arlington]

Will the North Kingstown station be on the NE Corridor mainline, or on one of the spurs that heads off towards the ocean?

The North Kingston Station is proposed for the Neighborhood of Wickford Junction, a section of North Kingston given its name from a spur off the NEC to Wickford Harbor, but the neighborhood actually extends considerably south of the rail junction proper.

The Wickford Junction station is proposed as the southern terminus of the MBTA commuter line. Its well suited as commuter's terminus because of its location that takes full advantage of easy highway access to Route 4 (I'm picturing a whole lot of park-and-ride commuter parking--such as would be difficult to squeeze in at the Warwick/Airport complex, and there isn't much road access for West Kingston/URI).

The Wickford area also has available undeveloped land nearby that can be used for transit-oriented "smart growth" (because park and ride, by itself, just encourages sprawl).


I've made a Google Map of 950 Ten Rod Road, North Kingstown RI 02852 to show a location at the intersection of the NEC and Ten Rod Road (Route 102). Don't take the address literally, its just designed to be generally where they put the "Proposed Wickford Junction Station" markers, namely somewere on the north side of Route 102 and on the east side of its cloverleaf with Route 4.

Of course, the address is very much an approximation based on my interpretation of the planning presentations such as can be found at http://www.planning.state.ri.us/transportation/tod.htm as well as http://www.northkingstown.org/planningd ... r_rail.htm

[Nyterider]

From earlier discussions on here, its apparently in the Amtrak employee timetable that they are banned west of Providence.

What we don't know is where that specific physical restriction is -- it could be anywhere between Providence and New Haven, the ETT might just ban them east of Prov. since right now they don't have any reason to be out there anyways.

For one, the catenary is lower. I honestly cannot re-call any other clearance restrictions since they are close to the same height as an F40.

Exactly. The Kawasaki's were deliberately built 15.5 feet tall rather than the full 16 standard height for bilevel equipment for a few low clearances around Boston, including the Salem tunnel, IIRC. Even the bells on MBTA's F40s are on the "nose" instead of the top of the locomotives. Wasn't that also a height consideration?

Anyway, they NEED to run bilevel trains on this line. Imagine an MBTA HHP-8 pulling 9 Kawasakis! That's the kind of ridership this extension would generate.