Passenger Trains > New London, CT - The merry-go-round

So you want to improve the city and increase train service? There are many lessons on good intentions gone bad in New London, CT.

From today's edition of the New London Day:


http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=add42579-ff4d-4f44-a846-e757ff7ca8ab

"Last week the DOT released a report on the prospects of expanding commuter rail service on Shore Line East, concluding it would be feasible by the end of the decade to increase rail service to New London — where Shore Line East provides only one morning and one evening train each weekday — to 156 trains per week."


156 Trains! Great! And the mayor of Worcester, MA, would love to have trains run on P&W's Norwich Line into NLC too. Currently Amtrak runs 18 weekday trains that stop at NLC. Of those, the Acela does so twice. The 6:35 am southbound (2151) is also the sole morning Shore Line East departure to New Haven (monthly ticket holders only). This is quite a swanky commuter trip!

Now here's the first catch...


"But the same report contained the bad news that a 2003 lease agreement with Amtrak prohibits expansion of the commuter service into New London until 2018. Amtrak owns the rails used by Shore Line East."


That "agreement" was first negotiated back in the late 1990s when the local weekend admirals were in an uproar about bridge openings at Niantic River, Shaw's Cove (both West of NLC and used by SLE), Thames River and Mystic River (both East of NLC and not used by SLE). Amtrak vacillated about the padding around each opening from as little as 5 minutes to as much as 30. The Navy could override this at Thames River for submarines but no one else. The Coast Guard got involved too and, at the end, the current number of trains was agreed to all the way between Old Saybrook and Providence. That's one reason why there is a commuter train gap on the NEC between these two stations.

And since Amtrak operated all SLE trains, they didn't think to include the state in the negotiations despite the fact SLE is state funded.

The rest involves the current round of urban renewal around the historic NLC station.

The NLC station owner wants out of a financial albatross since he's never made a real dime on the place, that is, outside of government funding. He keeps threatening Amtrak with eviction and Amtrak keeps threatening to pull out and move into a trailer (the Amtrak Police did just that some time ago - all the way to Midway: an isolated and useless location).

And Amtrak hasn't been a reliable rent payer. That leaves Greyhound as the only reliable rent paying tenant. I had offered to move into the attic area that the original station keeper occupied but was turned down. "Not the category of tenant we're looking for."

Thanks, nows folks thinks I smells bad. Auk! Auk! Auk!

Additionally, the long planned improvement of the area in front of the station is still years away. Currently the station sits in an isolated triangle bound by busy streets and the railroad. There is no designated parking around it save for Amtrak employees and taxis.

A pedestrian bridge from the city parking garage was voted down once already due to "aesthetic and historical concerns". The ferry companies (Long Island, Block Island and Fisher's Island) are in disagreement with it as well.

And that parking garage? The city charges a fortune to park there with a straight face (though not near as much as in New Haven), was built during an earlier round of urban renewal, has major structural defects and will probably be condemned.

Make it easy on yourself. Drive to Old Saybrook, park free and take SLE from there.

-PRR 5711

Solution - let's build a inland TGV/ICE quality line between New Haven and Providence, and relegate the Shoreline to local/commuter.

Actually, I've seen aerial surveys for the originally proposed HSR alignment from New Haven to Boston. It followed the "Air Line" northeast through Putnam and Blackstone, missing Providence (and all those damned movable bridges) altogether.

Unfortunately, Claiborne Pell of RI was one of the original "movers and shakers" of HSR in New England, so the line HAD to serve Providence.

rresor Wrote:
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> Actually, I've seen aerial surveys for the
> originally proposed HSR alignment from New Haven
> to Boston. It followed the "Air Line" northeast
> through Putnam and Blackstone, missing Providence
> (and all those damned movable bridges)
> altogether.
>
> Unfortunately, Claiborne Pell of RI was one of the
> original "movers and shakers" of HSR in New
> England, so the line HAD to serve Providence.

I saw the same survey and your dead on about Claiborne Pell.

Nearly all of the Air Line right of way is still intact. I've peddled most of the length of it from Portland, CT to somewhere near Route 146 near Blackstone, MA. The gaps are a few bridges, highways and getting through the towns of Willimantic, Putnam and Blackstone. ATVs do a good job of ripping it up. Though I began riding trails because I tired of being run off the roads by cars, bully encounters with hothead ATV vandals isn't a great thing either. They're illegal on the trail in CT but allowed in MA.

The Air Line is still one hell of piece of engineering; especially the two viaducts in CT, but, unfortunately, doesn't go through any major population centers between New Haven and Boston. The sections still in use are at the extreme ends; South - Cedar Hill to Portland (P&W) and North - Franklin to Boston (MBCR).

The trail in CT is the Air Line State Park and, in MA, is the Southern New England Trunkline Trail. This causes a bit of confusion with the Southern New England (Grand Trunk) Railroad. That right of way was never completed and parallels the Air Line from Douglas to Blackstone. The Google satellite view shows this very well.

The "Triple Crossing" near Blackstone is still very apparent (Bottom - P&W Main Line Providence to Worcester, Middle - Air Line, Top - unfinished piers of Southern New England).

In any case, the Acela could have screamed flat out all the way from New Haven to Boston on the Air Line with barely a pause. The 1890s era NY&NE White or "Ghost" Train certainly did. There were track pans installed at Putnam in 1891. Its successor, the 1895 Air Line Limited passed through New Haven without stopping, making it and the Acela the only two that ever did this.

Yep, it's a whale of a "could have been".

-PRR 5711

5711 Wrote:
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> In any case, the Acela could have screamed flat
> out all the way from New Haven to Boston on the
> Air Line with barely a pause. The 1890s era NY&NE
> White or "Ghost" Train certainly did. There were
> track pans installed at Putnam in 1891. Its
> successor, the 1895 Air Line Limited passed
> through New Haven without stopping, making it and
> the Acela the only two that ever did this.
>
> Yep, it's a whale of a "could have been".
>
> -PRR 5711

OK, let's put Providence on the Shoreline local and go for the airline. I wonder what we could get the Boston-NY trip time down to?

Yes, build a new line. Then send these 'weekend admirals' to Davey Jones Locker. It is amazing they have veto power over public transportation, just so their powerful cabin cruiser is not delayed.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> OK, let's put Providence on the Shoreline local
> and go for the airline. I wonder what we could get
> the Boston-NY trip time down to?

I mapped it out on google a few years ago, and concluded if you could get 180 mph train service on the almost straight line service, you'd have a 40 minute ride from New Haven to the Boston suburbs.

When the French built the TGV-Atlantique, they simply took out the surveyor's transit, plotted a nearly straight line for hundreds of miles, seized the land, and built the embankment for the tracks. Minimal curves, just like this route would be.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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>
> I mapped it out on google a few years ago, and
> concluded if you could get 180 mph train service
> on the almost straight line service, you'd have a
> 40 minute ride from New Haven to the Boston
> suburbs.

Yes, the Air Line is 18 miles shorter: 213 miles NYC to BOS versus 231 for the NEC via Providence.

The Acela now takes 3 1/2 hours to make the 231 NEC miles for an average speed of 66 mph.

I was about to post the figures for a trip with the current speed restriction on MNCR in place and an Air Line average speed of 100 mph but then I remembered that my mother once said, "Don't cry over spilled milk".

"sniff"

It's a bit over 2 3/4 hours. Bump up the average speed on MNCR to 79 mph and it's down to 2 1/4 hours.

:^(

-PRR 5711

5711 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was about to post the figures for a trip with
> the current speed restriction on MNCR in place and
> an Air Line average speed of 100 mph but then I
> remembered that my mother once said, "Don't cry
> over spilled milk".
>
> "sniff"
>
> It's a bit over 2 3/4 hours. Bump up the average
> speed on MNCR to 79 mph and it's down to 2 1/4
> hours.
>
> :^(
>
> -PRR 5711

You could make some serious inroads into the Boston-NY air market with that type of service.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> You could make some serious inroads into the
> Boston-NY air market with that type of service.

True, but the real social/economic benefit comes from making inroads in the automobile travel market (which this would do as well).

Dave