Passenger Trains > CTrail's first day of operations: Saturday 6/16/18

CTrail inaugurated its Springfield - Hartford - New Haven service on Saturday 6/16/18 and Sunday 6/17/18 with with $0 fares. Amtrak also honored the joy riders' free tickets on its existing New Haven - Springfield shuttles (but not on the Vermonters) to give the public a sense of what the whole service offering would be like. The free rides were well publicized by the media apparently as many of the trains were jammed with standees. Whole families (grandparents/parents/kids), seniors, foamers and showed up on a gorgeous Saturday to take round trip on the line. The only fly in the ointment is that while CTrail ran four car trains, Amtrak shuttle consists remained at two cars (one coach and one Metroliner cab car). While CTrail trains were SRO, Amtrak crews had to deny several riders from boarding on their return trips once the shuttles were full at 200 or so riders. The Conn River line double-tracking only runs south from Windsor CT to New Haven and is a work in progress. On a few short segments Amtrak is permitted 110mph operation while CTrail's former MBTA MBB coaches are limited to 80mph. North of Windsor, the route remains single track with a passing siding a few miles south of Springfield - and the ride is a bit rough.

Photos 2 & 3 show the first northbound train from New Haven, CTrail 6400, arriving to the throngs at Springfield.

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Train 6401 southbound from Springfield was fairly full when we departed but by the time we left Windsor, it was SRO (and the A/C was wasn't working very well!). Note rider with "Save Amtrak Fire Anderson" cap. 6401 would get progressively later at each stop as crowds got off and on requiring several minutes of station dwell. I de-trained at the new station at Berlin to catch a return ride on a northbound Amtrak shuttle.

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As a decent crowd waited for nb Amtrak shuttle 460, sb Amtrak shuttle 461 arrived. Note gantlet track switch that Conn Southern will use to avoid freight cars from hitting high level platform (I don't know if every freight will use the gantlet or only those with excess width cars. Looks like train speed on and off the gantlet will need to be slow). Shuttle 460 arrived Berlin about 15 minutes late and Amtrak crew warned us that not all of us would be able to board due to over crowding.

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As 460 got ever later heading north, there was angst among those riders who were planning on taking Amtrak shuttle 463 south from Springfield to get home. The 460 crew said 463 would be held at Springfield until our arrival implying the connection would be made. And when we arrived at the Springfield platform, Amtrak shuttle 463 was still there but its crew said the train was too full to take on additional passengers and off it went once engineer climbed aboard. I'm not quite sure how/if resolution was achieved. Ideally, if CTrail planners anticipated the magnitude of the crowds that would enjoy taking their families on free train rides, the Amtrak shuttle consists would have been lengthened to 4 cars to match the CTrail consists but...

It will be interesting to see what ridership level is sustained by CTrail/Amtrak on this line.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/18 04:59 by JPB.

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Is CTRail separate from Shore Line East, or is this a new "brand" for Connecticut state services? Is the New Haven paint scheme going away?

Is the new Springfield station open or is the Amtrak one at track level still being used? Cannot tell from the photo.

Amtrak station is still track side and has not yet moved to the restored Union Station.

Posted from iPhone

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Is CTRail separate from Shore Line East, or is
> this a new "brand" for Connecticut state services?
> Is the New Haven paint scheme going away?


This is the new branding. All rail services will be CT Rail, and the New Haven paint is going away.

Those cars appear to be the former MBTA MBB "Comet-Like" cars.

It also appears the roof lettering was left intact from the MBTA! Great coverage and pics!