Passenger Trains > Shore Line East acquisition question

I saw a brief story on a New Haven news broadcast last night concerning CDOT's Shore Line East commuter railroad acquiring coaches from Virginia Railway Express. The report mentioned that the equipment would have to be repaired and upgraded before being put into service.

Does anyone know what equipment VRE is planning to sell to SLE?

Is there hope for increasing the frequency to New London and closing the commuter gap between there and Providence?

-PRR 5711

Brazilian-built single level coaches. VRE has grown SO much that they need bilevels, to the extent that they are replacing the single level cars with old bilevels from Chicago, pending acquisition of new equipment.

Ooh!! Mafersa's on the shoreline!!! Time to plan a trip once they arive.

In regards to the commuter rail to New London and Providence, will never happen. Amtrak is limited by the Coast Gaurd as to how many trains a day they can run, and right now, they are 2 or 4 short of that.

Ah, the wonders of bascule bridges...

Thanks Gene, even the TO news didn't elaborate on which cars and I don't have a VRE roster.

I knew about the Weekend Admirals at Shaws Cove and Mystic getting the Coast Guard to limit the number of trains by mandating a minimum "up time" on all five Southeast Connecticut movable bridges.

There were a lot of words exchanged and Amtrak wondered aloud why it did all the line upgrades if they can't substatially increase train frequencies.

I wonder too (now that SLE has the equipment to do so). I'll go back and try and get the details.

The five bridges are; Old Lyme (Draw-Connecticut River), Niantic (Draw-Niantic River), Shaws Cove (Swing-New London), Thames (Draw-Thames River) and Mystic (Swing-Mystic River).

Gilbert American Flyer made a tinplate model patterned after the Shaws and Mystic Swing bridges.

-PRR 5711

the VRE equipment will go to SLE, but the Bombardiers from SLE will go to MNCR pool. to free up 2000 seats for new haven line. the planning is also to run the VRE's on the shuttles in Danbury/Waterbury/Upper Harlem to free up 12 bombardiers for GCT service.

Not all Conn-DOT Bombardier cars are alike. 10 of them (numbered in the 1600's ?) have on board diesel generators {**} obviating the need for a HEP-equipped engine, as the old ex-PATrain cars didn't require one either (the cab car was the 480v generator car). I suppose these will leave Connecticut for the 1st time. Wonder if they have HEP pass-thru lines ?



** like the old LIRR P-72 2900-series PS coaches now popping up all over North America in tourist service

Yes the onboard HEP (volvo Penta) has not been used in years. even the PAT engines had HEP installed in later years. the cars do have normal HEP systems and cables and have been used as locomotive fed only.
as far as leaving state for first time not true I personaly deliverd the cars to New Haven from Croton-Harmon. power was FL9AC 2040 and B23-7 806

Jaap, will this be the end for the SPV2000's???? I know they are no longer powered, and are just BTC's and CTC's, but will they be retained???

They will still be used for now, as Conndot is very short on cars overall.
The intend was to buy about 20 cars but they ended up getting 38, how it will effect the former SPV's (now called Constitution liners)I don't know Conndot has in past expressed hope of retiring them.

Tell them to put the constutionliners up for sale. The MBTA might buy them, as they are very short on equipment ever since Bombardier took over the maintence.