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Transit and Infrastructure All things T or civilly engineered within Boston Metro. |
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#21 |
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: West Medford, MA
Posts: 3,499
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Re: Berkshire Rail Service Restoration
As noted in the General Infrastructure thread, rail service to Pittsfield (likely an extension of NY/Amtrak service at Albany) is back in the news.
Apparently the idea of a CapeFlyer style *seasonal* service is still on http://wnpr.org/post/state-senator-n...d-state-budget
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"Trying to solve congestion by making roadways wider is like trying to solve obesity by buying bigger pants."--Charles Marohn |
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#22 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: West Medford, MA
Posts: 3,499
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Re: Berkshire Rail Service Restoration
They've apparently gotten funding for a "Summer 2020" test of a Cape Flyer clone, proposed as the Berkshire Flyer.
As with the Cape Flyer, the genius of these operations is that they use equipment at the ends/margins of their "weekday commuter" service day, squeezing extra revenue-hours out of equipment that is both "free" in the schedule sense and therefore "nearly free" in the economic sense. Before later switching to a dedicated trainset operating semi-express, The Cape Flyer started as a pure extension of an MBTA train that would have just gone to the yards at its "outer" end, and the Berkshire Flyer cloned this concept for its Option 1A in the Study such that it doesn't actually require new equipment, so much as it just runs Albany trains for a few extra hours: Quote:
Option 1B proposed a "Long(er) Weekend" semi-express (stopping at Croton-Harmon, Hudson, Albany & Pit only) that left NYP at 12:30pm and got to Pittfield at 4:20pm (Fridays) and then a Sunday return at 5:40pm into Penn at 9:30pm. Equipment availability was said to be there, but it had several strikes against it: 1) NYSDOT would not support a new train that failed to make all stops 2) (In my view) the Friday Outbound was too early. Option 2 contemplated a new connecting track and the use of CSX's Schodack Subdivision. But because this physically-shorter route would be slow (40mph) it only saved 4 minutes vs being able to go via ALB at 110mph. So I think the pilot is going to be an Option 1A (I'm not sure why they don't propose a Sat-Sat r/t such as the Cape Flyer has)
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"Trying to solve congestion by making roadways wider is like trying to solve obesity by buying bigger pants."--Charles Marohn |
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#23 | |||
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 587
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Re: Berkshire Rail Service Restoration
Quote:
The 35th page labeled ``27 of 51'' says this is expected to cost the state a bit less than a quarter million dollars for 20 weeks of service. Quote:
If it were practical to build a new track headed due west from Chatham, NY, it would take less than 10 miles for it to reach the passenger track. I assume in the long run, upgrading the freight track for better speeds might also be possible, although the cost may be difficult to justify. Quote:
The 33rd page (``25 of 51'') mentions the possibility of building a Chatham, NY platform. It makes lots of sense to start the service without that platform to get some data from actual experience on how popular the service is, but building that platform is likely to both reduce the operating subsidy, since it will increase ticket revenue with almost no increase in operating cost, and it also has potential to make New York be more supportive of the service, since a Chatham platform would mean that the Pittsfield branch would serve a station in New York state. The 41st page (``33 of 51'') says they expect 2600 passengers over the 40 one way trips per year, which works out to an average of 65 passengers per trip. |
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