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PROPOSED: Hartford-New Haven-Springfield Commuter/High Speed Rail Line


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It definitly is leaving Springfield behind. The economic hub of MA is Boston and state goverment is based in Boston which is a long way from Springfield and the entire Pioneer Valley...at least Worcester can reak the benefits from the fact that its close to Boston

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It definitly is leaving Springfield behind. The economic hub of MA is Boston and state goverment is based in Boston which is a long way from Springfield and the entire Pioneer Valley...at least Worcester can reak the benefits from the fact that its close to Boston

Yep, even though CT has it's main eye on Hartford, it still looks after the other cities as well. Bridgeport and New Haven in peticuliar.

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The Commonwealth has been working furiously to bail out Springfield. If they cannot get their own house in order I hardly see why the rest of the Commonwealth should have to fund them.

Their portion of the line would only be $30 million. Wouldn't this commuter line make Springfield a more attractive place to do business, with direct access to Hartford and more importantly Bradley? How much does it cost to operate and maintain a commuter line?

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Their portion of the line would only be $30 million. Wouldn't this commuter line make Springfield a more attractive place to do business, with direct access to Hartford and more importantly Bradley? How much does it cost to operate and maintain a commuter line?

I think the Commonwealth will fund the rail project, but the notion that the Commonwealth has abandoned Springfield isn't exactly fair. It's true that Boston gets a lot of the state's money, but it's also true that Boston makes a lot of the state's money. If the people of Springfield would elect some city leaders who could stay out of jail for a term or two, it would help the Commonwealth think it was worth working to fix the city. The alternative is a complete state take-over which is not good from a budget standpoint, nor from the standpoint of the fact that it removes a layer of democracy. But as I said, the people of Springfield haven't exactly shown they've been able to make good choices with that level of democracy.

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I think the Commonwealth will fund the rail project, but the notion that the Commonwealth has abandoned Springfield isn't exactly fair. It's true that Boston gets a lot of the state's money, but it's also true that Boston makes a lot of the state's money. If the people of Springfield would elect some city leaders who could stay out of jail for a term or two, it would help the Commonwealth think it was worth working to fix the city. The alternative is a complete state take-over which is not good from a budget standpoint, nor from the standpoint of the fact that it removes a layer of democracy. But as I said, the people of Springfield haven't exactly shown they've been able to make good choices with that level of democracy.

Well to be fair to the citizens, I am sure the field of candidates is pretty small generally speaking. Most qualified canditates in W. Mass, probably don't want the headache of trying to fix Springfield. I think they need someone fairly young and optimistic for mayor.

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^^That sort of hits the nail on the head for Springfield's political problems...everyone has an opinion for a way to fix the problems, no one really willing or competent enough to do anything about it....Right now the city is in the beginning stages of actually going in the right direction....and State control board that is overseeing the city finances has definitely helped....

I think the Mass. government will back the rail line. It seems to me that while both Hartford and Springfield will gain from the commutter line going in, Springfield stands to see the most gain out of this.

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This commuter line needs to spur through BDL. There are already tracks in place near BDL, however I don't know where they lead to. Having a commuter line run through BDL would make it a easier alternative for Fairfield country residents not having to go into NYC. At least run a bus from the Windsor Locks station to the terminal if a rail spur can't be done.

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This commuter line needs to spur through BDL. There are already tracks in place near BDL, however I don't know where they lead to. Having a commuter line run through BDL would make it a easier alternative for Fairfield country residents not having to go into NYC. At least run a bus from the Windsor Locks station to the terminal if a rail spur can't be done.

I think a shuttle bus from the WL rail stop to Bradley is in the current plan. A rail spur would be better. Perhaps down the line....

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This commuter line needs to spur through BDL. There are already tracks in place near BDL, however I don't know where they lead to. Having a commuter line run through BDL would make it a easier alternative for Fairfield country residents not having to go into NYC. At least run a bus from the Windsor Locks station to the terminal if a rail spur can't be done.

Uconn99:

the tracks near Bradley is CSO (Connecticut Southern) Railroad. CSO Suffield Branch goes from the CSO's main line - just west of the CT river bridge to Suffield. Just past the old Wicks Lumber store (on Rt 159) is a branch to Windsor Locks/Bradley. A few business do use the line. Now, The railroad can't get to the terminal of Bradley because Hertz built their lot on it.

I'd love to see more business use the railline. I've heard Honda might expand if they could get tracks there. Ford was going to build a Parts warehouse for New England, there too.

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  • 4 weeks later...

State aiming for 2011 start date:

http://www.courant.com/hc-aptrains.artjul3...19850.story

I was hoping for it to be sooner, but let's make sure this gets done. Jodi Rell appears to support it from what she's said, as does John Destefano, who says it would be a priority on his website. I didn't see anything about it on Dan Malloy's campaign site.. It would be crazy not to do this, Hartford must be involved with commuter service that hits just about every other major CT city.

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The 4 years is probably all planning time. Engineering and what not....

I may be wrong, but how hard is it going to be? Buy some trains, or borrow some from shoreline east or metro north, put them on the tracks, print schedules, hire people, and start. 2 years at most it should take.

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I may be wrong, but how hard is it going to be? Buy some trains, or borrow some from shoreline east or metro north, put them on the tracks, print schedules, hire people, and start. 2 years at most it should take.

You forget, this is the state were dealing with!!!

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Well, the problem with that is that the New Haven-Springfield corridor is not electrified and we cannot use the electric engines on this line.

My hope is that another track is laid (Amtrak tore up the second line in the early 90's to sell as scrap metal...) and that the line is electrified like the rest of the northeast corridor. That way, trains will be able to flow through New Haven with ease instead of requiring transfers and engine changes.

Edited by mikel
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Well, the problem with that is that the New Haven-Springfield corridor is not electrified and we cannot use the electric engines on this line.

My hope is that another track is laid (Amtrak tore up the second line in the early 90's to sell as scrap metal...) and that the line is electrified like the rest of the northeast corridor. That way, trains will be able to flow through New Haven with ease instead of requiring transfers and engine changes.

True, I never thought about the electric over heads, but I doubt that will be done. The only way it would be done is if they added the electric overheads all the way to St. Albans, and that would be another huge expence for Amtrak. If state was planning on doing electric overhead, I would think they would want to go in on it with Amtrak since they could start using electric trains all the way from the Canadian border to Washington.

Edited by uconn99
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State aiming for 2011 start date:

http://www.courant.com/hc-aptrains.artjul3...19850.story

I was hoping for it to be sooner, but let's make sure this gets done. Jodi Rell appears to support it from what she's said, as does John Destefano, who says it would be a priority on his website. I didn't see anything about it on Dan Malloy's campaign site.. It would be crazy not to do this, Hartford must be involved with commuter service that hits just about every other major CT city.

Despite the time frame this is great news. I hope there is some consideration by the State of Mass to extend this service to Northhampton. Also, this will allow imput for bus connections all along the line. Done correctly Wallingford, Hartford, Springfield and Meridan stations could be completely intermodel.

Mark

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True, I never thought about the electric over heads, but I doubt that will be done. The only way it would be done is if they added the electric overheads all the way to St. Albans, and that would be another huge expence for Amtrak. If state was planning on doing electric overhead, I would think they would want to go in on it with Amtrak since they could start using electric trains all the way from the Canadian border to Washington.

No way. The Amtrak shuttle goes to Springfield and back many times a day (yet costs too much and too infrequent to be commuter service). Anything beyong that is Vermonter territory, which is really just a (very slow) daily sightseeing trip. It would be ridiculous to electrify anything beyond Springfield.

Amtrak won't want anything to do with that anyway. It's up to the DOT to give us decent train service.

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Despite the time frame this is great news. I hope there is some consideration by the State of Mass to extend this service to Northhampton. Also, this will allow imput for bus connections all along the line. Done correctly Wallingford, Hartford, Springfield and Meridan stations could be completely intermodel.

Mark

It's not going to Northampton, at least at this time. It's up to Massachusetts to help fund the rail to Springfield, and most people think they will go along with it to help Springfield.

The stations and plans have actually already been done. The DOT just has to choose which plan they are going to use (cheap plan, middleground plan, expensive plan).

Most likely, the stations will be: New Haven Union, New Haven State St, Hamden, Wallingford, Meriden, Berlin, Newington, Hartford, Windsor, Windsor Locks, Enfield, Springfield.

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Are they cr3eating a Newington Station? I don't remember one being there...

Yeah, that's pretty much a definite. There is a diagram of it on the website in pdf format. Yes they will build a new one.

There is also an abandoned railroad station in Newington today, but you have to know what you're looking for. Hopefully those old stations will all be preserved.

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