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Visions for the Commuter Rail

blink55184

By blink55184
in Greater Hartford

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uconn99 Hamlet

uconn99

Posted
Posted

Willimantic had such a rich railroading history, its too bad all the tracks through Andover were replaced with trails, bridges stood up until around 1999.

Back in the 1930's, you could board a train in Willimantic and go to Boston, Providence, Hartford, Springfield, Palmer MA, Waterbury, New Haven, NYC, New London, and others. The Hurricane of 38' pretty much devestated alot of the rail and never fully recovered.

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redbaron Whistle-Stop

redbaron

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the line from new haven to hartford would have to be something by CT, not metro north, unless the MTA decides to run it (although i doubt that would happen since their main concern is NYC). the reason the line would run west of the river is because it would follow the highway, which is generally what commuter lines do (since highways generally represent where the highest population density exists). so to go along with that, there would be commuter lines from waterbury to hartford along 84, from norwich to hartford along rt 2 with a connection to new london, and the only one that wouldn't really follow a highway (although it should be a highway) is willimantic to hartford along rt 6/384.

ideally, shoreline east would be extended to westerly connecting mystic and groton to new london to take the train to hartford.

and yes, schedules would have to be sync'd to make transfers in the various cities. ideally, bus schedules would also be sync'd with the train schedules. there will always be the problem of a late train and that's just something people have to live with, even in places like NYC, you never know what might go wrong (i was once on a train that was late because a building collapsed in harlem next to the tracks).

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jdrct Unincorporated Area

jdrct

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Ideally, they would electrify the line and add another rail since most of the way from New Haven to Springfield it's only one rail (thanks Amtrak for ripping up the 2nd rail in the early 90's...)

But will they go that far? Well, the least they will do is fund Amtrak to run the commuter rail like they do Shoreline East. But they could do so much more.

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JimSawhill Hamlet

JimSawhill

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Willimantic had such a rich railroading history, its too bad all the tracks through Andover were replaced with trails, bridges stood up until around 1999.

Back in the 1930's, you could board a train in Willimantic and go to Boston, Providence, Hartford, Springfield, Palmer MA, Waterbury, New Haven, NYC, New London, and others. The Hurricane of 38' pretty much devestated alot of the rail and never fully recovered.

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uconn99 Hamlet

uconn99

Posted
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Jim,

Nice info, I knew it was one of the big hurricanes that did some damage.

Do you mean North Windham and not East Windham? The rails would have cross main st in Willimantic just west of the current frog bridge and continued Northeast along Rt 66, behind Builders concrete. There is still a bridge, that crosses the Shetucket river that was paved over as a walking trail once again. I believe these are the old rails that went to Pomfret?

As for P & W running auto trains, where are they orginating? I asume New London via Willimantic to Palmer? There is work being done currently in Willimantic to replace a lot of rail. Work was being done when I was home last a few weeks ago on the second bridge crossing the Willimantic river that hasn't seen active rail crossings in some time besides the ocassional parked freight cargo.

I also believe there is currently no rail link from Willimantic to Hartford any longer since the rails have been replaced by walking trails?

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JimSawhill Hamlet

JimSawhill

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Jim,

Nice info, I knew it was one of the big hurricanes that did some damage.

Do you mean North Windham and not East Windham? The rails would have cross main st in Willimantic just west of the current frog bridge and continued Northeast along Rt 66, behind Builders concrete. There is still a bridge, that crosses the Shetucket river that was paved over as a walking trail once again. I believe these are the old rails that went to Pomfret?

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uconn99 Hamlet

uconn99

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Sorry to keep this off topic but it is interesting subject for me.

Jim,

I also have heard Toyota was interested in putting cars on the line, do you know where they are going to? Rumors I have also heard would be having double stack container cars, but there is some issue with clearence in Vermont.

Builders Concrete I believed used to have Cement dropped off behind their plant. They are one of the largest concrete companies in the state and I would think this would be a good idea to get this back up and running. Also, you have a waste to energy company down the road could use the rails, a couple car dealerships could get cars from the rails, and also a large retail center in North Windham.

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blink55184 Whistle-Stop

blink55184

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This could really be so much easier than building busways...

2zrdfsp.jpg

There is so much room and extra lanes on these highways, they wouldnt be needed with light rail, especially the HOV lanes... The rentschler stop could be where the now abandoned movie theatre is...plenty of room for commuter parking too...Near wickham and 291 could be a commuter lot....MCC can have alot more parking..there could be so many less cars in the city

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blink55184 Whistle-Stop

blink55184

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No maps here, but TONS of graphs and charts showing economic and employment changes that could have occurred had the line been put in place.

Griffin Line Major Investment Study

Economic Impact Analysis

Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis

UCONN

http://ccea.uconn.edu/studies/Griffin%20Li...al%20Report.PDF

Another interesting article here from The Connecticut Economy, 1999.

Talks about how Southwest saw Bradley as "having a lot of room to grow"......

very interesting article

http://cteconomy.uconn.edu/TCE_Individual_...e_Northeast.pdf

4icnz8h.jpg

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mikel Hamlet

mikel

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Yet the DOT keeps pumping millions into the highways. 100 million was instantly approved to renovate the outdated raised section of I-84 that splits Hartford into two and ruins the urban landscape. Yet nobody seems outraged over that. And still, I hear people complaining about funding commuter rail at all. This state is really depressing sometimes.

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Bill Mocarsky Hamlet

Bill Mocarsky

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Yet the DOT keeps pumping millions into the highways. 100 million was instantly approved to renovate the outdated raised section of I-84 that splits Hartford into two and ruins the urban landscape. Yet nobody seems outraged over that. And still, I hear people complaining about funding commuter rail at all. This state is really depressing sometimes.
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