I ride my bicycle on the rail trails along the section of Pan Am railway right of way in Northampton and have been watching and waiting to see the project begin. The below clips tells a little about it with a photo of the “New” Pan Am Railway passenger train which is the old Guilford business train redone. I guess you can call it new/old passenger train.
One spot I have to carry my bike across the two sets of rails to access a different rail trail. Somewhere a tunnel is going to be put under the right of way as this section will no doubt be all fenced in eventually.
I thought maybe a walk over bridge would be put in. What ever it will be, it has to be handicap usable.
I see many handicap on electric power small carts, mothers pushing a baby in a stroller and many, many bike riders.
Many who walk to and from work or local shopping cross the tracks at different points. I see that a lot.
We run into that problem rather frequently in the Chicago area. Many underpasses in the city itself will flood after heavy rains, in part due to the high water table. Many newer underpasses are equipped with pumps to deal with that issue.
The linked article - which is pretty comprehensive (although somewhat slanted - only 10 MPH for the train now ?) - only mentions the Vermonter as using this route, southbound at 11 AM and northbound at 4 PM. Where does it - or any other source - specifically mention any other trains, or additional service of X trains per day ?
The work at the proposed tunnel location is likely relocation of existing underground utilities in the area - which looks to be numerous - and/ or drainage line installation. Here are the coordinates of the approximate location, based on this quote from the article: “Also part of the infrastructure upgrades will be a tunnel running under the major north-south rail lines to connect the Northampton Bike Path at King Street with the Norwottuck Bike Path at Woodmont Street.”
N 42.32832 W 72.63232
Some years ago - Fall 2002 ? - we rode the Norwottock Rail-Trail / Bike Path from Hadley (on the east side of the Connecticut River) to the Whole Foods on the west side of Amherst, then back to the west side of the River (the I-91 interchange construction prevented going any farther at the time), and then back to Hadley. The long multi-span through-truss bridge over the River is neat. I’d like to get back up there and do that trail again - and many others, too !
All I know is the Amherst Route is being eliminated. Amtrak will continue through Springfield, into Chicopee and Holyoke up through Northampton. New stations in Holyoke and Northampton.
Right now when I bike along the rail trail right next to the right of way and Rt 5 road, I measure about 15mph on my bike when pacing the Pan Am freights. Many spikes have pulled up over time in that area as I walk the tracks.
Sometimes Pan Am services the Mt Tom power plant with coal but rumor has it, that plant might be shut down. Apparently they are not using “Clean Coal” there. Ever see the Clean Coal TV adds?
No doubt a lot more might be planned for this new link that I am not aware of but a lot of money is being poured into this.