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Company looks to start commuter service in New England
$3-5 sounds a bargain… to the point that I wonder if they know what they’re getting themselves into. Still, I wish them luck.
This is definitely something to keep our sights on as it develops, especially if it can succeed without public funds and financing.
And what do they plan to use for a station in Providence?
I believe Providence & Worcester has a track into or through the Providence station of Amtrak and MBTA. Presumably that is the station they will use.
I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for this one. He may have a letter of understanding from the P & W but I excpect that come 2017 we’ll hear that Amtrak is holding up the permits needed to run on the Northesast Corridor so he can use Providence station. The MBTA may have something to say about all of this too. If you want to see this line you should ride the annual Mass Bay RRE excusion in October rather than waiting for this operation to happen.
Some unknown guy plans to run an unsubsidized commuter service between two places that may or may not need it. Good luck with this one. I bet it will never turn a wheel.
Articles states that Boston Surface Rail would be first private passenger rail company since 1983. What about All Aboard Florida? That’s a private passenger rail company that was created just 4 or 5 years ago and is a heck of a lot larger than this one. And it has much bigger plans.
As someone who was there and wrote about the P&W rebirth in the the 1970s, I wish them luck and hope the plan works.
This address of this “company” is a PO Box for a law office in Arlington, MA, a suburb of Boston. The principal, Bono, started promoting his business research for a PVD to/from Worcester commuter rail operation at the beginning of 2015. Here’s a brief CV for Bono from the Worcester Business Journal of January:
“…Bono is new to the railroad business. His career has focused on the technology sector with expertise in communications and networking, which he said can be applied to the logistics involved in running trains. He has experience consulting for government contractors and is an expert in the area of automatic collision avoidance, technology that Congress has required all rail operators to implement by the end of this year…”
$3M-$5M to get such a service off the ground is a ridiculously low amount of money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. My guess is something else must be afoot here.
I would begin to believe this only if the P&W RR (which already has its own passenger equipment to run excursions) officially acknowledged this proposal, which to my knowledge it hasn’t. Maybe Trains Magazine can poke around a bit more to determine what is really going on, starting with an inquiry to the P&W.
“[T]he first private passenger rail company since 1983”? Although they also have freight services, what about the various Iowa Pacific passenger train ventures, as well as AAF? Going by the CV quoted below, it sounds as though Bono is a llawyer and technogeek who really does not know what he is getting into, and is only trying to make a name for himself in the area.
@ Daniel Carlton and Jeffrey Matthis - the P&W does use the non-electrified Track 7 through the Providence station … I believe, however, that that track, as well as the trackage east and west thereof, is owned by Amtrak, it certainly is dispatched by them; clearly operating and access agreements would have to be reached with Amtrak. Otherwise, the end of the line for this new commuter operation would be at what remains of the old Silver Spring Yard in Providence, where the P&W does have its own trackage, but is a mile-plus away from downtown …
I suspect the first private passenger railroad since the 1980s - using a definition that excludes tourist services and excursions (plenty of those) or private services hauled by Amtrak - will be the Eastern Flyer, which is (was?) due to start this summer (presumably it’s delayed but Ellis has a good track record here.)
I don’t think Amtrak is going to try to prevent this project from getting off the ground (it’s an intrastate project after all, and not even a very long one), but I think even if they were unhappy about it, they wouldn’t need to.
I’m a little baffled the media isn’t treating this more credulously.
Reading the other comments, it’s hard not to be pessimistic about this coming off, but with the right combination of marketing, useful destinations, a connection to real estate near the stations, and connections with other systems, it could be made to work.
Mr. Harrison, this is not an intrastate project. Worcester is in Massachusetts and Providence is in Rhode Island. In any event only a railfan would think that this is ever going to happen.
To some New Englanders, New England IS the country. The last privately owned in New England was probably 1983.