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Connecticut receives federal grant for Springfield line
I am happy to hear this; high level platforms are LONG overdue in Hartford.
I wonder if the State were not errantly paving over a former rail corridor and using nearly 60 million dollars a mile for a 10 mile bus only road between New Britain, CT, and Hartford; they could (with far more benefit to the public) double track the entire New Haven, CT, to Springfield, MA., Hartford Line and likely even electrify it.
I want to see the busses durning the first weekday Nor’easter snow storm. Lol if you commuted into town on a bus that day.
I hope this includes double tracking the Springfield branch, which Amtrak tore up in the biggest act of civic barbarism since the departure of McGinnis.
The state of Connecticut should check with the Germans who implemented a busway in Germany and have not replicated it because of its dubious operational characteristics. The ought also to talk with the Cambridge County Council in the UK who may be now have finally implemented a busyway project that’s at least two years past its originally scheduled implementation date and vastly over budget. Connecticut is nuts to pour money down a busway rathole. If the Germans don’t replicate something, there’s usually a very good reason! There are excellent precedents to running rail commuter service during the day and freight at night. The state would be wiser to pursue something like this and retain the all rail route between Hartford and Waterbury that will otherwise be permanently truncated.
Quite frankly, I was surprised when Amtrak decided to single track the New haven-Springfield line, which eventually hastened the elimination of the inland corridor trains via Worchester between Boston and New Haven.