Vermont Rail Action Network

The New England Central Railroad has finished three quarters of the Vermonter route upgrade, part of the ARRA stimulus fund.

All 18 trainloads of rail has been laid while ties, surfacing and bridge work will continue south of White River Junction this spring and summer to instal 50,000 ties, redo 25 switches and strengthen and speed up 15 bridges.

At certain times the work will cause delay's to Amtrak's Vermonter by up to 30 minutes.  This is because after new ties and ballast have been installed, the track must settle a bit and slow orders are imposed until it does.

When finished the project will result in a schedule within Vermont that is 27 minutes faster.  Massachusetts and Connecticut have their own projects (Massachusetts will be done in 2013, Connecticut in 2016) that will bring futher speed improvements en-route to New York.

The project has received a "no findings" status from the federal audit, which is good.

The goal is to finish work by September 12th, after which the track geometry car will visit and measure and certify to work, with speeds raised by the fall time change.

The project is on track to be the first "high-speed" stimulus fund project completed.

Amtrak's Vermonter is running again!   

October 1st was the first day of service on the whole route the length of Vermont after bus substitions while track was rebuilt and flood damage from Irene cleaned up.

There is currently a delay of about an hour within Vermont due to slow orders on the track because the subgrade hasn't compacted yet.  I'm told these should go away in a few weeks.

Nearly four weeks ago Hurricane Irene swept across RailAmerica-operated NECR, which stretches from the Canadian border near St. Albans, VT, to New London, CT. Railroad crews discovered the extent of damage on August 30 and quickly restored service to NECR’s north end between Burlington and Swanton, VT, and its south end between White River Junction, VT, and New London, CT.

But things were different on the NECR’s mid-section, roughly White River Junction to Essex Junction, VT, where Irene downed trees, washed out track and knocked down bridges. Damage was especially severe across six miles of rail line near Roxbury, VT. Rail service through the Roxbury area was restored on September 19. The NECR arranged for some shipments to move via detour trains and alternative routes while the Roxbury section of the railroad was out of service.

It took a team of close to 90 people and 15,000 tons of ballast to restore rail service on the NECR. “We appreciate our colleagues’ hard work, our customers’ patience and the cooperation of our connecting carriers” said John E. Giles, RailAmerica President and Chief Executive Officer. “I am especially proud of the fact that our professional railroaders handled this incredible job both quickly and safely.”

The NECR worked closely with the Vermont Agency of Transportation to coordinate the work, gain access to otherwise closed state roads and perform emergency repairs. Several railroads in the region, including Canadian National, Pan Am Southern, Amtrak, and Providence & Worcester provided much needed equipment to transport large volumes of rock and fill. Local Vermont vendors worked tirelessly to provide support in the form of crushing stone for ballast, trucking, and railroad contract services. “We greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts and team spirit” said Charles Hunter, RailAmerica AVP of Government Affairs.

For many reasons, Americans have become attracted by "high-speed" rail, and thus the term has been used widely when what is really meant is highER speed.  That is, making a normal train go a little bit faster, on a normal route.

Just to muddy things further, in Europe and elsewhere a "high-speed" train (the streamlined kind that are electrified and capable of 200+ mph) often will leave the "high-speed" route alignment and continue the rest of their journey (more slowly) on the regular rail network.  Not unlike leaving the interstate and continuing on a US or State highway.  In this way, the zoom of the high-speed line is taken advantage of by a wide region, using the fast line for only a portion of the trip.

Like water turning to steam, there is a phase change in the engineering requirements for running trains faster than 100-135 mph or so.

Different kinds of track, route alignment, electrification and equipment are required.

Beginning this weekend, the Vermonter will experience a short bus substitution.

The last southbound train will be on Saturday the 28th with all service covered by substitute busses until the southbound on June 3rd.

More bustituion may occur through the summer as construction work advances, at times possibly only north of White River Junction, at times north of Brattleboro.  Details have not been decided.

An article regarding the lack of funding for the western corridor in the latest high speed rail grants, included:

Christopher Parker of the Vermont Rail Action Network, a statewide advocacy group dedicated to improving rail service in Vermont, said Monday that although the Vermont proposal for grant money was a good one, there simply weren’t enough dollars to go around. 

“We have a situation where there were $10 billion worth of applications for $2 billion worth of expense,” Parker said. “What we have is a national problem of a country that is not spending what it needs to on infrastructure.” 

Congressman Welch has signed on to the below letter.  He continues to fight for HSIPR and the Western Corridor.

Support Funding for the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program

Dear Chairmen Murray and Latham and Ranking Members Bond and Olver:

We respectfully request $2.5 billion for the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program in the Fiscal Year 2012 Transportation and Housing & Urban Development appropriations bill.  High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) is important to our country’s economic prosperity, transportation system and national security.

Upgrades to the route of the Vermonter between New Haven and Springfield Mass received $30 million dollars more of federal funding in the latest awards using money rejected by Florida.

Connecticut had asked for $227 million and is contributing a like amount in state money raised from bonds.

Connecticut already has received $40 million for a 10-mile section of track in the first round of high-speed rail funding and $121 million for further work in the second round. 

"In the $227-million request, Connecticut transportation planners had included $20 million for Springfield's Union Station. The money would have gone to repair pedestrian tunnels at the station and bring the platforms at the 1926 building up to modern handicapped accessibility standards", according to the Springfield Republican

"The city has plans to renovate Union Station into a bus and train station with office space, retail, enclosed parking and a child-care center at a total cost of about $70 million with construction beginning in summer 2012," the Republican says.

The federal grant announced Monday specifies the money will be used for double-tracking.

"It appears they went after projects that are shovel-ready with an idea towards getting the projects started and putting people to work," Brennan told the Republican. 

 Steven Harrod at CNN has an interesting analysis of the Republican opposition to high-speed rail in America.  It's worth a read and it shed's light on the state of our country in general.

The summary of his argument is thus:

"Much of the opposition to rail projects appears to stem not from economic arguments, but from fundamental cultural values on what "American" transportation should be."

Congress recently eliminated the high speed rail and intercity rail program which Vermont used to pay for improvements now happening on the Vermonter route and from which we hope to draw on for work on trains to the Western side of the state.  The New York Times editorialized yesterday that this "is harebrained."  Fortunatly Vermont's congressional deligation are solid rail supporters, but we are concerned about the partisonship on the national level.