South Station Expansion

Last week there were a couple of articles in the Globe about a proposed expansion of the commuter rail facilities at South Station. The first article described the collapse of the initial deal involving the Postal Service, MBTA, and a private developer that was going to develop the property and allow the MBTA to expand with 5 more tracks and platforms at South Station to relieve congestion. The next day, another article was published saying that the T was now thinking about purchasing the entire 15 acre site and adding as many as 11 additional tracks to South Station. The major concern is that with the private developer dropping out, the MBTA, already $4 billion in debt, may not be able to secure the financing to make the deal work.

The MBTA can't afford not to make the deal the work. As the articles point out, next year commuter rail service is scheduled to be expanded to Worcester now that the state has worked out a deal to purchase the tracks from CSX that run between the state's two largest cities. Additionally, the long-proposed South Coast commuter rail expansion to New Bedford and Fall River is slated to occur in 2015 or 2016. Add to that anticipated increases in ridership on other commuter rail lines and on Amtrak in the Northeast and there is certainly a need to expand Boston's busiest rail station. Located in downtown Boston, there is certainly limited room adjacent to South Station so an opportunity to pick up prime real estate such as this should be seen as a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity and the state and MBTA should make all efforts to complete the deal. David D'Alessandro, who recently completed a top to bottom financial review of the troubled agency stated in the Globe that the T still has certain assets that it could sell to possibly finance such a purchase. In addition, development of the rest of the property could easily pay for some of the up front costs. This is more than just a nice opportunity for the T, it is an essential expansion project if sustainable rail travel is going to be allowed to continue to grow in the Boston area and throughout the Northeast.

FRA Shuns Northeast Corridor

I read in the Globe today that none of the $8 billion in stimulus money that was set aside for high speed passenger rail is going to be directed to the nation's only functioning high speed corridor, the NEC. Apparently the issue is that the Federal Railroad Administration, which controls the funds, has said that it will not allow funding for projects until a full environmental review has been conducted. Since the planners along the NEC weren't preparing for this, there is not enough time to complete a full review and apply for this year's funds and probably not enough time to apply for next year's $2.5 billion in high speed rail money available next year. To not fund necessary upgrades to the corridor most supportive of rail travel in this country is short-sighted. The Acela high speed train was the only line in Amtrak's entire system to turn a profit last year. The proposed upgrades, which are shovel ready, could decrease travel time between Boston and DC by as much as an hour! If that doesn't get more people riding, I don't know what will. To require a full environmental review for an existing 450 mile corridor that travels through eight states and the District of Columbia because of a few upgrades is byzantine and ridiculous.

That is not to say that other areas of the country are not perhaps more desperately in need of transit funding. In particular, California is a huge potential market for high speed rail and really needs it to improve air quality and reduce sprawl. The silver lining in this announcement is that infrastructure upgrades in other areas could increase the constituency for rail travel and make continuous future investment more of a guarantee than it has been over the past 3+ decades. However, I firmly believe that we should prove the ability for high speed rail to succeed in the US by demonstrating it in the Northeast while the rest of the country improves its infrastructure.

Here is the full article.

ACES Train

This weekend I went down to Atlantic City to hang out and do some gambling. One of the nice things about AC is the ability to get there completely via mass transit. My roommate Jay and I took Bolt Bus to and from NYC and stayed in the city with my friend, Will. I had taken Bolt Bus once before and I must say that although the buses are newer and nicer than other Boston-NYC buses, the seats are not more comfortable. I was never able to find a particularly comfortable sleeping position, which was definitely unfortunate on the 4+ hour ride.

The highlight of transit for the weekend was the Atlantic City Express Service train, or ACES, operated by Amtrak between New York and AC. It was just rolled out this year and features four double decker cars with coach, first class, and even lounge seating available. The brand new cars are very comfortable, and as an added bonus, you're never more than one car away from the beverage station.

The train is scheduled to take two and a half hours and makes one stop in Newark. It takes an interesting route in that you leave NYC going southwest along the Northeast Corridor until you almost reach Philadelphia. Then you switch over to New Jersey transit track and go southeast to NYC (this also requires changing from electric to diesel engine). This was the first time I got to travel on the NEC south of New York and the ride was very smooth. I estimate the train topped out at about 80-90 mph. At one point on the way down we were passed easily by an Acela train probably going 125 mph. It would certainly be nice if all of the track between Boston and NYC were as smooth as that we rode over.

Our trip was not without its problems, mainly a 25 minute delay leaving New York on Friday. The trip cost us $29 each way. The bus is cheaper and without traffic can take about the same amount of time, but I would recommend the train for its comfort, access to drinks, and more or less guaranteed travel times.