Check out the Niantic River Bridge on Google maps. If there was ever a time and place to straighten out some sharp "S" curves on the corridor, this is it. The bridge approaches (especially from the northeast) are an obvious candidate for easing and this is a great opportunity to build a new ROW when the bridge is being replaced. There is now money available to speed up the NEC and reducing curvature in many areas is necessary. It is no longer the money that's holding back high-speed rail, now it's simply the will to do it. Does Amtrak or the Federal Government have the guts necessary to take land and do whatever is necessary to make the NEC truly high speed?
It would be rather dumb to spend millions of dollars to just replace a major bridge on an exiting alignment and not make major improvements to the infrastructure..
BostonTrainGuy Check out the Niantic River Bridge on Google maps. If there was ever a time and place to straighten out some sharp "S" curves on the corridor, this is it. The bridge approaches (especially from the northeast) are an obvious candidate for easing and this is a great opportunity to build a new ROW when the bridge is being replaced. There is now money available to speed up the NEC and reducing curvature in many areas is necessary. It is no longer the money that's holding back high-speed rail, now it's simply the will to do it. Does Amtrak or the Federal Government have the guts necessary to take land and do whatever is necessary to make the NEC truly high speed? It would be rather dumb to spend millions of dollars to just replace a major bridge on an exiting alignment and not make major improvements to the infrastructure..
I agree, it would be nice to straighten a kink or two on the NEC and thereby shave a few minutes off the schedule between New York and Boston. Two problems come to mind, though: funds for improving the closest thing this country has to true (versus what politicians mean) high-speed rail will be squandered in sparsely ridden markets like Ohio, the Carolinsa, and the like. In other words, the bucks aren't there.
Second, the local inhabitants number among them one of the strongest, most vocal concentrations of NIMBYs in the country. This gang makes the ones in Rochester, Minnesota, who opposed DM&E, seem like a bunch of amateurs. This is the gang who, with the help of various labor groups, managed to delay the installation of catenary between New Haven and Boston for years, in part because they didn't care much for how it "looked." Rumors were spread that the electric wires would give everyone living nearby brain cancer (notwithstanding that neither Japanese nor Europeans who lived near electrified rail lines, nor even people living near the former PRR electric lines or the few other miles of US electrified ROW, had never been reported suffering larger than normal incidences of brain cancer), and all sorts of other shannannigans intended to frustrate and delay were perpetrated. These are the same idiots who resisted having a ROW completely grade-separated from highway crossings ("too ugly/don't need 'em!"), with the result that there remain (I think) seven highway crossings in Connecticut, though none an any other state. I was told that part of the reconstruction of the Connecticut Shore Line (between New Haven and New London) during the period of oversight by USRA also called for straightening a kink near one of the beaches, and popular opposition killed that project so dead that even its backers didn;t want to deal with it. Now -- do you really think these Luddite Nutmeg NIMBYs, these lovers of the "pristine" Long Island Sound shore line, nature lovers and who knows what else -- do you really think that kink in the line, or any others between New York and Boston, will get straightened?
Yes, the New Niantic River Bridge on the Northeast Corridor in Connecticut, WILL be built, as a three span bascule drawbridge, on a much higher and new approach alinement 58 feet south of the existing 1906 bridge. The $100 million cost includes restoration of the Public Walkway and removal of the old bridge. An added $35 million will be spent upgrading and repairing other Connecticut Northeast Corridor bridges.
Old Niantic River Drawbridge
Don U. TCA 73-5735
There are military security issues in this area that might have an influence on location of ROW and train speed. Is it a good idea to let passengers get a good, long look at submarines out of water?
"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood." Daniel Burnham
DMUinCT Yes, the New Niantic River Bridge on the Noryheast Corridor in Connecticut, WILL be built, as a three span bascule drawbridge, on a much higher and new approach alinement 58 feet south of the existing 1906 bridge.
This is an example of the necessity of the upgrades to all of the NEC whether it is the BOS - NH, the MN NH - New Rochelle, or the NYP - WASH segments. With a new alignment and raising of the bridge and ROW maybe only 20% of the required lifts that have been occurring will happen. The 7 minute average delay for ACELA trips there will be greatly reduced. Also the permanent slow order (30MPH ?) will be lifted reducing travel times. Anyone know how much higher the new bridge will be?
DMUinCTAn added $35 million will be spent upgrading and repairing other Connecticut Northeast Corridor bridges.
These upgrades will also eliminate some permanent slower orders.
Now if AMTRAK will just get a 10 to 15 mile segment upgrade started each year soon the whole NEC will be faster with less total time. When end to end time is reliably reduced by at least 1/2 hr or more then equipment turns cans be tightened and more passengers can be carried by the same amount of equipment.
Maglev There are military security issues in this area that might have an influence on location of ROW and train speed. Is it a good idea to let passengers get a good, long look at submarines out of water?
Yes it is. A State park with the "Nautilus", first nuk Sub, is on display and open to the public. Views of the Coast Guard Bark Eagle and Subs coming and going are a tourist attraction. The Whaling Port of "Mystic" and the Steam Trains at Essex add to the Vacation draw.
Electric Boat (General Dynamics Sub. builder),the North Atlintic Sub Base, and the Coast Guard Acadamy is located on the Thames River at New London, about 15 miles north of the Niantic River. The New London bridge was replaced this last Summer with a new Vertical Lift bridge. At Niantic the Northest Corridor runs along side a board walk next to the state beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, accross from the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
Few people ride end to end. It's Boston to New York, New Haven to Philly, New York to Washington, etc.
I was referring to Electric Boat--they carefully cover the propulsion units to prevent deciphering it's acoustics, but other parts of the craft are visible.
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