Guilford, CT

[Toejam]

I was enjoying a morning of Amtrack watching at the Guilford Ct station and I noticed all trains I observed were running left hand operations. I was fortunate to see two new Acela trainsets pass within a few minutes of each other, both running left hand.
Is this now the norm for this section of the NEC?

[Anonymous]

On Amtrak's New England Division, where virtually all of the mainline tracks are signalled for operation in either direction under operating rule 261, we may run any train in any direction on any track. In the mornings on the CT shoreline, we have the ConnDoT Shore Line East commuter trains running west on Track no.2 (lefthanded) in order to stop adjacent to the platforms (without any intervening tracks) of Westbrook, Clinton, Guilford and Branford, all located on the south side of the railroad.

With these trains setting the flow of traffic west on track no.2, the available route for eastbound moves becomes track no.1. This tends to continue to about mid-morning when the ConnDoT's are done, and the P&W comes out of Cedar Hill with their freight NH-1.

D.D.Perry
Train Dispatcher
Amtrak
CETC - Two South Station
Boston