[NERAIL] Worcester Question
qo-no...@juno.com
Park to Worcester?
Will the current locals that work out of Beacon Park and Readville also
be moved to Worcester?
Many Thanks
Bob
McLachlan, John S.
Get your last photo ops of Beacon Park in action. Domestic freight transloading moves to Worcester officially on Sept. 1. All that'll remain after that are the engine house and the yard sandwiched between the toll plaza and Storrow (should stay open into 2013 because CSX still hasn't found a replacement refueling/maintenance facility in MetroWest), the 2 customers attached to the yard (Houghton Chemical and Romar Transportation), and bare trace yard freight for inside-128 customers through Fall until the new facilities in Worcester and Westborough are 100% done (probably squeezed under the Pike Viaduct so they can completely de-staff the main yard and operate strictly from the engine house). International freight already went to Worcester on April 1, and they are on-schedule to divert everything east of Framingham by year's end except for the daily to Everett terminal and irregular-schedule consists of multiple locomotives to the engine house for refueling.
Unlike Harvard, CSX is doing everything right on-schedule.
Summer freight schedule to the yard from RR.net: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewt...99099#p1059560.
--------------
John McLachlan
Draper Laboratory
Cambridge, MA 02139-3563
jmcla...@draper.com
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/johnmc
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John Reading
Listers: As said on this List seven years ago, when Harvard bought the land underlying Beacon Park from the then-struggling Mass. Pike, Harvard’s chief asset is time (plus that $38 billion endowment). The World’s Greatest University, unlike CSX, is not under pressure to “make earnings” in any given fiscal quarter or face hostile-takeover rumors (as circulated today). And even Mayor Menino will “pass and be forgotten with the rest.” [Sorry, that’s a Yale line ... however appropriate.]
Prediction from seven years ago (though I won’t be here to see it): by 2050 the Mass Pike will be straightened between Cambridge Street and Commonwealth Avenue, with a double-track MBTA commuter line mostly underneath it (all this on Harvard land) … the life-expired 1962 tollgate/entry-exit structure [originally built away from the heart of NYC’s then-active Beacon Park] will be removed and a new one built to the east … and Harvard will make the best use it can of as much land as it can acquire, clear and remediate between Cambridge Street and the relocated Pike/MBTA corridor, all of which will be directly across the street from whatever land it already owns (or will own) in Allston.
JWR
> From: jmcla...@draper.com
> Subject: RE: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
> To: ner...@googlegroups.com
> CC: qo-no...@juno.com
Arnold Reinhold
The freight schedule link was clipped. Here's the full link:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=99099&p=1059560&hilit=beacon+schedule#p1059560
Arnold Reinhold
qo-no...@juno.com
Allan Zecchini
Salem, NH
(the guy with the blue Camry with the short 19" Ham Radio antenna on the roof)
John Reading
Old B&A R-O-W from Division Post with Boston Terminal Co. to former Tower 9 (west of today's CP 3):
Taken 1959 for the Pike; B&A reserved easement for 2 tracks.
Pike sold underlying land to MBTA c. 2005.
Beacon Park Yard:
Taken 1959 for the Pike; B&A reserved easement for yard; easement passed (via NYC/PC) to Conrail.
Releasd
-+
-ddxded d to ) to CSX.
Pike sold underlying land to Harvard 2005
West of Beacon Park (about old Tower 10 = west of Cambridge St.) to Riverside:
Taken 1959 for the Pike; B&A reserved easement for yard; easement passed (via NYC/PC/Conrail) to CSX
Riverside - Framingham: Sold by Penn CentrAla to MBTA eyh . l
Subject: Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
Dave Saums
"World's Greatest University"? According to whom, pray tell? Some other folks in other countries might disagree with that.
Regardless, they are out of money. See the article this week in the Wall Street Journal. No more $38 billion in the bank. To quote the WSJ article and paraphrase a quote therein, in essence, the freewheeling days at Harvard are over given the terrible decline in the piggybank numbers. Perhaps we could ask Mr. Buffett to plunk down another $20 billion or so and buy up all of CSX, then there might be an equal foe to do battle with Harvard and Cambridge. Alas, too late.
This squishy piggybank problem possibly could have an effect on how fast Harvard moves on any part of their side of the equation. The new science center is already on hold and the whole project may take a long, long time to finish. The neighbors are whining.
The entire concept of the move out of Beacon Park seems to be very wrong and one might think that someone at Harvard could have come to that conclusion, also, but I suppose the greed at the university trumps everything else -- and Cambridge will do anything to appease. Let's just truck everything across Massachusetts and see how many more commuters we can kill on the Pike if we put lots more tractor-trailers on the road.
It will be too bad to see Beacon Park go away.
Dave Saums
Amesbury MA USA
qo-no...@juno.com
John Reading
Listers: Here’s the corrected version: my computer had a brain cramp late last night and emailed the “under-construction” text to John.
Boston & Albany right-of-way from Division Post with Boston Terminal Co. [about at Tremont St.; old Tower 3] to old Tower 9 [west of today’s CP 3]:
Three-track R-O-W (plus Trinity Place and Huntington Avenue stations) to old Tower 5 (Huntington Avenue); Exeter Street Yard; four-track R-O-W from Massachusetts Avenue to old Tower 9 – all taken 1959 for the Mass. Pike Extension. B&A reserved an easement for two tracks. Exeter Street Yard became the Prudential Center c. 1962-1965. Two-track easement passes (via NYC-1961/PC-1969) to Conrail (1976). CR easement sold to MBTA c. 1981? after T [via B&M] took over Framingham commuter service from CR. Pike sold underlying land to MBTA 2005.
Beacon Park Yard:
Taken 1959 for the Pike; B&A reserved an easement for its yard (as its tracks existed after Pike Extension completed c. 1964 – hence the sweeping reverse curves in the Pike alignment); that easement passed (via NYC-1961/PC-1969) to Conrail (1976) and to CSX with Conrail breakup (1999). The Pike sold the land underlying the CSX yard easement to Harvard, 2005. As CSX gives up any “railroad use” of parts of this land, presumably Harvard regains full control.
West of Beacon Park [beyond old Tower 10, west of Cambridge St.] to Riverside:
Four-track R-O-W taken 1959 for the Pike; B&A reserved easement for two tracks; easement passed (via NYC/PC/CR) to CSX. [Note that both east and west of Beacon Park, the Pike took a good deal of additional land outside the B&A R-O-W to build its highway ... ]
Riverside-Framingham:
Four-track R-O-W sold by Penn Central to MBTA, c. 1975. PC reserved easement for two tracks. Easement passes to Conrail (1976) and CSX (1999).
Framingham-Worcester:
2009-2012: MBTA acquires two- and three-track R-O-W Framingham-Worcester from CSX.
Responding to Dave Saums: While I mistrust the reporting of today’s Wall Street Murdoch (as compared to its distinguished Pulitzer-winning predecessor, the Wall Street Journal), I will grant that Harvard’s endowment took a bigger hit than I realized – and that the “World’s Greatest University” (quotes added) has had to stretch out its plans for expanding into Allston. However, we’re back to my original premise: Harvard has the luxury of time to make use of the Beacon Park acreage it obtained on the cheap from the Pike. Harvard's previously announced plans for developing Allston (c. 2000) ran through 2050, and didn’t include any part of Beacon Park – possibly on the assumption that CSX would stay there longer. [Never-answered question seven years ago: is the CSX Beacon Park easement perpetual “for railroad purposes,” or 99 years from 1959?]
Quote from miscellaneous Harvardiana stash:
“Is that you, John Harvard?”
I said to his statue.
“Aye, that’s me,” said John,
“And after you’re gone.”
And so it may be with Beacon Park, after we’re all gone.
JWR
Subject: RE: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
joh...@megalink.net
Dave Saums
All quite interesting, even for those of us who knew some of the history. The appearance of this summary is that it is something of a patchwork quilt, but that also reflects that a number of these projects were undertaken at different times. The biggest change, though, was the taking of land and construction of the Mass Pike, which totally revamped the landscape and appearance of the area east of Weston and into Boston. That also meant what has become by now a critically important highway into Boston from the west and much of the metro area residents. Imagine trying to commute into Boston today by car, if the Pike had not been built! That would be chaos.
What I do not see in many of the news reports about the taking of Beacon Park 123 and what amounts to the termination of rail freight service at Southboro and Worcester, is an emphasis on the number of daily inbound tractor trailer loads and the number of daily outbound empty trailers there will be, all now added to the Pike volumes. Somehow, I do not think I would want to live in the corridor from about Weston east through Newton, Allston, Brighton, given what that will mean.
Granted, some percentage of loaded rail freight cars (box/tank/other and intermodal) that arrive in Beacon Park today are destined in fact for consignees outside of Boston itself, meaning that loads are trucked from Beacon Park to Mansfield or Walpole or back to Framingham or up to Lowell, etc., it still seems that the total change in number of truck hauls required (loads plus empties, perhaps on about a 3:1 basis for each loaded freight car and 2:1 or 1:1 for each loaded intermodal flat) on the highways will be quite a penalty to pay.
Dave Saums
Amesbury MA USA
Subject: Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
Paolo Roffo
I once read that 75% or more of the trailers and containers coming into Beacon Park were headed to final destinations along or outside of I-495. Closing Beacon Park should (theoretically, anyway) actually remove traffic from the east end of the Pike.
I imagine the Transflo traffic currently handled at Beacon Park is probably in the same boat; what remains that's actually destined into the city can probably be handled just as easily from Readville. Obviously the two remaining carload customers around the yard can still be served by B721 from Framingham.
Paolo
Dave Saums
I understand, but doesn't that then still require truck traffic added to I-90, I-495, etc.? I see CSX and NS trailers here on the North Shore on I-95 repeatedly, heading north as well as south towards the city of Boston, as well as on I-93 in both directions. I also see other carriers' (obviously intermodal) COFC and TOFC transloads on these same roads. The "X" is always a dead giveaway. They are coming from somewhere and that run will now only get longer, yes?
I would be interested in seeing what the reference you recall was. I have various volumes of rail studies and traffic plans, but for much longer ago than just the last ten years, say. Mine go back as far as to include the original USRA volumes for the planning that led to Conrail's formation, so those aren't useful in this regard -- and way too out of date.
Dave Saums
Amesbury MA USA
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 15:25:12 -0400
Subject: Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
Dave Saums
____
Beginning of quote:
Project Manager Ned Codd justified the move by noting that much of the freight that comes into the yard must be trucked back out to the 128/495 belt. Currently, the Commonwealth and the railroad are working together to raise 14 highway bridges between the New York state line and Westborough to accommodate the now standard double-stack shipments; raising the clearances all the way into Boston would be prohibitively expensive, he said.
While the aim of taking truck traffic off the roads certainly argues for the expansion of rail yards on the suburban periphery, planners seem oblivious to the likelihood that closing down Beacon Park would markedly increase the volume of trucks driving in to service the urban core, putting further strain on the Turnpike, Route 9 and other regional highways. They justify the closure as allowing for the upgrading of the Boston-Worcester line for increased passenger rail service, which would purportedly take more traffic off the roads than would be generated by added truck traffic coming into the city—hardly a convincing explanation. Retaining Allston for some freight use and perhaps also using one or two smaller yards (e.g., Framingham, in addition to Westborough) could allow for a more even distribution of freight yet not increase the strain on our highways, but such a proposal is not on the table.
CSX is eager to expedite this project in order to meet its September 2012 deadline to move out of Beacon Park Yard; however, the railroad did not unveil the planned expansion to the public until last winter. Its haste and alleged highhandedness have provoked controversy in Worcester, particularly from abutting residents and business owners (“Property owners unhappy with CSX eminent domain strategy,” Worcester Telegram, October 21, 2010). Since it was first announced, the total size of the yard has grown from 51 acres to 79. Several small streets would now be closed and homes and businesses taken, leading people to question whether all the proposed property takings are necessary for the project.
But the most urgent issue in the rail yard controversy is less discussed: the transport, storage and transferring of hazardous materials in highly populated areas, e.g., chlorine gas, ammonia and other highly dangerous shipments. Once again, CSX has been less than forthcoming. In response to a Worcester City Council order in April requesting information about the number and amount of hazardous materials it transports through the city, the railroad dodged the question (http://www.worcesterma.gov/city-manager/csx-expansion-plan, “CSX Expansion Plan – Update, 5/18/10”). The narrative of its November ENF ignored the issue, save for a brief discussion of solid and hazardous waste where it asserted that the project does not meet the MEPA review threshold, or require any special state permits for their use and storage (same website, ENF Part I, p. 5-22).
CSX has
also minimized concerns expressed by officials of neighboring towns, and by the
public. Chemicals are to be transferred at the Westborough
facility, 30 per cent of which are considered to be hazardous—but not chlorine,
according to the railroad (“Officials consider safety in rail deal,” Boston
Globe, November 14, 2010), which will be shipped through the site to
unspecified destinations. The railroad was openly contemptuous to
selectmen from adjacent Southborough, who wanted to discuss their safety
concerns with its representatives (“CSX draws criticism in Southborough,”
Wicked Local Westborough, December 4, 2010). At a public
meeting in Worcester early this month, its governmental affairs liaison for
Massachusetts brushed aside such issues, declaring that the completed terminal
will be “one of the greenest terminals in the CSX system,” with “emissions . .
. less than what they are today” (“CSX environmental study at issue,”
Telegram, December 3, 2010).
__________
End of quote.
Dave Saums
Amesbury MA USA
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2012 15:25:12 -0400
Subject: Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
qo-no...@juno.com
John Reading
As we leave Back Bay we enter a tunnel under the Prudential Center, built on the site of B&A’s former Exeter Street coachyards that stored and serviced passenger cars. As we leave the tunnel, with the Turnpike still on our right, we pass behind Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. YAWKEY station (mile 2.6), named for former Red Sox owner Thomas A. Yawkey, serves commuters in the Kenmore Square areas and baseball fans bound for Fenway Park. Yawkey is just west of the site of former BROOKLINE JUNCTION, where the ten-mile Highland Branch to Riverside left the main line.
The B&A Highland Branch
The Boston & Worcester opened a branch from here to Brookline Village in 1848, connecting there to the Charles River Branch Railroad that began building west from Brookline in 1850. In 1883, the B&A bought the Brookline-Newton Highlands track from the New York & New England Railroad, into which the CRB had long since been absorbed, and extended it through Newton in 1886 to rejoin the B&A main line at Riverside. From 30 trains each way in 1912, schedules declined to only a half-dozen rush-hour trips by the mid-1950s. At the peak of passenger service, trains ran in “Circuit” service from Boston to Riverside out the Highland Branch and back on the main line, or vice versa. B&A locals ended May 31, 1958; the Metropolitan Transit Authority bought the Highland Branch several weeks later for conversion to rapid transit. After a year of reconstruction, the Highland Branch reopened July 4, 1959, using PCC streetcars operating into the downtown Boston subway. Since then the MTA has become the MBTA, the “streetcar subway” has become the “Green Line,” and Boeing Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) and Japanese-built “Type 7” streetcars have replaced the PCCs. Large parking lots and frequent, fast all-day service at low fares contribute to very heavy ridership on the Highland Branch since its rebirth. As the “D Riverside” branch of the Green Line, it carries far more people than ever rode the plush seats of B&A coaches behind the steam tank engines of the commuter trains. After the Highland Branch was sold, a stub track served the Sears Roebuck warehouse at Park Drive (now the Landmark Center), but it was removed when the warehouse closed.10 years later, it's worth noting that continually increasing train service on the ex-B&A Framingham/Worcester line has greatly reduced the number of commuters who drive to the T at Riverside, park their cars, and ride into Boston on the Highland Branch. Gradually the massive parking lot opened in 1959 has been reduced -- mostly by the T expanding its Riverside yard and shops.
JWR
Subject: Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
george kenson
NERRGuy
| I hope that this does not start a nasty political argument, but while the Boston Globe is certainly part of the mainstream press, I am not sure that the Herald would be considered part of the mainstream press. --- On Fri, 8/3/12, george kenson <ken...@comcast.net> wrote: |
dsa...@msn.com
Wall Street Journal is doing well, now the largest circulation in North America. Different target for audience (national and international, not single urban area) but also clearly mainstream.
It would be interesting to know how the various WSJ printing plants, such as Chicopee, get their newsprint. Far more important traffic than the Globe's, given volumes.
Dave Saums
Amesbury MA USA
-----Original message-----
qo-no...@juno.com
Arnold Reinhold
John Bay
John Reading
JWR
From: joh...@megalink.net
G Kenson
Chalmers Hardenbergh
John Reading
George: Herewith the "mainstream media" report from the Globe, last Jan. 13:
"Earlier this month, the Globe and the Boston Herald announced that beginning on Jan. 23, the Globe will print and deliver the Herald as the tabloid seeks to cut costs and prepares to move from its longtime headquarters in the South End to the Seaport District. As a result, the Herald is cutting the jobs of 53 truck drivers and other delivery personnel through layoffs and buyouts."
Discussions had been going on for more than a year ...
JWRr
Subject: Re: RE Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
To: ner...@googlegroups.com
Chalmers Hardenbergh
G Kenson
Chalmers Hardenbergh
joh...@megalink.net
McLachlan, John S.
Indeed – the spur is just west of Cove interlocking – although they moved to trucks years ago so the spur hasn’t been used in ages.
The building will be torn down for the “ink block” project – which means the spur on private property will probably be going. I assume they’ll just cut it at the bridge over Herald st – I can’t see it worth anyone’s time to actually remove the switch, especially when speeds are so slow at that section of track.
Actually, looking at a sat view (http://goo.gl/maps/3VPHK) I’m sure the new building will want to front the street, so the embankments will probably go, so we may have some herald st alterations…
--------------
John McLachlan
Draper Laboratory
Cambridge, MA 02139-3563
jmcla...@draper.com
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/johnmc
-----------------------------------
Imagine a whole pack of penguins; ready to explore your brain
From: ner...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ner...@googlegroups.com]
On Behalf Of Arnold Reinhold
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 4:52 PM
To: ner...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: RE Re: [NERAIL] Worcester Question
It was the Herald i was thinking of. They have a siding that branches off the B&A just west of South Station.
G Kenson
----- Original Message -----From: McLachlan, John S.
--