|
|
| Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery (1024474) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery |
|
|
Posted by aem7ac on Tue Jan 11 19:12:56 2011, in response to Re: PHOTOS: MBTA MPXpress Locomotive #010 In Delivery, posted by WillD on Tue Jan 11 18:28:04 2011. The extreme distance between stations, especially on the Red Line to Braintree, means that a commuter rail EMU capable of higher speeds would likely maintain the same schedule south of JFK-UMass even if it accelerated slower than the Red Line stock. And of course it'd be much simpler to get the Old Colony lines operating with three or four tracks available, rather than the single track left over once the Red Line was finished consuming the commuter line's ROW.It is well known that the problem there was that MBTA had full expectation that commuter rail would die and therefore wanted to put down as much rail rapid tracks as possible while Federal money was available back in those days. In the 1960s-1980s, the fashion was to convert failing commuter rail lines to modern rapid transit systems. That wasn't a bad bet back then. It probably still isn't a bad bet now. The real issue here is that we have Federal laws prohibiting track sharing between rail rapid transit and commuter rail. But even that's changing. The Red Line consuming valuable track space isn't as big a problem now as it was in the pre-Chatworth pre-PTC world. |
|
|
|