Vermonter CT River Line Reroute set for December 29

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afigg

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Tickets are now available on the Amtrak website for travel on the Vermonter to Northampton (NHT) and Greenfield (GFD) MA starting on December 29. So the reroute to the CT River Line corridor is set for Monday, December 29! Progress. According to reports at railroad.net, both new stations will be using temporary platforms until permanent platforms are completed in 2015. The Holyoke MA station is also supposed to open in 2015.

No significant schedule change with trip time savings at this time north of Greenfield.
 
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What an awkward time of year!

I was planning to do a quick overnight, up to partially visit relatives in Windsor up on the last day via Palmer (December 28th) back on the inaugural via the new faster route. December 28th is a tricky time of year. I was thinking this would be a few weeks later in January.
 
Amtrak has posted a new 1 page timetable for the Vermonter. effective December 29, 2014. The new schedule has the Vermonter taking 1:12 for the 40 miles from Springfield to Greenfield northbound and even longer at 1:28 southbound. Either the tracks will still be under slow orders or the Vermonter will spend a long time waiting to depart at GFD and NHT.

The new timetable does say: "The schedule shown here is the Vermonter’s initial schedule via Greenfield, Northampton and Holyoke. Schedule adjustments will be implemented in the coming months upon completion of additional infrastructure improvements." So the projected 25 minute reduction in trip time will wait until 2015. The new timetable also states that the Holyoke stop will open in Spring 2015.

As for the odd choice of starting the re-route in the middle of the holiday period, I suspect that is likely due to 1) To meet a goal of starting service in 2014, even it is with only 2 days to spare and/or 2) the Gov. Patrick administration wants to take a victory lap with press coverage while Patrick is still in office. The new Governor is sworn in on January 8.
 
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afigg said:
As for odd choice of starting the re-route in the middle of the holiday period, I suspect that is likely due to 1) To meet a goal of starting service in 2014, even it is with only 2 days to spare and/or 2) the Gov. Patrick administration wants to take a victory lap with press coverage while Patrick is still in office. The new Governor is sworn in on January 8.
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Both good theories. IOW, it's most likely pointless showboating at the expense of customer convenience. Anyone using Amherst to travel out of town for the holidays

will find the train no longer serves their station when they want to return home.
 
jis said:
Northampton isn't really that far from Amherst. They will know that they can get to Northampton.
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Yeah, they are close. And I realize that no matter when you make the switch, there will be some people who will face that situation. Still,

it seems tone-deaf to change things up right in the middle of a holiday travel period. Seems like Jan. 5 would be a more logical date,

unless there are factors we're not aware of here.
 
It's not that big a deal. Everybody complains that it takes too long to effect changes at Amtrak. This is one change that is moving ahead. That's good. I'm sure local folks in Amherst will be smart enough to adjust.
 
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afigg said:
Tickets are now available on the Amtrak website for travel on the Vermonter to Northampton (NHT) and Greenfield (GFD) MA starting on December 29. So the reroute to the CT River Line corridor is set for Monday, December 29! Progress. According to reports at railroad.net, both new stations will be using temporary platforms until permanent platforms are completed in 2015. The Holyoke MA station is also supposed to open in 2015.

No significant schedule change with trip time savings at this time north of Greenfield.
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That's odd -- it is supposed to cut half an hour off the trip, right?

Maybe this decision is due to slow orders due to continued construction, and we'll see the trip time cuts after the permanent stations open. This is actually fairly likely with three stations under construction.

Also, they've literally kept the exact same times as before at all stations in Vermont. So they may be doing that until they agree on a new schedule with NECR. They probably don't want to change the schedule with NECR multiple times.
 
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I'm actually thinking that they want to see how much time they actually save before changing the timetable. As you noted, cutting 30 minutes off only to add ten minutes back might irritate the host RR...but it would also run the risk of irritating and/or confusing passengers.
 
There will undoubtedly be slow orders surrounding all three under-construction station sites. I think they may not want to change the schedule until that's gone away.
 
neroden said:
There will undoubtedly be slow orders surrounding all three under-construction station sites. I think they may not want to change the schedule until that's gone away.
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There may also be slow segments for grade crossings until the grade crossings have been upgraded with timing changes. I read comments on railroad.net that there is a public education campaign to alert local drivers along the route that the trains will be going considerably faster. If this line has been a 10 mph track for decades, then all the local residents have gotten used to very slow trains and many likely have gotten into the habit of beating the train across the grade crossing. Going from 10 mph to 79 mph is a big change that people living along the route will have to adjust to.
 
Well, I'm booked on the inaugural southbound and the last train via Palmer the evening before northbound with a nice evening with my relatives up there! It was a little more expensive than I hoped and will be getting off in New Haven Southbound $44 versus $70 (I can take Metro-North home for only $12.50, getting off at Fordham) Looking (not) forward to what I'm wondering will be a really crowded trip on the Vermonter. I assume there will at least be a celebratory atmosphere, although I assume the dignitaries will ride their own train.
 
At least based on what happened with the first Norfolk train, I was seated about two seats from the then-director of the DRPT, and the cafe car closely resembled the executive break room at NS's DC office. There was a big train down from WAS the previous day, but everyone went back on the normal train.
 
It is worth noting that when this takes effect the cab cars that have been dedicated to Vermonter service will be able to be transitioned over to Shuttle or Keystone service. For a fleet that's stretched very thin I'm sure this will be a welcome reprieve. This will also hopefully help cut down on the occasional Mechanical delay since the train won't need to be MU'd anymore for the cab car/locomotives. It should also probably allow one of the protect engines in New Haven to be cut loose since there's not the "well if there's no cab car on the train, we have to run two engines" problem to occur. The only downside, for the Conductors they'll now have to back out of Springfield going north, and back in coming south, no fun in a blizzard or a driving rain storm. Although I guess it beats having to hand line switches at Palmer...
 
Amtrak's Vermonter to serve 'Knowledge Corridor'

Amtrak on Dec. 29 plans to begin Vermonter service to the "Knowledge Corridor," operating along a rail line that runs parallel to Interstate 91 between New Haven, Conn., and the Massachusetts border with Vermont, the railroad announced Saturday.

Restoration of service to the corridor has been a goal of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, according to an Amtrak press release. MassDOT and Patrick led the effort to improve the Pan Am Southern tracks and shorten trip times within Massachusetts, Amtrak officials said.
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I know it going to hurt all riders that get on at AMM

Ridership 14,600 (FY2010)
 
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mlhughes0522 said:
I know it going to hurt all riders that get on at AMM

Ridership 14,600 (FY2010)
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The Northampton station is only around 8 miles from the Amherst station. Checking the UMass Amherst website and following the links to the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), there is an extensive bus network connecting the region and the Five College Consortium. Found this local news article on the opening of the new route with info on bus service and a bike trail from Amherst to Northampton (and a lot of PR from MassDOT): Amtrak Will Go Faster in the Valley Starting Dec. 29.

With plans to expand service to up to 6 daily trains to NHT and GFD with a proposed SPG-GFD shuttle, future Vermonter service to Montreal, and maybe in a few years a Boston to Montreal train through NHT, that is a pretty good tradeoff for the loss of a once a day service in Amherst.
 
mlhughes0522 said:
I know it going to hurt all riders that get on at AMM

Ridership 14,600 (FY2010)
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While the 14,000 riders at Amherst will be displaced, and it is the 4th most popular stop on the Vermonter north of Springfield (Essex Jct., Brattleboro, and White River Jct. lead), as afigg said, I'm sure many will make the short journey to Northampton. Between Northampton, Greenfield, and Holyoke I'm sure the lost ridership will be regained by those three stations. If they're able to bring a Shuttle or two up to those stations its an even greater gain for all since that would likely never happen running over CSX/NECR south of Northfield.
 
It would be appropriate for PVTA to figure out how to run the Amherst-Northampton bus faster. 30 minutes to go 8 miles is *just a bit slow*. I see part of the problem; they take a loopy route to Amherst, because they stop at UMass *first*.

Also, it may be a bit faster to the train station than it is to Smith, but they'll have to add an extra stop since the bus currently drives right past the station location without stopping.

Mt. Holyoke is very well connected to the Holyoke station by bus, and Smith is within walking distance of the Northampton station. I would expect that many of these students were heading to the Amherst station; now the UMass and Amherst students will have to head to the Northampton or Holyoke stations. This can be arranged, but it calls for some rearrangement of the bus schedules.

Most of the buses also don't connect to the location of the future Holyoke station.

I hope PVTA is planning to rejigger their bus routes to accomodate the new train service.
 
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I doubt local transit routes will be altered that much on account of a once-daily train. (OK, twice daily if you count both directions). For most of the

day, serving the train station would be pointless. I mean, if the route change can be accomplished without inconveniencing the vast majority of riders

who aren't headed for the train station, fine.

I think a better option, particularly for local colleges, would be a dedicated shuttle that meets the train in either direction.
 
neroden said:
Also, it may be a bit faster to the train station than it is to Smith, but they'll have to add an extra stop since the bus currently drives right past the station location without stopping.
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The Northampton Court House stop of B43 is within 4 or 5 mins walk to the station. The stop is a couple of blocks from the station.
fairviewroad said:
I doubt local transit routes will be altered that much on account of a once-daily train. (OK, twice daily if you count both directions). For most of the

day, serving the train station would be pointless. I mean, if the route change can be accomplished without inconveniencing the vast majority of riders

who aren't headed for the train station, fine.
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I don't think there will be any route change involved to accommodate. As neorden said, a bit faster would be nice. But it is quite useable as it is, though a bit tedious. Route B43 already runs every 20 minutes

I think a better option, particularly for local colleges, would be a dedicated shuttle that meets the train in either direction.
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That is certainly going to be more convenient.
 
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Well, Smith's within walking distance, but Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and UMass really do need more suitable shuttle buses. Nobody likes walking transfers, particularly to street-corner buses. Unfortunately it looks like no service improvements of this sort are currently planned. Maybe after the schedule change.
 
neroden said:
Well, Smith's within walking distance, but Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, and UMass really do need more suitable shuttle buses. Nobody likes walking transfers, particularly to street-corner buses. Unfortunately it looks like no service improvements of this sort are currently planned. Maybe after the schedule change.
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The abbreviated schedule does not show the stop of the bus from Amherst at the Court House, which is much closer to the station than the Smith's stop.
But as I said, I do agree that UMass ought to runa dedicated shuttle connecting to the train (s).
 
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