Springfield Line and Vermonter Bus-stitutions for upcoming track work

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CTDOT has announced bus-stitutions for all Springfield Line service including the Vermonter for track work in Windsor, CT. Crews are working to complete the installation of double track from Hartford to just south of Windsor Locks. Additionally that same weekend MassDOT/Pan Am Railways will be performing bridge rehab work on the CT River Main Line north of Springfield. CTDOT, MASSDOT, and Amtrak coordinated the scheduling of the two projects to minimize disruptions.

- On Friday September 7th northbound Regionals 136 and 148 will terminate in New Haven and will be bussed to Springfield.

- On Saturday September 8th and Sunday September 9th all Amtrak Springfield Line service will be bussed between Springfield and New Haven - all CTrail commuter service will be bussed between Springfield and Hartford and trains will run Hartford to New Haven - the Vermonter will be bussed between New Haven and St. Albans.

- On Monday September 9th southbound Regional 141 will be bussed between Springfield and New Haven - the Vermonter will be bussed between New Haven and St. Albans.

- On Tuesday September 10th the Vermonter will be bussed between New Haven and St. Albans.

Beginning with the resumption of train service on September 9th CTDOT will be operating a reduced CTrail commuter train schedule until September 30th to accommodate the ongoing track work - during this temporary reduced schedule all Amtrak trains that participate in the CTrail commuter program will stop at New Haven - State Street station to help accommodate commuter riders during the reduced schedule period.
 
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Of course, there's nothing about it on the Amtrak website! I found out the hard way in their email stating that my trip on Fridays' 148 WAS-WNL was being changed. But they've made arrangements, etc. At least they're bustituting me from NHV. That was not indicated in their email. There goes an hour or so of my business class seat. I guess I should be happy they didn't cancel it completely.
 
Thank you so much for posting this! I was planning to visit my cousins (train stop: Windsor, CT) and also try out the new commuter rail. I had pretty much decided on October instead of September anyway, but this helped me confirm my plans--they will see me in October!
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Of course, there's nothing about it on the Amtrak website! I found out the hard way in their email stating that my trip on Fridays' 148 WAS-WNL was being changed. But they've made arrangements, etc. At least they're bustituting me from NHV. That was not indicated in their email. There goes an hour or so of my business class seat. I guess I should be happy they didn't cancel it completely.
It doesn't mention the bustitution, but the schedule changes and cancelled trains are listed in the service alerts:

Northeast Regional, Vermonter and Springfield Shuttle Schedule Change
Effective June 9, 2018The state of Connecticut is changing the Springfield Shuttle service to work with the CT Rail commuter service.

Springfield Shuttles
  • Train 401, 407 and 493 are discontinued.
  • New trains 409, 412, 416, 417, 451, 461, 471, 473, 474 and 478 have been added to the service.
Northeast Regional Service
  • Train 136 will continue to operate on Fridays, 2 hours earlier, following Train 148’s previous schedule.
  • Train 148 will continue to operate Monday through Friday on a 2 hour later schedule, following Train 136 previous schedule.
  • Train 196 will continue to operate Monday through Thursday from Washington to New York 2 hours earlier on Train 148’s previous schedule.
Northeast Regional and Vermonter trains will be adjusted on the Springfield line.
That's an old alert - that was for when they started the new Amtrak schedule back in June 9th to work with the CTrail commuter service (addition of 3 weekday round trips and other schedule adjustments as indicated.) Amtrak has not yet made an announcement regarding this other than in their ticketing system. I believe other than the line shutdown this weekend (and slightly extended to Tuesday for the Vermonter) the scheduled Amtrak trains will not be reduced - CTDOT has not indicated what this temporary "reduced" schedule will be other than it will be happening, but from what they've said most likely all the Amtrak operated trains are going to run as scheduled (with the exception that they will all stop at State Street now) and all changes/reductions will be on the CTrail/TASI side so as not to impact Amtrak ticket holders. Smart way to do it as they are going to impact commuters regardless of which trains they cut so they might as well not also inconvenience folks with Amtrak reservations. (Note that the State Street addition applies only to "Amtrak Hartford Line trains" as CTDOT likes to call them the Vermonter is not included in that.)
 
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That's an old alert - that was for when they started the new Amtrak schedule back in June 9th to work with the CTrail commuter service (addition of 3 weekday round trips and other schedule adjustments as indicated.) Amtrak has not yet made an announcement regarding this other than in their ticketing system. I believe other than the line shutdown this weekend (and slightly extended to Tuesday for the Vermonter) the scheduled Amtrak trains will not be reduced - CTDOT has not indicated what this temporary "reduced" schedule will be other than it will be happening, but from what they've said most likely all the Amtrak operated trains are going to run as scheduled (with the exception that they will all stop at State Street now) and all changes/reductions will be on the CTrail/TASI side so as not to impact Amtrak ticket holders. Smart way to do it as they are going to impact commuters regardless of which trains they cut so they might as well not also inconvenience folks with Amtrak reservations. (Note that the State Street addition applies only to "Amtrak Hartford Line trains" as CTDOT likes to call them the Vermonter is not included in that.)
Whoops. I misread June 9th as September 9th. I guess there is no mention of this on Amtrak.com, then.
 
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Thank you so much for posting this! I was planning to visit my cousins (train stop: Windsor, CT) and also try out the new commuter rail. I had pretty much decided on October instead of September anyway, but this helped me confirm my plans--they will see me in October!
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http://www.hartfordline.com/pdf/final_schedule_9_10_18_to_9_30_18.pdf

They dropped the new schedule that takes effect Monday the 9th after this weekend's shut down of the line. It actually appears they are not canceling any trains (CTDOT made it sound like there would be reductions earlier but apparently not) but rather adjusting the departure times to give a wider berth between trains operating on the northern end. This is likely because during this work they aren't going to have the siding in Windsor since it will be tied into as part of the new track so they're going to want to try to avoid train encounters between Hartford Yard and the MA/CT line. So Mystic River Dragon if you end up wanting to go in September there should be plenty of trains running.

Also all Amtrak Hartford Lines, as stated before, begin stopping at New Haven state Street. Given that there aren't any reductions Im guessing this is a permanent change - good for New Haven commuters as a couple of the trains that currently run at good times for commuting are Amtraks that don't stop at the State street stop. Although some Amtrak riders may not like adding the extra stop.
 
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Additional detail:

The Vermonter substitute Am-buses will not make the following stops:

- Claremont, NH

- Windsor - Mt. Ascutney, VT

- Randolph, VT

I wonder what they do for folks that were ticketed on the train for those stops. Perhaps they drop you at White River Junction instead (or Bellows Falls for Claremont.)
 
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daybeers said:
How do we know it's going back to the same schedule as before?
Amtrak website tickets and schedules. Starting November 12 everything reverts back to where it was before. Doesn’t show CTrail times of course but they should follow suit as they are scheduled around each other. I amended my previous post to clarify.
 
As to the CTrail operated trains, I sent a message to Hartford Line facebook asking if the 11/12 change is just a revert to pre-September of if there were any enhancements. They said that the schedule will be released tomorrow or Wednesday, but offered that the two highlights are:

-The connection to the 6:48 AM Metro North will be restored. (Which I expected because Amtrak's reservation system is showing that Amtrak 451 changes back to its pre-September departure time on 11/12 as do all the other Amtrak-operated trains that changed in September.)

- One of the Hartford-terminating CTrail round trips will be extended to Springfield.
 
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- One of the Hartford-terminating CTrail round trips will be extended to Springfield.
This was a topic at the RUN meeting I went to in Springfield a few weeks ago--several people told the CT DOT man that they wanted more CTrail trains to go all the way to Springfield.

Either they were already planning it, or advocacy (at least in a small way) works, or both :) .
 
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