Off and on we discuss the shutting down, or outright abandonment, of various railway/railroad lines. Where I live in New England, we lost a ton of lines over the past 100 or so years as the various rail lines consolidated into a couple of entities, and as the economics changed. These are understandable changes since there is no reason to have redundant lines serving the same town or region if they're close by. Those issues aside, there have been some really stupid decisions only to bring on additional expense later as future generations realize that the cuts in service shouldn't have been. There are also great plans that somehow, or some reason or another, are never meant to be. The Grand Trunk, not the Grand Trunk Western, never completed it's super fast, wide mainline through western MA and Rhode Island because the owner died on the Titanic, for example. Other lines were planned, graded, and left. There are some remnants of one of these out in Dighton, MA near Connecticut. The GT line appears as a beautiful sweeping grade south of Springfield, MA. And then there's the case of greed, stocks, and lost cash, which is discussed below.
A lost dream from 1910
To start off this discussion, we'll take a look at the electrification of the Hoosac Tunnel in 1910, with electric service starting in 1911. This short stub of about 10 miles was created out of necessity due to the number of trains using the tunnel. There were something like 98 trains per day at the time and crews and passengers were choking to death. The Boston and Maine was in a unique position then since it was part of a larger conglomeration owned by JP Morgan who also owned the nearby New Haven. The B&M and NH worked together to electrify the tunnel, and their joint operation of this service lead to other plans. Great plans in fact to electrify the main lines especially the commuter lines in and out of Boston.
Well this never occurred. JP Morgan, owned these railroads among others, and leveraged the railroad assets. When the panic of 1914 hit, he was broke and needed cash so he gutted the railroad budgets to bail himself out. Boom, poof! Both railroads ended up in bankruptcy and the plans never materialized. The only remnant of the great plan around Boston is the 4-track bridges along the Eastern Railroad near Lynn. The electric service ended in 1946 and the wires came down shortly afterwards. The only signs out in the western part of the state are abandoned substations and catenary poles here and there that somehow survived the cutter's torches, but nothing else remains. The New Haven never did complete its electrification to Boston or Springfield at the time, and we were stuck switching locos at New Haven for close to a century on the Boston line.
What's interesting is the New Haven got its initial wish 90 years later when Amtrak electrified the line from New Haven to Boston, thus, completing that final segment on their line. Recently too there are talks of electrifying, or rather continuing the wires up to Springfield, MA.
In addition to the Springfield plan, our local transit authority the MBTA, is looking at electrifying the commuter lines in and out of Boston. The initial plan is to use the current service on the NEC to Providence and then electrify the south coast lines including the newer lines to open soon (tm) to Fall River and New Bedford. With that service in place, the plan is to then electrify other lines including the former B&M Portland line as far as the Haverhill, or the last stop on the commuter line, and the Fitchburg line to Gardner.
If this service had been instituted when planned over 100 years ago, we wouldn't be facing the expense to put it in now. Knowing how the MBTA works, politicians work, contractors bid on no-bid contracts, we might see a tiny piece of this project in about 50 years at 9 times what the estimate was to build it in the first place. In other words, I'm not holding my breath.
Feel free to contribute to this conversation. I'm sure there are other stories like this. I sure have some foolish recent abandonments to discuss.
A lost dream from 1910
To start off this discussion, we'll take a look at the electrification of the Hoosac Tunnel in 1910, with electric service starting in 1911. This short stub of about 10 miles was created out of necessity due to the number of trains using the tunnel. There were something like 98 trains per day at the time and crews and passengers were choking to death. The Boston and Maine was in a unique position then since it was part of a larger conglomeration owned by JP Morgan who also owned the nearby New Haven. The B&M and NH worked together to electrify the tunnel, and their joint operation of this service lead to other plans. Great plans in fact to electrify the main lines especially the commuter lines in and out of Boston.
Well this never occurred. JP Morgan, owned these railroads among others, and leveraged the railroad assets. When the panic of 1914 hit, he was broke and needed cash so he gutted the railroad budgets to bail himself out. Boom, poof! Both railroads ended up in bankruptcy and the plans never materialized. The only remnant of the great plan around Boston is the 4-track bridges along the Eastern Railroad near Lynn. The electric service ended in 1946 and the wires came down shortly afterwards. The only signs out in the western part of the state are abandoned substations and catenary poles here and there that somehow survived the cutter's torches, but nothing else remains. The New Haven never did complete its electrification to Boston or Springfield at the time, and we were stuck switching locos at New Haven for close to a century on the Boston line.
What's interesting is the New Haven got its initial wish 90 years later when Amtrak electrified the line from New Haven to Boston, thus, completing that final segment on their line. Recently too there are talks of electrifying, or rather continuing the wires up to Springfield, MA.
In addition to the Springfield plan, our local transit authority the MBTA, is looking at electrifying the commuter lines in and out of Boston. The initial plan is to use the current service on the NEC to Providence and then electrify the south coast lines including the newer lines to open soon (tm) to Fall River and New Bedford. With that service in place, the plan is to then electrify other lines including the former B&M Portland line as far as the Haverhill, or the last stop on the commuter line, and the Fitchburg line to Gardner.
If this service had been instituted when planned over 100 years ago, we wouldn't be facing the expense to put it in now. Knowing how the MBTA works, politicians work, contractors bid on no-bid contracts, we might see a tiny piece of this project in about 50 years at 9 times what the estimate was to build it in the first place. In other words, I'm not holding my breath.
Feel free to contribute to this conversation. I'm sure there are other stories like this. I sure have some foolish recent abandonments to discuss.