Hey guys I'm back! This time I'm here to suggest a desperately needed extension of the Boston Sprinter. Before the details lets get to the basic route info: Length: 166mi ish(including Stoughton branch and any other extra trackage) Trains per day(Amtrak): 97 including Acela and weekend services - MBTA - 20 Boston to NH round trips/Half continue to Wickford Junction/16 Boston to Stoughton Roundtrips - CTRail Shore Line East - 33 roundtrip/day including weekends Stations - 28/ 10 Amtrak/ 16 MBTA + 2 Stoughton Branch/ 9 CTRail services length times: Amtrak 2:30hr max/ MBTA 1:46hr max/ CTRail 1:13hr max Route Map: The routes runs through 3 states and 4 metros(Boston, Providence, New London, and New Haven). The lines top speed is 150mph with the Acela in Massachusetts but mainly in Rhode Island. Arguably the prettiest section is between New London and New Haven as the line follows the Connecticut coast. Yes it long and I know I'm probably dreaming with a route this long. However with the service lengths on Amtrak like Antelope Valley Line could be split in half. For the Northeast Regional that could be at Kingston or Westerly. Acela would have to be split at Providence as it does not stop between there and New Haven. Alright what rolling stock should come with the route? Well I'm suggesting two locos and rolling stock to come standard with the route: Firstly the CTRail Kawasaki M8 This train has the ability to use a third rail but on the Shoreline East uses a pentagraph. It is CTRails only rolling stock on the SLE. Secondly the HSP46 with the CTC-5 cab car and BTC-4D coaches: HSP46 CTC-5 cab car BTC-4D coach Personally I'm appalled these weren't included in the original DLC or even at least at a loco addon. These are the newest locos and coaches in the MBTA fleet and would fir in perfectly. Having these coaches would also add realism because The bi and single levels often operate services together in mixed coach services. What would the layers be? Well that's pretty simple: Everything originally from Boston Sprinter + Acela dlc if you have it! NE regional with the ACS64 + amfleet coaches Acela MBTA F40PH-3C CTC 3 + BTC 3 coaches We already know what's on the Boston Sprinter section so I'm just gonna list the new stuff. Now for some sight on the awesome route: TF Green airport MBTA station 150mph through most of Rhode Island The very pretty New London along with it's very pretty accompanying station Old Saybrook-Old Lime bridge And finally New Haven Union station So to end off this route deserves to be in TSW. Boston Sprinter feels to short in it's current state and this would be the perfect update for it. It's long has diverse rolling stock and it's LONG. So yeah this route would be great and thank you reading me ramble. Have great day!
Excellent idea Uber your final section is going to be the 72 miles New York New Haven. Alternatively break it down as NEC Trenton Providence 238 miles the final section is Boston the Providence therefore we have a route that is 285 miles making it NorthEast Corridor Trenton Boston
Something like that would defiantly have to split up into multiple different routes. I also refuse to buy NY-Trenton until the route is extended to phili and the scenery and other route issues are fixed(small rant lol)
Hell yeah! Would love something like this! We definitely need more MBTA rolling stock, they have so much more than just the F40s and CTC-3s. 166 miles is long, but is probably doable, even if it makes the route more expensive. But something like this would be a dream come true!
I agree with you however they have a problem with the 30th Street UPenn extension on the Northeast Corridor New York Trenton is that they don't have a SEPTA licence. If you want to you can make ivy league corridor 30th Street upon all the way to Boston South Station via New Haven and Providence Rhode Island home to Yale and Brown University.
I personally don't think not having a septa license is a good excuse at all not to go to 30th street. It's a stupid poor excuse because for me at least I'd rather have it without septa vs not at all.
I would like to see a couple other MBTA branches, specifically the Franklin, Needham, and Fairmount Lines. You could even add the lines to Foxboro for some seasonal commuter and freight service.
more US passenger would be welcome, even more so with NEC, one of few actually profitable US routes IRL (tho US can do awesome passenger rail WHEN they want to and put their mind to it)... personally I would also LOVE BrightLine Florida, but it has very few stations and they are far apart... but would love it, with its nice streamlined DMUs that can go around 200-210 kmh
I mean, it is basically a streamlined Charger, and the coaches are Siemens Venture coaches as well, just nicer and with different seating as Amtrak Venture coaches... and those trains are, as far as I know, "only" 6 cars long (4 if you dont count locos/power cars, so it is essentially a sandwich config looking like DMU), but still impressive Siemens Charger 44 locos are so neat - I used to hold US diesels in a bit of stupid contempt, but then I heard of these beasts that have almost as much power/tractive effort as Taurus, but are diesels, and capable of 125 mph / 200 kmh (F125 that Metrolink uses are also nice, too bad they are limited to 79mph in operation)... and damn, I would love to try my hand at driving a diesel thats not limited to like 120 or 140 kmh in operation
The Amtrak units have had some teething problems adjusting to the variety of climate and track conditions here, but you see more and more leading trains without P42 chaperones. I think they just debuted on the Auto Train. I've heard some gossip of the Amtrak shop crews not being a fan of them, and engineers not being happy with the random bugs stemming from computer faults (they also say the same of the ACS). Albany is my local Amtrak hub, and they have got quite the reputation for keeping the Genesis' from across the system running tip-top. It'll be interesting to see how they transition to supporting the Siemens units. We did have one out on the Hudson testing cab signals not terribly long ago. Brightline has been very happy with theirs and are in the process of expanding their trainsets with more coaches. VIA is still having their sets delivered but I haven't heard any bad news about them. One of the last drone videos of the Sacramento plant from Roaming Railfan showed Metro-North's first two dual-mode Chargers ready to ship to Pueblo for testing. Within the remainder of the decade the Genesis locomotives are going to go the way of the F40.
also heard this, I believe some ppl have been pointing towards Siemens' quality control not being nearly as sharp as that in EU, which causes those reliability issues... I could be wrong, of course - but in EU, Siemens has very good reputation with their trains and locos, tho it is true they dont make any 125mph/200kmh diesel locos for EU, so who knows what would happen in that case
I personally think we should not count on DTG, because it is a company that many people know has time and cost. But I like bold suggestions that although we don't count on DTG, these long lines will be completed by general players one day.
