Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
1 Billion to electrify 24 miles of railway. Whattt?
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Theres other things in there but its 2 Branches both of which have been heavily neglected. They were supposed to be done with upgrading the signaling system on both branches by now to allow for Bi-Directional travel but thats been delayed. The Danbury Branch will be extend up to New Milford which is another 13 miles , the Electrification comes with replacing all the ties , all stations will be upgraded along with passing sidings put in , a New Yard will be built in New Milford , along with a New Track into South Norwalk so the branch could run every 30 mins without conflicting with the busy New Haven line. That last part means they will have to take a few businesses which in SoNo could be very expensive. Both Branches will be upgraded to 80mph , and curves will be straightened along with all crossings upgrade , there are 8 crossings that are still ungated or don't even have lights thats how neglected this line is. Norwalk is also calling for the restoration of Historic Wall Street station which would be right in the center of there Massive redevelopment plan.
As for the Waterbury Branch , unless the Knowledge Corridor and Proposed Bristol Branch get Electrification as some call for , It would be a waste to Electrify this corridor which is 27 miles. High Level Platform and upgrade the line to 80mph and use DMU's.... The Ridership even with improvements could never even come close to the Ridership the Danbury line will have once more reliable service is provided. The Danbury Branch has a few job hubs and multiple dense blobs located along the line while the Waterbury Branch is mostly residential although its close to New Haven and Bridgeport and the Bristol Branch would tie it to Hartford. There are alot of places where developers would love to invest along that corridor but are afraid to due to the service levels which are horrible same with the Danbury Branch. This does not apply to Norwalk as it has a bus network and a few train stations in the Southern part of the city , but the other towns and cities like Danbury and Bethel can't develop on a Norwalk scale due service levels. Alot of people along that corridor either drive all the way down to South Norwalk which clogs route 7 or drive into New York to catch the Harlem line both of those lines run every 15-25 mins , there's only 4 trains in the Morning on both branches if I can recall correctly.
Conception Engineering report....
South Norwalk to Bethel
Bethel to New Milford