Amtrak and MassDOT piloting new Valley Flyer service in Western Mass (Boston: cost of, bus)

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

IIRC Hartford doesn't have much of a city population, it's mostly office space. I guess who actually lives in the city must be really poor.

Hartford has a ton of true slums. The West End has a bunch of really nice single family homes and mansions built before white flight. If you don't need the school system and you're OK with keeping everything locked with the alarm enabled, that's a nice neighborhood. It's not the kind of place where you're going to leave the garage door open and bicycles unattended on the front lawn due to the property crime issues. With 30% assessment in Hartford, the property taxes aren't too crazy, either despite the really high mill rate.

[jxzz]

Trains In The Valley New Post for Valley Flyer riders:

For those of you looking to use the Valley Flyer to connect to Metro-North's New Haven Line service to New York City we now have a schedule that shows all of the connections.

Here are three reasons why it might make sense to connect with Metro-North instead of Amtrak in New Haven

Detail:
https://www.facebook.com/trainsinthevalley/

New York City has two major train stations:
Grand Central Terminal (Metro North)
Penn Station (Amtrak)
Metro North is significantly cheaper than Amtrak. GCT and Penn are in two different locations of Manhattan. Riders need to be aware.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by jxzz

Trains In The Valley New Post for Valley Flyer riders:

For those of you looking to use the Valley Flyer to connect to Metro-North's New Haven Line service to New York City we now have a schedule that shows all of the connections.

Here are three reasons why it might make sense to connect with Metro-North instead of Amtrak in New Haven

Detail:
https://www.facebook.com/trainsinthevalley/

New York City has two major train stations:
Grand Central Terminal (Metro North)
Penn Station (Amtrak)
Metro North is significantly cheaper than Amtrak. GCT and Penn are in two different locations of Manhattan. Riders need to be aware.

If you live in New Jersey, you might have a different opinion about the number of train stations. Also, if you're flying out of EWR from CT, Amtrak brings you right to the people mover.

[jxzz]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

If you live in New Jersey, you might have a different opinion about the number of train stations. Also, if you're flying out of EWR from CT, Amtrak brings you right to the people mover.

The problem with Amtrak is that valley Flyer official schedule only shows Amtrak connection and Penn station without mentioning metro north and Grand Central terminal.

Train in the Valley did a great job by making a new schedule showing both for connections. It would be consumer to decide which to take.

I personally do not have good impression of Amtrak, not just price issue. I have noticed that delay of Amtrak more than 20 minutes or more was way more common than metro north along the New Haven line.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by jxzz

In the long run, Stamford/New Haven/Hartford/New London are all in different economic industries, best area for jobs and life style is still between New Haven and Stamford in my opinion. That is why three CT commuter rails are centered around New Haven, not Hartford. Everybody knows that.

The concentration of commuter rail from New Haven down to New York is a legacy from the early 20th century. Connecticut hasn't made any big bets, it's just cooperating with NY State to keep the Metro North system functional. New Haven is at the upper end of reasonable day-trip range of New York whether for weekday commuting or going in for a show or a meeting or whatever it is. Been that way for over a century. Being within day-trip range of New York is why that stretch of the Connecticut coast built up the way it did. Hartford is beyond easy day-trip range and the Hartford area is relatively independent of New York whereas Stamford and all those other towns from Greenwich to Milford are in the NYC orbit, hence the high-quality rail service down to Grand Central Terminal. Even before 1930 when the railroads had lots of money and clout, they didn't continue the electrified four-track system from New Haven toward Hartford-- no need then, when nearly everyone traveled by train; certainly no need now that everyone drives nearly everywhere. Passenger rail only survived where it served really big cities-- the railroads had built the infrastructure and the density and economic concentration in those cities was such that they couldn't get by on just driving. Most smaller cities could and did after 1925 or so, dismantling their street car and interurban rail systems, welcoming highway construction through their downtowns, tearing down half the downtown for parking lots, etc. New York was always too big and concentrated for automobiles to be the predominant mode of travel into and around the city: it had to maintain its legacy subways and its suburban commuter rail service. Ditto Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston. Of all of these Boston historically had the weakest railroads and once the railroads started losing money, going bankrupt, Boston thought it could get by with lots of new roads. The passenger rail withered-- For example, in the mid fifties people in Springfield could still get a Buddliner over the Boston & Albany track to Boston but that died by early sixties. In the sixties, after the state had just spent millions building its turnpike (first to Route 128 and then into Boston) the passenger service dropped to three morning trains into Boston from Natick and Wellesley and three out again in the evening. Since the Dukakis era Mass has invested heavily in restoring passenger rail around the Boston region and is now considering spending more to make it fast, frequent and reliable-- i.e., more like Metro North.

[Dangerous-Boy]

i took the train from nyc to boston. It was a nice ride. Ideally if they could the trip down from 4 hours to hours, it would be more convenient.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Dangerous-Boy

i took the train from nyc to boston. It was a nice ride. Ideally if they could the trip down from 4 hours to hours, it would be more convenient.

You'd have to bulldoze Connecticut into Long Island Sound for that to happen. Amtrak zips right along from Boston until it hits the CT state line. The rail infrastructure in Connecticut and the last few miles to NY Penn are pathetic. That should be 2 hour intercity service.

[jxzz]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

You'd have to bulldoze Connecticut into Long Island Sound for that to happen. Amtrak zips right along from Boston until it hits the CT state line. The rail infrastructure in Connecticut and the last few miles to NY Penn are pathetic. That should be 2 hour intercity service.

Amtrak from NY Penn to Boston does not share any tracks today with Valley Flyer, it goes from New Haven to New London, then Providence and Boston.

Not sure what this has anything to do with Valley Flyer, neither with another close rail line CTrail Hartford Line.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by jxzz

Trains In The Valley New Post for Valley Flyer riders:

For those of you looking to use the Valley Flyer to connect to Metro-North's New Haven Line service to New York City we now have a schedule that shows all of the connections.

Here are three reasons why it might make sense to connect with Metro-North instead of Amtrak in New Haven

Detail:
https://www.facebook.com/trainsinthevalley/

New York City has two major train stations:
Grand Central Terminal (Metro North)
Penn Station (Amtrak)
Metro North is significantly cheaper than Amtrak. GCT and Penn are in two different locations of Manhattan. Riders need to be aware.

There’s also the wild idea of needing to go to one of the local stops that aren’t New York City. I had a friend living in Milford who made a trip to Springfield. I was skeptical at first, but his wife corroborated it though I guess it makes sense that they would be in cahoots with each other.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by jxzz

Amtrak from NY Penn to Boston does not share any tracks today with Valley Flyer, it goes from New Haven to New London, then Providence and Boston.

Not sure what this has anything to do with Valley Flyer, neither with another close rail line CTrail Hartford Line.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the Valley Flyer though were one of the true high-speed rail plans where NYC-Boston service were routed through either Hartford or Springfield on a new set of tracks that don’t hug the CT coastline, then people on the Valley Flyer could connect to a high-speed rail service in Springfield or Hartford to either Boston or NYC and the commuter rail service connections in New Haven could be substantially more frequent if the express tracks weren’t being used for as Acela service.