NEC Future was inter-agency so this is vaguely half-true but only in the sense that it wasn’t owned by Amtrak. A plan you don’t like or that doesn’t appeal to *your* personal sensibilities is still, however, a plan.
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CTDOT didn't center the bypass either - its priority is the bridge replacements.
sep 2, 2025, 2:53 am • 0 0 • view
Probably because any bypasses would involve takings and would be *extremely* unpopular especially if done piecemeal. No doubt this is why they’d rather just focus on extracting what they can out of the existing RoW.
sep 2, 2025, 8:51 am • 1 0 • view
Kelo v. New London was extremely locally unpopular even compared to national backlash against eminent domain. “We need to demolish 20 houses to save 45 seconds for the Acela Express” is a great way to get yourself fired at best.
sep 2, 2025, 8:54 am • 1 0 • view
Best case vs. best case is 32 minutes; if you want I can send you the second-by-second spreadsheets on the existing ROW (with curve radii cribbed from an Amtrak map) vs. the ROW I've drawn (similar to but not the same as NEC Future's; it answers 2/3 of Old Lyme's complaints).
sep 2, 2025, 9:05 am • 0 0 • view
…I’ll pass, thanks.
sep 2, 2025, 9:19 am • 0 0 • view
At some point, I'd like to commission you to do a similar spreadsheet for a NHV-HFD-PVD bypass; it's precisely because you're precommitted to the Shore Route that I think you'd do a scrupulous job at the Inland Route sim.
sep 2, 2025, 1:23 pm • 2 0 • view
This is because I am sometimes a dirty political hack, and not at all above pitting different groups of NIMBYs against each other, as would happen if the value of Inland came in at anywhere equivalent to Shore.
sep 2, 2025, 1:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Now I'm curious how the Hartford, Springfield, Worcester route does in the gravity model compared to the Shore
sep 2, 2025, 1:44 pm • 1 0 • view
IIRC, the first time @alonlevy.bsky.social ran the numbers, Shore + 95 bypass was best, HFD-PVD was worse within the margin of error, and HFD-SPG-WOR was clearly worse than either (and rapidly required bypass tracks for BOS-WOR intercity).
sep 2, 2025, 2:13 pm • 0 0 • view
I can't tell at that resolution, since all of the differences are second-order and I don't trust the model enough for that.
sep 2, 2025, 3:09 pm • 1 0 • view