VIDEO: MBTA Tie Job at Waverley/Belmont MA 9/28/22

West End Hoosac Tunnel Liner Collapse

There has been a failure of the liner on the west end of Hoosac Tunnel, causing debris to partly cover the track.

Norfolk Southern has issued the following press release:

Feb 12, 2020

Norfolk Southern’s partner, Pan Am Railways, has reported a partial wall collapse in the Hoosac Tunnel which affects all trains operating between Mechanicsville, New York, and Ayer, Massachusetts.  Pan Am Railway’s engineering department is evaluating the situation and Norfolk Southern will provide updates as they are available.  Customers with traffic in the affected area should expect delays of at least 48 hours.

LINKS:

https://www.wwlp.com/news/hoosac-tunnel-out-of-service-for-structural-evaluation/

https://www.rtands.com/freight/norfolk-southern-short-line-partner-suffers-partial-tunnel-wall-collapse/

https://www.news10.com/news/local-news/partially-collapsed-hoosac-tunnel-was-an-1800s-engineering-feat/

https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/berkshire-county/hoosac-tunnel-out-of-service-for-structural-evaluation/

UPDATE:
Videos are starting to be posted of the collapse

NHDOT to Upgrade Five Portsmouth NH Rail Crossings

(SOURCE:  Seacoastonline.com By Jeff McMenemy)

PORTSMOUTH – The state Department of Transportation is launching a $1 million project to upgrade five railroad crossings in the city.

City officials requested the upgrades in 2014 while Sea-3, a propane storage and distribution facility in Newington, was going through a review process to expand their facility. The Newington Planning Board approved the expansion, but the city appealed the decision to Superior Court. No date has yet been set for that appeal.

Eric Eby, parking and transportation engineer for the city, told members of the Parking and Safety Committee Thursday that the DOT will put out a request for proposals on the project sometime in April.

“The city’s share will be $100,000, or 10 percent for the project,” Eby said at the Thursday morning meeting in City Hall. 

Numerous area officials and residents fought the proposed expansion, citing the substantial increase of propane carrying rail cars that would result from the project, and worries about the condition of Pan Am’s tracks.

The railroad crossings will be upgraded at Barberry Lane, Maplewood Avenue, Green Street, Michael Succi Drive and Gosling Road, Eby said.

After the RFPs are responded to, the DOT will “select a contractor and get working on the project,” Eby said.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth attorney Alec McEachern, who represents Sea-3, recently filed a motion to dismiss the city’s appeals of the facility’s expansion, claiming Portsmouth “lacks standing to appeal the relevant decisions by the town of Newington’s Planning Board,” because the city is not an abutter to the propane facility. McEachern also argues the only impact to Portsmouth of the proposed expansion of Sea-3 is to “increase rail traffic and decrease ship traffic.”

He also filed a motion to intervene in the case, which was filed against the town of Newington. 

Portsmouth staff attorney Jane Ferrini argues in the city’s objection to Sea-3’s motion to dismiss that the court shouldn’t consider the motion because Sea-3 is not yet a party to the appeal. Ferrini argues if the court does allow Sea-3 to intervene “this court may be opening the door for several corporations and associations to request to intervene in the underlying matter, such as … Pan Am, Norfolk Southern Railway and the Propane Gas Association of New England.”

But Ferrini says if the court does allow Sea-3 to intervene, it objects to Sea-3’s motion to dismiss because Portsmouth and three other towns received notice about the proposed expansion after Newington determined the project was a “development of regional interest.”
 Ferrini also contends the city is not “attempting to deprive Sea-3 of its federal” railroad rights, but rather, the city wants a “safety/hazard study of the site and Sea-3’s use of Pan Am railway.”
 
Sea-3 is seeking to build “five additional rail unloading berths and associated handling equipment at its existing” facility, McEachern said in a recent filing with the state’s Site Review Committee. This will allow the company to receive via rail and stockpile excess propane to be used during winter months.

Fixing `structurally deficient' MBTA Bridges Carries $800M Tab

(SOURCE:  Boston Herald)

Long after the snow melts, commuter rail passengers and subway straphangers will still face widespread slowdowns and delays as the MBTA grapples with nearly 50 crumbling bridges that will cost a staggering $800 million to fix, a Herald review found.

The beleaguered transit agency has classified 48 bridges that carry commuter train and subway passengers as “structurally deficient,” the review found. In all, that’s more than 10 percent of the MBTA’s bridges that are rated in poor condition or worse, according to state transportation officials.

A Red Line bridge at Freeport Street in Dorchester as well as commuter train overpasses at Bacon Street in Wellesley and Lynn Fells Parkway in Melrose were among the spans listed as needing repair or replacement, according to state data.

State officials said train trips have already been slowed for T passengers crossing 13 commuter rail bridges. And experts say others could face dramatically lower speed limits if repairs aren’t made.
The MBTA limits Haverhill line commuter trains to 15 mph over the Merrimack River Bridge, which is still under repair. Passenger trains must slow to 10 mph over the Gloucester Drawbridge, which is expected go out to bid for replacement later this year, officials said.

“That’s the typical thing — you slow the trains down until you can make the repairs,” said James Lambrechts, an engineering professor at Went­worth Institute of Technology. “If they can get someone in there to fix it quickly, then it might mean only delayed trains for a few days or weeks. But the infrastructure itself — parts of it are more than 100 years old.”

Lambrechts pointed to the Red Line trains’ slow 10 mph crawl across the decrepit Longfellow Bridge during the summer of 2008 until repairs were made several months later.

“In extreme cases, they close a bridge,” said Jerome F. Hajjar, chairman of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Northeastern University. “If you’re not able to adequately maintain it, it’s very likely it will continue to deteriorate.”

So far, no T rail bridges have been closed.

Taxpayers could be on the hook for the $800 million bill to fix the failing spans.

T officials currently plan to spend $516 million for bridge repairs over the next five years, but the cost of fixing transit bridges will only continue to soar as more infrastructure ages, experts say.
“There is no question that if we don’t adequately fund our infrastructure, it will continue to break down to the point where the systems will start to have functionality problems and will be slowed,” said Hajjar.

“We live in a climate that has weather like this year after year in varying degrees, and that is part of what is degrading these bridges,” he said. “The more extreme the weather over time, the quicker it will probably degrade.”

Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed giving the MBTA $187 million in state aid in the coming fiscal year — a better than 50 percent funding increase from this year but still not enough to fix all the T bridges.
The number of dangerous rail spans has skyrocketed by 30 percent in the past four years, the review found. The MBTA reported 40 of its bridges were structurally deficient in 2010.

“These numbers still reflect a large amount of work ahead of us to ensure a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system,” said MassDOT spokesman Michael Verseckes.

MassDOT officials have estimated a whopping $7 billion price tag to bring the transportation system into a “state of good repair,” which includes repairs on dilapidated bridges.

The MBTA maintains 302 commuter rail bridges and 57 subway bridges, according to MassDOT officials. The agency also oversees more than 100 other bridges, including one pedestrian and three highway bridges also labeled structurally deficient, according to transportation data.

Bedford MA B&M Depot Work Continues

The Boston & Maine station at Bedford MA has seen many alterations to its appearance through the years.  Currently, work is being done to return it to something much closer to the original design, while still being a usable rental space.  These photos were taken on August 24, 2014.  You can see where non-original windows have been removed and are being replaced with more period-correct ones.  All around the building are clues to the past...

More information can be found at the Friends of Bedford Depot Park website.

Front of station

Rear of station

Brick foundation as viewed from right side

Ghosts of past trim...

Huge Crane in Nashua Putting Derailed Locomotives Back on Track

(SOURCE:  David Brooks, The Telegraph - thanks to Dave Pierson for the link)

NASHUA – Pan Am Railways is bringing in a large crane in to lift a pair of derailed 100-ton locomotives and put them back on the tracks in downtown Nashua.

The two locomotives went off the rails at Main Street around 3 p.m. Tuesday. One was blocking the northbound lane of Main Street for about an hour until the two were pushed back by a bulldozer.

Pan Am Executive Vice-President Cynthia Scarano said a 44-foot long mobile crane, capable of lifting 130 tons, will be driven to the scene from the company’s Billerica, Mass., headquarters this morning. The Kershaw RC-130 crane can travel by road or by rail.

“They should be re-railed by 1 or 2 p.m.,” she said.

The locomotives were not pulling any cars at the time as they travelled at low speed along what is formally known as the Hillsborough Branch line. Nobody was injured in the accident and no obvious property damage occurred.

New Hampshire railroad safety inspector John Robinson said the train apparently was derailed by ice built up along the rails. 

“The ice builds up along the flangeway, which keeps the wheel tracking ... to the point where the wheels steer off the rail,” he said. “It’s not completely unknown.”

The flangeway is a groove that allows the lips, or flange, of the wheels to fit alongside the rail and keep the wheels in place. Ice in the flangeway can lift the wheel up above the rail to the point that it can slip sideways.

Robinson said no formal investigation had been launched. 

MBTA’s Brand New Rail Cars Heading For a Retooling

(SOURCE:  Boston Globe – 1/29/14,  by Martine Powers,  martine.powers@globe.com )

A long-awaited fleet of MBTA commuter rail cars, delivered 2½ years late by the South Korean manufacturer, is now so plagued by mechanical, engineering, and software problems that it has to be shipped to a facility in Rhode Island to be fitted with new parts.

Even as a T spokesman described the problems with the cars as “standard operating procedure,” rail workers and their union representatives said the situation is unprecedented, and federal officials acknowledged they are “monitor[ing] the situation closely.”

“In my 40-some years of railroad experience, we’ve never seen problems like this,” said Tom Murray, president of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union of America.

But Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials say the problems — including issues with doors, air-conditioning, brakes, and signal software — are a normal part of introducing new, more technologically advanced train cars into a transit system.

“Railroad coaches are not like new autos that a buyer drives off the lot,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. “Modifications are made as necessary. . . . This is standard operating procedure throughout the transit industry.”

Harry King — spokesman for Hyundai Rotem, the South Korea-based contractor that delivered the new cars 2½ years behind schedule — said the company is working to fix the problems, investing significant resources and dispatching a full-time contingent of staff to the T’s Somerville maintenance facility to solve the problems.

“These problems have either been resolved or soon will be,” he said.

The MBTA’s $190 million purchase of 75 commuter rail cars from Hyundai Rotem USA was controversial from the start, as T officials in 2008 insisted that the lowest bidder would be able to deliver good-quality cars on time, even though the company had yet to open an assembly plant in the United States.

After T officials’ consternation over what they called “chronically unsatisfactory performance,” threats to cancel the order, and a visit to executives in South Korea, the first cars arrived last spring.

Since then, T officials have insisted publicly that the cars were delivered in fine working order, pleasing customers with nice interiors and comfortable seats. At least 56 of the cars have been delivered, with the rest set to arrive by this summer, and T officials say 32 of the cars have been put into service.

At a Massachusetts Department of Transportation board meeting in November, MBTA general manager Beverly A. Scott said she gave the cars “a 7.5 or an 8” out of 10 but said the problems — a minor toilet issue, for example — were few and fairly mundane.

“Probably the stuff wouldn’t be noticeable to anybody but us,” Scott told the MassDOT board of directors.

But employees who work on the commuter rail cars say they are rife with problems, ranging from faulty heating and air-conditioning units and door motors to poorly constructed undercarriages and problems with brakes and the software that controls signal communication in the cab of the train. Some of the problems have surfaced in tests, and some continued to exist after the cars were put in service, MBTA officials said.

The problems have required the attention of at least 15 Hyundai Rotem staff members who have been working on the cars full time at a T maintenance facility in Somerville — not an unusual part of the process of introducing new cars, transit experts say. But what is unusual is that the cars, even those that have already begun carrying passengers, will have to be taken out of service in coming months to receive new parts at a facility in Rhode Island.

Some of the mechanical problems have caused enough concern that the head of the local chapter of the Transport Workers Union sent a letter in December to state Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey requesting a meeting to alert officials of “many operational problems [that] have been encountered with this equipment.”

Some of the problems center on the control cars, which are designed to be driven by engineers at the front of the train. The cars cannot be used on rail lines owned by Amtrak, which run south of Boston, because the car’s software is incompatible with the signal system. In some instances, signals inside the train indicate that the engineer has the OK to proceed when outside signals indicate that the train must wait. In those cases, engineers noticed that the signals did not match up and reported the problem.

As a result of the signal issues, on much of the commuter rail system, the new Hyundai Rotem control cars are being used behind the locomotive to carry passengers, rather than lead the train, the MBTA says.

“We’re of the opinion that these cars are really not to par,” Joe English, general chairman of the local Association of Railroad and Airline Supervisors, said in an interview. “These are problems that should have been straightened out before.”

The problems have caught the attention of the Federal Railroad Administration, and officials say they are keeping an eye on the T’s handling of the new cars.

“We are aware that concerns have been raised about the new Hyundai Rotem cars being introduced to the MTBA’s commuter rail operations,” Dickson Mercer, spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a statement. “We are working very closely with the equipment manufacturer, [the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co.], and the MBTA to resolve the issue and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

In a phone call from the Hyundai Rotem assembly plant in Philadelphia, where he visits monthly to check the progress of the remainder of the T’s order, MBTA chief financial officer Jonathan R. Davis said he is aware of the mechanical problems, but is confident they will be resolved.

“I’m encouraged that Hyundai has identified the issues that need to be addressed,” he said Friday. “I don’t think that this is anything abnormal for any transit authority that is receiving new cars.”

The terms of the T’s contract with Hyundai Rotem say that the company is responsible for paying for all repairs and maintenance work in the first two years after the cars officially enter the T’s fleet. Though the T has the option of sending the cars back if they are deemed unfit for use on the rails, Davis said he has no intention of taking that step.

King, of Hyundai Rotem, said assertions that these cars are more problematic than others introduced to the T’s fleet in the past are because commuter rail cars, in general, contain more complicated technology.

“These modern commuter rail cars are complex and exacting machines,” King said.

Commuter rail workers acknowledge that the new cars are much more technologically advanced, but said that did not explain all of the problems they have seen.

“When a car is 35 years old, you’re going to have these kinds of things break down,” said a commuter rail electrical worker who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak publicly. “You should not have that kind of issue on something that is 35 days old.”

Not everyone agrees that the issues are as serious as the rail workers say.

Alan G. Macdonald, a member of the MassDOT board, said the complaints from workers may be exaggerated.

“My understanding is that there is some work that still needs to be done, but it might not be unexpected that there will be problems with the cars,” Macdonald said. “I don’t believe they’re beyond being taken care of.”

But Jonathan H. Klein, a former chief mechanical officer at Amtrak and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, said taking the cars out of service to replace major parts at an out-of-state facility is a different order of magnitude.

“If cars have to be taken wholesale back to another factory site for reworking, it is a definite sign that the manufacturer has lost control of its quality, its configuration and safety management, and its delivery organization, or all three,” Klein said.

“The T made an obvious mistake in awarding a contract to Rotem,” Klein said.

In Philadelphia, officials at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority have experienced similar problems with the 120 cars they received from Hyundai Rotem between 2009 to 2013. Six issues were flagged for unacceptable performance, spokeswoman Jerri Williams said: doors, the heating and air-conditioning system, propulsion, brakes, signals in control cars, and auxiliary power systems.

Now after extensive work with Hyundai Rotem, Williams said, almost all the issues have been resolved, except for the doors. On some trains, doors that malfunction must be locked, and passengers are told to enter and exit through adjacent cars.

“The only thing that’s left is the doors, and there continue to be efforts put in to do a design retrofit,” Williams said. “But we’re still not satisfied with them.”

Aging Charles River Rail Bridge Closes for Repairs

SOURCE:  Boston Globe - Carolyn Y. Johnson

The graffiti-covered railroad span that threads diagonally under the Boston University Bridge will be closed to most train traffic for two weeks, after an inspection found some of its crossbeams need to be replaced.

Many people are unaware that the 90-year-old railroad bridge across the Charles River is in use at all, but it is a critical piece of transportation infrastructure. It is part of the little known Grand Junction Railroad, which starts in Brighton and wends its way through Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea, connecting train lines that go to North Station with the ones that lead to South Station.

The freight line’s tracks are also used by Amtrak and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to shift engines and coaches for maintenance.

The repair work has begun, according to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. In the meantime, the train systems that use the bridge have come up with alternative plans to ensure no interruptions in service.

Two weeks ago, a visual inspection of the bridge found signs of movement in its trusses, according to Scott Farmelant, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., a contractor that operates the MBTA’s commuter rail service. A bridge engineering inspection firm was brought in, and on Wednesday, Farmelant said, the bridge was closed to freight cars and locomotives. He emphasized there is no public safety threat, since passenger trains do not use the bridge, and said the closure will not affect commuter rail services.

Pesaturo said in an e-mail that seven of the bridge’s 44 crossbeams need to be replaced. Repairs are expected to take about two weeks, and the cost of the project had not been finalized.

In preparation for the bridge’s closing, Pesaturo said, a number of organizations and companies have worked together to devise solutions.

Amtrak, for example, will do routine maintenance on its Downeaster trains, which provide service to New Hampshire and Maine, at the MBTA’s facility in Somerville, and the commuter rail company will perform maintenance on some of its equipment at the Amtrak facility in South Boston.

Cliff Cole, a spokesman for Amtrak, said the bridge is used to transport locomotive engines to Amtrak’s maintenance yard, and the repair project will have no impact on Downeaster schedules.

“Amtrak has been working around the closure by maneuvering the equipment through different detour routes,” and pursuing an agreement to have equipment maintained at different sites, Cole said.

Pan Am Railways and CSX Corp. reached an agreement to “transfer freight rail trains in the Worcester area,” Pesaturo wrote.

The bridge is not completely closed; empty commuter rail coaches can still be transferred over the bridge.

But in an illustration of just how important the bridge is, Farmelant said, two commuter rail locomotives would be transferred this weekend to the ­MBTA’s Somerville repair facility by taking a roundabout route through the Worcester area.

The transfer, which would normally involve crossing the Charles on the BU span, will utilize tracks that go through Ayer and then back east on the Fitchburg commuter rail line to Somerville.

“The system ultimately is wholly dependent on aging infrastructure,” Farmelant said. “This shows how critically important these investments the governor and others keep talking about into our infrastructure are.”

UPDATE: the bridge was reportedly back in service as of 1/11/13