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The new Hub will be....Worcester?
By Cynic on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:29am
Well, at least when it comes to rail transportation. The T&G reports today that as CSX winds down operations in its Beacon Park yard in Allston, it's planning to shift its operations to the west. And according to Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan, the new set-up promises to "make Worcester the freight rail hub for all six New England states with east-west and north-south rail connections with access to highways."
The news isn't entirely unexpected. Even before CSX finalized its agreement in September, communities had fretted that the changes might increase rail traffic and its accompanying disruptions. But it does highlight an ongoing shift in Boston's regional role. From a satellite, it still resembles the hub of a wheel, with highways spoking outward, and connecting to the circumferential 128 and 495. But as industry and offices have shifted out to those circumferential belts, it's made progressively less sense to move things into the city by truck or rail, only to shift them back out again. The new plan will allow for double-stacked train cars to come in from the west to Worcester, where they'll be sorted, and then shifted by road or rail to their final destinations.
In some ways, this is positive news. Reducing urban truck traffic is positive, as is opening Beacon Park for development. But it also signals the ongoing shifts in our economy, as the traditional blue-collar jobs continue to disappear.
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Comments
Worcester
As someone that grew up in central mass, I cannot be anything but happy for Worcester over this.
Ditto
And as someone whose house overlooks the Beacon Park railyard, I say, Yay! No more humping trains at 2 in the morning!
With respect, try selling that "argument"
to the folks using the Mass Pike, I-495, Route 2, etc. etc. that will now have to deal with more truck traffic than before (250 containers NOW equals 250 long-haul trucks instead of 1 train). And why - because the environmentalists and others have managed to convince the unwashed masses that urban rail yards are somehow evil and a blight that needs to be destroyed.
BTW, wasn't the rail yard there when you bought your house in the first place?
He didn't complain about it being there
He was relishing the prospect that things will change soon.
How many of these containers come through Boston to start with? How many are shipped into Boston to be put on trains? It would be interesting to see how many currently come in and from where and by what means.
(note: my interest in rail yards/modes is professional - there are a lot of pollution issues with port and transfer facilities and these are a high priority for the EPA and California ARB right now, and the impacts of changes actually ARE considered for local roadways - especially under the proposed NO2 rule that came out last month).
dumbass
The HUB is changing. Rail traffic will still come into and out of Boston. It just won't all be forced THROUGH Boston.
OK, except that the principal train to truck container transfer
facility will now be in Worcester instead of Boston. So, until they build a direct rail connection through South Boston (after who knows how many years of "necessary" study), all those containers bound for Conley Terminal will have to be hauled by trucks from Worcester instead of from Allston.
Sorry, but I'm not entirely convinced this is a good way to improve efficiency OR reduce pollution.
I don't care that the rail yard is there
I care that they claim that they don't hump cars (joining cars by smashing them into each other with enough force that houses 200 yards away shake) in this yard when in fact they do it every day and night. Not the same thing.
I want to see some humping railroad cars.
Post to youtube, email your neighborhood coordinator in the mayor's office, and then make a post here.
FlipHD's, under $200. Fun for the whole family.
A hump yard features an
A hump yard features an artificial hill and cars rolling into each other through gravity to form trains (no locomotive pushing)
http://www.answers.com/topic/hump-yard
Beacon Park is not a hump yard. That is not to say that they don't couple and uncouple cars very loudly with a locomotive pushing, but that is not the same as a hump yard.
Didn't say it was a hump yard
I said it was a yard in which humping takes place: regardless of precise definitions, the act of jamming rail cars together, whether through pushing or through the use of an artificial hill, is colloquially known as humping. It's a practice CSX swears never happens in this yard, although everyone knows it does.
Oh the possibilities!
I bet the locals could chime in with some stories of seeking a bit of adolescent privacy in those spaces ...
Well, you could ask...
...the special snowflakes who enjoyed strolling along the tracks during their long heart-to-heart conversations. Oh wait, you can't, a commuter rail train ran them over because they were too fucking stupid not to know you don't walk on live railroad tracks.
Humping of rail cars only
Humping of rail cars only takes place in hump yards. Coupling and uncoupling of cars with a locomtoive is not humping. CSX is correct, they don't hump cars in that yard because it is not a hump yard. But they do uncouple and couple cars and make up trains.
No, they are NOT humping cars at Beacon Park
Aggressive switching of cars in a flat yard, which has been standard practice for decades at Beacon Park and almost every other flat railroad classification yard in the country, is known as "kicking", not "humping". And if they didn't "kick" the cars, it would likely take two to three times as long to make up and break down trains. Less noise, but more pollution and reduced efficiency.
Humping, kicking...
...whatever you wanna call it, it's really fucking annoying when it wakes you out of a dead sleep, especially when CSX repeatedly claims that golly gee, they would never dream of doing that in this yard.
Meaning no disrespect to your point of view, but please
re-read my previous comment about buying a house next to an active rail yard (and one that has been around for well over a hundred years). Unless you somehow thought that the railroad wouldn't actually USE the facility to switch train cars.
Wow, you just don't get it
Thanks for playing.
With respect, I do get it.
However, I have almost no sympathy whatsoever for people who agree to buy houses next to established rail yards, highways, trucking terminals, private businesses, etc. etc. that routinely generate noise as a unavoidable byproduct of their operation and then turn around and COMPLAIN about that same noise or worse, pressure the companies and/or their politicians to either put severely restrictive restrictions on how that company or railroad can do business (i.e. no overnight switching) or, worse yet, convince (or force) the business to move out completely (as is happening with Beacon Park).
And, again with respect, in case you haven't figured it out yet, freight railroading is a 24/7 business. It's the nature of the beast, and has been so for over 150 years now.
for the record, I and my siblings spent a good part of our lives (24 years in my case) living in a house near the top of the highest hill in East Lynn, which was directly under an approach path to Logan Airport. The airplane noise was noticeable at times, but it never bothered us OR disturbed our sleep even in the summer with the windows open. Why, because WE GOT USED TO IT (that's one of the amazing things about the human species is that they can easily adapt to their surroundings).
I agree, it's amazing what
I agree, it's amazing what you can get used to. I grew up across the street from tracks for freight railroads ... I'm talking trains that are something like 1/2 mile or more long, and they're loud. But you know what? Living there for most of my life, I got so used to train noises that I actually find them soothing and familiar. I've lived near the Pike and tracks for the last 4 years and get excited when I hear train whistles.
I agree; don't buy a house in Winthrop and expect not to hear planes, don't buy something next to a rail yard and expect not to hear trains. And don't buy next to a college and expect not to find students urinating in your front yard.
It's loud even over here in Cambridge
I live on the 3rd floor of a Cambridge house that's about 1/2 mile away from the yard. I don't know if those cars are humping, banging, screwing, or whatever, but I hear the same thing you do: loud booming noises coming from Beacon Park periodically throughout the day and night.
Links to Rail Maps
Links to state maps of railways in New England
Kind of frustrating that they don't show lines as they cut through adjacent states. All the same, they kind of explain why Worcester makes more sense as a rail operations hub than Boston, which doesn't even connect north to south!
Thanks for the maps
Nice maps. Thanks for the link
Worcester already has a rail
Worcester already has a rail yard, and so does Framingham, any rail freight traffic going north or south is already stopping at Worcester or Framingham on the line from Albany and not moving east to Boston. Anything going east to Beacon Park, primarily trailers on flat cars, is going to the greater Boston area or to the port. That is all freight traffic that will be moving via truck instead of rail on the stretch between Boston and Worcester when Beacon Park is closed.
Makes Sense!
Some logical thinking is definitely taking place. Worcester is much more centralized for all types of traffic than metro-Boston is. It only makes sense.
Well....
There is this little issue of Boston having a seaport and Worcester being landlocks...So "all types of traffic" is a stretch.
First the old B+O yard now this
It makes me sad both that there will no longer be any urban rail yards in Boston.
First the old B+O yard in Cambridge gets replaced with crappy towers and now this.
I blame BU for greedily acquiring the land Beacon Park lies on.
Expect more mega dorms, and more The Kells type bars full of asshats, and more crowding on the B line.
I still remember fondly being a teenager in Allston, back when it was Conrail before CSX, and watching the trains at work from the Cambridge Street bridge, and how our orange and white tomcat used to go play with the feral cats in the railyard and come back all black with grease stains from the trains.
Remember when...
"Our orange and white tomcat used to go play with the feral cats in the railyard and come back all black with grease stains from the trains."
And I remember that my mom's favorite cat got killed on the tracks and we never kept an "outdoor" cat again. I've had that railyard less than 100 feet from my house for 50+ years and I won't miss it one little bit. Won't miss the noise, won't miss the dirt, won't miss the rats.
Harvard
Harvard owns the land, not BU.
Railroad yard ownership
Does not Harvard University own in actuality the land where the present csx railroad yard facility exists in Allston?
Two questions
BlackKat - was it not Harvard, rather than BU that aquired the underlying fee of the Beacon yards?
Roadman - I think that containers either exclusively, or almost exclusively, move through Conley Terminal in South Boston, not Moran in Charlestown. Moran still has rail rights of way to it (I believe along Medford St. in C-town), but I think that Conley might not have any rail (although the North Jetty, where the USS JFK used to tie up, and the Marine Industrial Park can be accessed by rail (I think it's referred to as "Track 61") on the north side of the Reserve Channel).
D'oh!
Sorry, Brighton. I just saw now that you asked the same question re the Beacon Yards.
Sorry, I meant to say Conley Terminal, not Moran
In fact, I believe that the rail connection that used to serve Moran was severed at Sullivan Square (the old MBCR "FX" interlocking) several years ago.
And, I've updated my earlier post accordingly.
Whichever
It could very well be Harvard rather than BU. I knew it was some school and presumed it was BU as it abuts their campus. Either way... I would prefer the rail yard remains a rail yard rather than become another school's hole in the ground or uber-dorm.