The North American passenger rail market - Industry Overview

Railway Age, March, 2001

Major capital programs have modernized the infrastructure, replaced and rehabilitated equipment, and completed system extensions. The authority has unveiled a proposed $2.5 billion, five-year capital plan calling for new metro cars; station rehabilitation; track, signals, and communications upgrades; and an advanced fare collection system.

At North Station, work continues on a new subway station for the Green and Orange lines that will be linked by an underground passage to the commuter rail station. The new station should open in the summer of 2004. MBTA has been studying two expansion projects. An Urban Ring project is envisioned as a circumferential transit corridor that would intercept the agency's radial rail routes that converge on the city center, to serve riders moving between points outside the city center. Also under study is an extension of the Blue Line metro in a north shore corridor to Beverly.

Major regional rail extensions under study include service over the Old Colony line to Greenbush. Service was restored in 1997 over two other former Old Colony lines to Plymouth and Middleboro. Also likely is an extension of service to New Bedford and Fall River.

A major restructuring of MBTA's regional rail system could come with completion of a North/South Rail Link between downtown Boston's North and South stations that has been under study for several-years.

RHODE ISLAND

Rhode Island Department of Transportation is planning a new regional service over a 44-mile segment of the Northeast Corridor between Providence and Westerly. An initial phase will extend MBTA's present Boston-Providence service south to Warwick, where a new station and a people-mover link will provide both Amtrak and commuter rail service to the T. F. Green Airport. Site work has begun and the station should be complete by December 2002. A start date for the extended commuter rail service has not yet been set.

A RIDOT study of rail service to Newport on Aquidneck Island should be complete early in 2002. While the service is being initially planned as one operating the length of the island, it could eventually be extended across the Sakonnet River to provide a link with MBTA's planned Boston-Fall River service.

CONNECTICUT

Connecticut Department of Transportation operates Shore Line East commuter rail service over a 51-mile segment of the Northeast Corridor between New Haven and New London, serving eight stations. Amtrak operates the service with eight diesel locomotives and 21 coaches. Ridership in 2000 averaged 1,161 daily passengers.

ConnDOT completed a feasibility study in 1995 for service in the 37-mile New Haven-Hartford corridor. Although funding has not yet been identified for the service, it remains under consideration and could be established over the entire 63-mile corridor from New Haven through Hartford to Springfield, Mass.

BUFFALO, NEW YORK

Niagara Frontier Transit Metro System, Inc., provides transit services to a 1,575 square mile service area in Erie and Niagara counties with a population of almost 1.2 million. NFT Metro System operates a 6.2-mile subway and surface light rail metro route serving 15 stations with 27 LRVs. The rail system handles a weekday average of 25,000 trips.