Vermonter

Vermonter
The Vermonter at Brattleboro, Vermont in March 2004
Overview
Service type	Regional rail
Status	Operational
Locale	New England, Mid-Atlantic States
Predecessor	Montrealer
First service	1995
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Ridership	224 daily 82,086 total (FY12)[1]
Route
Start	St. Albans, Vermont
Stops	30
End	Washington, D.C.
Distance travelled	611 miles (983 km)
Average journey time	13 hours 27 minutes
Service frequency	One daily round trip
Train number(s)	54-57
On-board services
Class(es)	Business class Reserved coach
Catering facilities	On-board cafe
Technical
Rolling stock	Amfleet coaches
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Operating speed	max:79 miles per hour (127 km/h)
Track owner(s)	NECR, CSX, MNCR, AMTK
Route map Legend Dist. Station Montreal US-Canada border 0       St. Albans 24 mi  39 km  Burlington-Essex Junction 47 mi  76 km  Waterbury-Stowe 56 mi  90 km  Montpelier-Barre 86 mi  138 km  Randolph 118 mi  190 km  White River Junction 131 mi  211 km  Windsor-Mt. Ascutney Connecticut River Vermont/New Hampshire border 140 mi  225 km  Claremont Connecticut River New Hampshire/Vermont border 157 mi  253 km  Bellows Falls 181 mi  291 km  Brattleboro Vermont/Massachusetts border Pan Am Railways branch Greenfield(planned) 216 mi  348 km  Amherst Northampton(planned) Holyoke(planned) Palmer-Springfield Backup Pan Am Railways branch 251 mi  404 km  Springfield Lake Shore Limited to Boston and Chicago Massachusetts/Connecticut border 266 mi  428 km  Windsor Locks 277 mi  446 km  Hartford 288 mi  463 km  Berlin 295 mi  475 km  Meriden 311 mi  501 km  Wallingford Northeast Regional to Boston 314 mi  505 km  New Haven 327 mi  526 km  Bridgeport 350 mi  563 km  Stamford Connecticut/New York border East River Tunnels 385 mi  620 km  New York New York/New Jersey border North River Tunnels 396 mi  637 km  Newark 410 mi  660 km  Metropark (weekends only) 443 mi  713 km  Trenton New Jersey/Pennsylvania border 476 mi  766 km  Philadelphia Pennsylvanian and Keystone to Pittsburgh and Harrisburg Pennsylvania/Delaware border 502 mi  808 km  Wilmington Delaware/Maryland border 570 mi  917 km  Baltimore 581 mi  935 km  BWI Airport 602 mi  969 km  New Carrollton Maryland/District of Columbia border 611 mi  983 km  Washington

Amtrak Vermonter (interactive map)

Amtrak's Vermonter is a 611-mile (983 km) passenger train service between St. Albans, Vermont, New York City and Washington, D.C. One trip runs in each direction per day.

The train replaced the overnight Montrealer which terminated in Montréal, Québec, Canada. When the Montrealer route was threatened with cancellation due to budget cuts, the state of Vermont stepped in to subsidize service as far north as St. Albans, near the Canadian border.

The tracks currently used were originally part of the Canadian National Railway, Central Vermont Railway, Boston and Maine Railroad, New Haven Railroad, New York Central Railroad, and Pennsylvania Railroad systems. The tracks currently used are owned by the New England Central Railroad (St. Albans, VT – Palmer, MA), CSX (Palmer, MA – Springfield, MA), Amtrak (Springfield, MA – New Haven, CT and New Rochelle, NY – Washington, DC), and Metro-North Railroad (New Haven, CT – New Rochelle, NY). The route is planned to be switched to the rebuilt Conn River Line (owned by MassDOT) through Massachusetts in 2015.

History

Montrealer

The Montrealer was originally a service of the Boston and Maine Railroad (BM), running between Montreal and Washington. The Ambassador ran the same route but terminated in New York. Both services used the Boston and Maine's Connecticut River Railroad south of Vernon, Vermont, rather than the current route over the New England Central. The southbound service from 1972-1974 was called the Washingtonian, and the northbound was called the Montrealer. The Washingtonian was also Train 185, which came from New York and later along with most other regular trains on the Northeast Corridor, folded into one NortheastDirect in 1995. In 1992 a stop was added at Willimantic, Connecticut, but service there was discontinued in 1995 upon inception of the Vermonter.

Vermonter

The Vermonter replaced the Montrealer on April 1, 1995, bringing daytime service to Vermont. Business Class was added to replace the sleepers that were taken out of service upon the change to the Vermonter. The route was changed to allow travelers from Vermont back to stop in Springfield and Hartford. This was made possible by the use of cab cars or locomotives on both ends so that the train could travel east from Springfield, Massachusetts to Palmer and reverse direction to connect with the Central Vermont to continue north (see Palmer backup move, below). This detour adds an hour of running time, but was judged more practical than seeking to use the direct route over the former Boston and Maine Railroad owned by Guilford. The train travels from Washington to New Haven on the Northeast Corridor, where electric locomotives are substituted for the diesel locomotives used north of that location.

The train featured a colorful baggage car from its inception in 1995 until 2002. These baggage cars accepted unboxed bicycles and skis.^{[citation needed]}

Vermont declined to pay for continuing the Vermonter to Montreal due to very high labor and terminal costs (Amtrak did not have the ability to use its own crews on the short Canadian portion of the run). Amtrak offered passengers a connecting Thruway bus service, operated by Vermont Transit, which met the train at St. Albans for connections to and from Montreal. Ridership plunged when the train schedule was moved two hours earlier, requiring a southbound departure before 5:00 a.m. The schedule was returned to its previous position, but the service was dropped by Vermont Transit (which had been running it without a subsidy as part of its regular schedule) on October 30, 2005.

Due to a schedule change effective October 30, 2006, the Vermonter began stopping at the towns of Wallingford and Windsor Locks (near Bradley International Airport) in Connecticut for the first time in its existence.

Vermonter at Wallingford, Connecticut

On November 9, 2010, the State of Vermont, Amtrak, and New England Central began a $70 million project to increase train speeds along the route in Vermont to 59 miles per hour (95 km/h) between St. Albans and White River Junction, Vermont and to 79 miles per hour (127 km/h) between White River Junction and Vernon, Vermont.^[2]

On October 5, 2012, the Federal Railroad Administration announced the completion of track work within the states of Vermont and New Hampshire for the above mentioned stimulus plan (track work in Massachusetts is ongoing). 190 miles (310 km) of track within the states of Vermont and western New Hampshire were refurbished. The track work included installation of continuous welded rail, road-crossing improvements, ballast replacement, tie replacement, bridge repair and renovation, and embankment improvements. The top speed of the line within Vermont was increased to 79 miles per hour (127 km/h).^[3][4] The Massachusetts portion of the track work is ongoing with an expected completion date of 2014.

Proposed equipment change and service upgrade

Amtrak had urged the state of Vermont to purchase diesel multiple unit (DMU) trainsets for use on the New Haven–St. Albans stretch of the line. These DMUs would have been a smaller and more efficient alternative to the current locomotive-pulled configuration. Instead of remaining in the same passenger coaches while the crew switched locomotives at New Haven, passengers would have had to change trains. Amtrak offered a $2 million grant to help make the switch and market the new service. The new cars would purportedly have saved $4.25 million over three years, being four times more fuel efficient than a locomotive-hauled train.^[5] In 2008 the Vermont state legislature approved the purchase of five cars from Colorado Railcar at the cost of $18.2 million, but the decision was pending the approval of Governor Jim Douglas when the company closed,^[6] and with no other manufacturers of DMUs that comply with US regulations for DMUs, the plan has since been dropped. However by 2012 three U.S. commuter railroads were operating Stadler GTW DMUs: Capital MetroRail, A-train (Denton County Transportation Authority) and the Southern New Jersey Light Rail.

Amtrak and the State of Vermont have also tentatively discussed adding another train between White River Junction and Springfield, Massachusetts that would enable greater flexibility in passenger travel times. A 2013 study released by the World Bank showed that increased rail frequency between cities likely encouraged economic synergies and greater economic activity in the connected regions^[7]

Palmer–Springfield backup move

Vermonter at Palmer, Massachusetts

At Palmer, Massachusetts, no direct connection exists to allow eastbound trains to head north, or southbound trains to head west. Therefore the Vermonter must operate with either a locomotive on both ends or a cab car on the end opposite the locomotive. There is no station stop in Palmer, which is a small town.

On the southbound Vermonter, the train enters the CSX tracks heading east and moves clear of the crossing. The conductors get off the train and throw the switches and the engineers move to the other end, and the train goes the other way west to Springfield. On the northbound Vermonter, the procedure is reversed, with the train being pushed east from Springfield to Palmer.

With the start of the all-electric Keystone Service freeing equipment, it is now common to see two P42 locomotives on the Vermonter, instead of one engine and a cab car.

Planned re-routing north of Springfield

In 2009, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation submitted a grant application to use funds from the Federal Railroad Administration’s High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program], part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to improve the Vermonter service.^[8] As described in the Knowledge Corridor Passenger Rail Study,^[9] the rail line would be restored to the more direct route from Springfield through Holyoke, Northampton and Greenfield with stops in each. This re-routing, while bypassing and deleting the Amherst station stop, would serve more population centers and eliminate forty-five to sixty minutes of travel time between Springfield and Brattleboro.^[10][11] The re-routing would also eliminate the need to switch directions in Palmer and for two locomotives on each train.

One proposal to continue rail service to Amherst using this line is the Central Corridor Rail Line, which would veer southeast after Palmer and would pass through eastern Connecticut, terminating in New London, Connecticut.

On January 28, 2010, the White House announced that $70 million from ARRA funds would be allocated to re-routing the Vermonter to its original route between Brattleboro, Vermont and Springfield, Massachusetts along the Connecticut River.^[12] The rerouting would shorten the train's route by 11 miles (18 km) and 25 minutes of travel time by laying new track and upgrading other infrastructure on the line. A station in Northampton will be renovated, and a new station in Greenfield will be constructed.^[13] The realignment is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.^[14]

Separately, ARRA funds will be used to upgrade track in Vermont for higher speeds.^[13]

See also

• Maple Leaf (Amtrak)
• Adirondack (Amtrak)

Notes

References

• Solomon, Brian (2004). Amtrak. Saint Paul, MN: MBI. ISBN 0760317658. OCLC 56490949. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vermonter.

• Amtrak - Vermonter
• Trains Magazine - Hot spot: Palmer, MA
• On-time performance of the Vermonter