From: M00209@MBVM.Mitre.Org
Subject: Re: Amtrack from Boston to Portland, ME
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA 01730
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:33:16 GMT

In article <1992Sep9.131148.2162@merrimack.edu>
gemmellj@merrimack.edu writes:
 
>
>From this mornings Boston Globe from the Q+A section on the comic page.
 
An appropriate place, eh what?!
 
>Q. What's the scoop on a proposed high speed train making the former Pease Air
>Force Base at Newington, N.H. with Boston? K.C., Lynn
>
>A. According to Henry Powers, chairman of the Pease Development
>Authority on the former base, realization of such service only lies in the
>future.  A surface transportation study for the region, including rail
>lines and park-and-ride facilities, should be completed in the fall of
>1993.  Encouraging highlights: Pease owns railroad rights-of-way.
>Futhermore, according to a preliminary draft of the transportion study:
>"Amtrack has been recently selected by the Maine Department of Transportation
> to opeate rail passenger service to Portland, Maine, from Boston's North
>Station via the Springfield terminal Railway Co. Freight Main Line, which runs
>between Boston and Portland.  Amtrack has indicated that running services
>from New York City and points south would be desirable to provide
>effective and competitive service."  Meanwhile, the New Hampshie
>Transportation Department is studying relocation of automobile roadways at
>the Gossling interchange in front of the entrance to Pease to avoid conflict
>with the existing grade-level rail crossing at that location.
>
What grade-level rail crossing??  Is there one on the base?  There sure isn't
on either Route 16 or Gosling Road!  The crossing of Route 16 is north of Fox
Run Mall, close to the Asia Restaurant.  I would guess that's almost a mile
north of Gosling Road.
 
A more interesting question is how are they going to get "high-speed trains" to
Pease?  Consider the geography, please.  The Boston-to-Portland route runs thru
downtown Dover (unless somebody really goes in for wild spending to build an
almost entirely new line).  From there to Pease, the old Dover Branch right of
way still exists at least as far as Sawyers Mills - single track of course with
several grade crossings - and it had service until something like five years
ago.  South (probably timetable east) of Sawyers Mills, I don't personally know
of the state of the right of way, but I would be surprised if it was intact
since it hasn't seen a track in over 50 years.  'Twouldn't surprise me a bit if
the Spaulding Turnpike was atop a good piece of it in the vicinity of the Dover
Point interchange.  In any case, to get in from that direction would obviously
require building a bridge ($$$) across the mouth of Great Bay.
 
Existing track, of very uncertain quality, could get the trains from Rockingham
Junction to Pease via Portsmouth and Newington industrial areas.  However, the
route is very indirect and would require a lot of money in upgrading.  I have
not sat down to look at a map, but I suspect that it would be simpler and
possibly even cheaper to build a new line over from the Portsmouth Branch some
place around Greenland into Pease coming onto the base from the back side over
by the base housing projects - Pannaway, etc.  You could stay to the west of
Route 95, and probably judicious planning could find a route that wouldn't
even require an additional crossing of Route 101.  Don't know the condition
of the Great Bay trestle in Stratham vis a vis high speed trains, but it seems
to be able to handle regular slow freight trains OK.
 
 
Len Bachelder        Archives Committee, Boston and Maine RR Historical Society
MITRE Corp.           Secretary, Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts
Bedford MA 01730      Member, 470 Railroad Club
<M00209@mbvm.mitre.org>
 
"Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, should'st die for me!"
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