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Self-propelled rail cars are blast from MBTA’s past


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 20 January 2015 - 11:31 PM

The Boston Globe, 1/18:

 

Self-propelled rail cars are blast from MBTA’s past

 

What’s old is new again for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

 

When I reported last week that the MBTA is soliciting bids for self-propelled diesel trains that would run on existing commuter rail tracks, some readers reached out with memories of the T’s old Budd cars, which were essentially the same.

 

Richard Danca of Newton said he remembers riding one of the trains on a Boy Scout trip to learn about rail cars and jumping off a trestle to avoid getting run over by one in West Roxbury in the 1950s.

 

Bradley Clarke, a member of the Boston Street Railway Association, said history and economics forced the MBTA to transition from the self-propelled diesel trains to the coach-pulling locomotives that we now see.

 

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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 21 January 2015 - 02:49 AM

Budd cars used by Metro North and Amtrak (dubbed SPV-2000's) on the Connecticut lines were deemed unreliable and pulled from service. Perhaps MBTA needs to get something more modern like the DMU's that Portland's Tri-Met is using on its suburban WES service, or Austin's Capital Metro on its line to Leander.    The MBTA Fairmount Line has had many stops added so that it has become more "transitized". I have not ridden it recently, but I surmise it has become more like some of SEPTA's commuter lines where the stops are very frequent, more like a rapid transit line.  The Indigo Line concept has been on back burner, however, for years.



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#3 Sloan

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Posted 11 February 2016 - 11:05 AM

 

 

Fairmount line setback: No DMUs says MBTA

 

Efforts to raise the Fairmount Line commuter rail’s performance to the level of rapid transit suffered a serious setback under the Baker administration. Last year the administration halted MBTA plans to purchase a new kind of train that would have allowed for more frequent service and this fall, an MBTA official said they were unlikely to resume those plans.

http://baystatebanne...ys-mbta/?page=1






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