citationx092

The rails between Providence (soon to be Warwick as well) and Boston are already at nearly maximum capacity. Providence already sees 40-50 Amtrak trains daily http://www.amtrak.com/timetable/oct08/W04.pdf . Add in all the MBTA trains and there is almost no room to add anything else, especially at peak times. Walk down to the train station at 5pm on a Friday, the tracks are heavily used. Unlike what Metro North has going down in New Haven-NYC with 3 tracks, there are only 2 tracks around here: a northbound and a southbound track. On top of it, Amtrak owns all the rails here and would have to approve any other service. I think MBTA was lucky to get the tracks down in Warwick as this is where there trains run at the highest speeds.

Little does anyone know that the current expansion that is going on at TF Green will be complemented by another expansion a few years down the road. Nothing official has gone public, but the everything is in the works at RIAC from what my manager has been telling me.