This is me and my friend's project! Thank you so much for the exposure and support! We know it'll be an expensive and lengthy process but we really hope to see passenger rail service reach Newport eventually!

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

I’m very happy you guys took the initiative to look into this and get the ball rolling. Many people I know have mentioned how useful the train could be down here but there hasn’t been any serious consideration of it in years. Hopefully the renewed interest can nudge the state to update their 2002 study.

@JohnMcDaid

3 ай бұрын

Hi, Alex, I'm based in Portsmouth and very interested in helping to push this forward. Please let me know how to connect with your group.

@scottslusarski3269

2 ай бұрын

I've wondered about this in the past. It would be great not only for commuters, but for tourism in general. Just think of going to Newport in the summer and not have to worry about finding somewhere to park. (Not only in summer to be honest.)

Would love to see connected rail service come back to Newport.

@davidhayden1434

3 ай бұрын

P 0😅😅

All the stated reasons are excellent The reduction of cars,trucks and busses over the bridges is paramount. Especially if freight could return for incoming goods or outgoing waste much like rail on Cape Cod It’s the future Restoring this infrastructure benefits everyone in the long run and can still be shared and multi use

@tomy.1846

3 ай бұрын

Agreed!

Please bring back more trains.

My special needs son is all for preserving and restoring railroad equipment, tracks, and service because he thinks rail transportation is highly underrated. So he agrees that rail service to Newport Rhode Island should be restored!

Interesting that there's a conversation happening about it. Not sure how realistic it is to hope that RIDOT would pony up the money to restore the bridge, the track to Fall River and lets face it, most of the track to Newport. Newport is a great destination for a day or overnight stay... Maybe the state of RI would see the benefit of restoring rail service to the island. We can only hope.

Thanks very much for your efforts! Perhaps the Providence & Worcester route through Providence can someday also be reestablished.

❤ I would love to see commuter rail expand into Newport not a bad idea

Thank you very much for this very interesting and detailed broadcast which is very much appreciated.

Boy does that red Mass Coastal geep look sharp.

@chuckgilly

3 ай бұрын

It sure does look sharp. MC is a class act.

I go to the boat building school on Thames street! I’m going to see about printing up some QR code flyers and getting the word out!

I think it would be good to have a light rail system from the Mount Hope Bridge and also stop at Melville for Newport tourists and locals. Tis would help alleviate auto traffic in Newport.

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

This is certainly possible to include those stops on an on island shuttle. RIDOT studied that in addition to the connection to Fall River a few years ago.

Love all the info. Thanks for all the hard work.

Two things: 1) Get communities hosting potential stations to pre-commit to upzoning around stations, to ensure long-term line viability. 2) Given line characteristics (relatively short, and likely somewhat low ridership, at least initially), could be a perfect use-case for battery/electric trains: relatively cheap to implement and would permit respectable operational frequency and speed.

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

These are great points! Transit oriented development would definitely help make the line more appealing.

Great video with lots of information. I would imagine that it will need an amazing amount of money to complete .

With all of the Rails and stations still in situ, (and the surplus of used locomotives from PSR) the only real difficult/expensive part would be the bridge (and possibly nimbyism) I'd say go for it! :)

Good work!

Could the Golden bakery be served by that tourists railway ?? (The one in your opening shots😊) Many Gods Prayers 😊😊😊😊😊❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Well......... although I could not understand everything you said, it certainly was an interesting video. Like you, I see potential there in that project/dream.

Looks promising!

0:53 interesting they’re using a GP40MC and a single level cab car

100%, let's do it. Rhode Island has some of the richest history of any state and it's actively being destroyed. Plenty of people would use this in the Summer, I could see this paying itself off pretty quickly. If the state rejects this proposal, call up the Brightline guys in Florida, they're doing an amazing job down there.

@grandcrappy

17 күн бұрын

Be an outstanding attraction, economic engine.

Sounds good!

Exciting news

I would love to see Providence to Hartford rail back. It would be nice to see passenger trains. Hartford is ready to get more trains and it would be nice to have an east-west passenger service along with North South trains.

That would be great if they restored it plus they could bring back the gg1 electric or the old steam train but that part wishful thinking

are they gonna rebuild the bridge?

It is a nice thought but it will likely never come close to making any economic sense. The estimated replacement cost mentioned is far too low. The moveable span (roadway) replacement cost for the bridge over the Chelsea Creek was $125M in 2012, for example.

Would be cool to have an actual MBTA train go down, maybe not as often as they would hit Fall River, but still would be awesome. Would also be nice if they had a line go from Providence/Wickford's station then go over the water onto the island... or hit East Providence from Providence and head south from there to Newport 😏

I thought I heard you say $50 million for a new moveable bridge at Sakonnet. That sounds very low and is probably not realistic. Numerous studies will be needed.

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

It would likely be more but as the video said it is based on the Gloucester bridge that cost $49 million just a few years ago.

Its a great idea. In terms of potential ridership though, I think it would make more sense to build a railroad bridge(or tunnel) to Bristol picking up riders in Bristol, Warren, Barrington and East Providence and on to Providence via a new bridge over the Seekonk River thereby connecting more RI communities to the RI state capitol. That would permit a shorter route to Ny and about equal distance to Boston too. Of course they'd have to take back the bike trail. (Aw shucks.) But first they have to get rid of the "highwayman" who runs RIDOT.

@burlingtonfan7492

3 ай бұрын

Or rather, restore the traditional route from Newport to Fall River, then the subsequent U-turn over the river at Slades Ferry towards Warren and on to Providence (bridging at Bristol seems to be more expensive, and would require careening through town)

@BG-sl9lv

3 ай бұрын

@@burlingtonfan7492 It could parallel Metacom Ave which is pretty much a miracle mile without damaging more historic parts of Bristol possibly as an all electric light rail rapid transit line (The East Bay- Aquidneck line) that shuttled from Providence Station to Newport. That would allow for more frequent service too. Boston to Newport would likely be at least a 2 1/2 hr trip. A LR shuttle could get to Providence hourly. The benefit would be to greatly improve the pathetic state of mass transit in RI. Yes- a bridge to Bristol would be more expensive than one bridge over the Sakonnet but less than 2 bridges- one over Sakonnet and one over the Taunton.

@alexmodern6667

3 ай бұрын

😊

@00Zy99

2 ай бұрын

@@BG-sl9lv ??? 2.5 hours Boston to Newport? Where are you getting that? I can pull up a 1916 timetable and find half a dozen trains that made the run faster. The shortest time was two hours flat. The typical standard is that going from steam to electric means multiplying from 2/3. Assuming a 2:15 steam run time (being pessimistic), that's 90 minutes. If we assume two hours flat, then the current time would be 80 minutes. Assuming that they are serious about 100+ mph operation north of Taunton, then that stays even with the indirect route via Freetown instead of the direct route via Somerset (which should also be brought back, imho-there's a fair bit of development, and quite a bit of potential on that corridor). If a modern, high-speed, high-acceleration Euro-EMU was used, it might be able to pull off a run in 75 minutes. Running express via Somerset could provide a run-time of just one hour. Even 90 minutes is at the point where people would be willing to commute. 80? Or 75? That's DEFINITELY getting into commuter territory. And one hour would be shorter than many commuter runs on LIRR, MNCR, NJT, GOTRansit, Metrolink, Metra, Caltrain, and others. A reasonably frequent schedule would have massive demand. Just as it would for the Cape lines. Speaking of Somerset, another argument in favor of running via Fall River is the potential demand for Newport-Fall River and Providence-Fall River traffic, as well as the possibility of extending east-west service to New Bedford and on to Cape Cod. The reason that the services collapsed in the old days was because there was a small series of gaps (and one very weak bridge) that prevented an integrated system. If the system was integrated, it would have synergistic effects.

@BG-sl9lv

2 ай бұрын

@@00Zy99 -- I'm getting it from current conditions and current equipment used-and which will be used- now and probably for the foreseeable future. Right now the Lakeville/ Middleboro line takes about 1 hour and 5 minutes from end to end. From there it's a fair guess to add 40-45 minutes to Fall River which makes the journey 1hr 45/50 mins. And from Fall River to Newport -an additional 40 minutes. there's 2 1/2. Perhaps it could be done in 2hrs 15 but I seriously doubt less until the 100 mph future comes to pass. So if the round trip from Newport and back is 4 1/2 to 5 hrs, that puts a lot of trains on the tracks if you expect departures at 60 or 75 minute intervals for a 1 seat ride.

Would there ever be a reality where the MBTA’s Fall River Branch extends its terminus to Newport, or will there only be a rail connection service?

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

If this were to happen it would likely be a separate shuttle train. A CapeFlyer like service using MBTA equipment is always a possibility too.

@patman4394

3 ай бұрын

Makes sense. Any idea what the connection to Providence would look like?

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

Unfortunately there’s no “realistic” connection to Providence at the moment but there are options. Either do a long route through MA (via Taunton/Attleboro) or have a bus connection in Portsmouth or Fall River to the train onto the island.

Got any maps? I get lost east of Mystic. Thanks.

This would have been much better video if the volume wasn't so weak. I hope your future videos have more volume.

@SouthCoastRailVideos

3 ай бұрын

The background video volume easily becomes too loud for the voiceover so that’s why the voice is so loud. Thankfully the video is more focused on the information than the trains shown.

They r rebuilding the line to serve Newport as we speak was last there in sept of 2023

Yea Great Suggestion........It be Cool if Alll State,and federal Trains Team together to act like one Company to make ridership more convenient, lower single drivers on state freeways lower emissions for example we have a neat Vancouver bc AMTRAK service......b I t each train misses the South bound Trains like coast star light by 20 minutes....

Let me guess the barge company got away with it, and did not pay for the bridge?

Let a little used highway bridge be hit and it will be put back into service asap at taxpayer expense. If the rails were so lucky.

What A would do is restore some steam train engines that way if the power goes out the electric trains won't be able ta move n if the diesel gas prices gets to high of a price ta keep the diesel engines running and if there ever n E.M.P it will keep the electric n diesel engines from running but the steam trains will keep on running cause they have no electricity but for the diesel engine ta help with the electric power for lights n the steam engines uses water n coal or recycled oil for fuel n if there's ever n E.M.P the steam engines will still keep running plus the steam train engines are classics historic n is a master piece of transportation before cars are trucks was invented its sad that they let steam Era just fade away n let almost all of them just rust away ta nothing the only ones that survived is the inoperable steam trains in museums n just a few they refurbished and rebuilt ta operational if they rebuilt more steam train engines n passenger train cars A would sighn up ta be a steam train engineer in a heartbeat that's ma dream job n will always be ma dream job no matter what

Nice idea but will never happen.

@SouthCoastRailVideos

Ай бұрын

Never say never!