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The latest twist to the ongoing Harrisburg Airport Rail Station debacle

The latest twist to the ongoing Harrisburg Airport Rail Station debacle

Old Jun 30, 2015, 9:48 am
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by fairviewroad
I believe that would make it the only such station on the Keystone Corridor. Platform will be accessed by pedestrian bridge from either side.

Middletown gets details on new Amtrak station
Interesting point --

30th street station in Philly has all kinds of Platforms

Harrisburg has a lot

Lancaster has two center platforms serving four passenger tracks

Once upon a time, that part of the PRR was a very busy place, now it's just busy

Bob H
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Old Jun 30, 2015, 4:04 pm
  #32  
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Originally Posted by BobH
Interesting point --

30th street station in Philly has all kinds of Platforms

Harrisburg has a lot

Lancaster has two center platforms serving four passenger tracks
Well, I guess I wasn't really thinking about the end terminals (Philly/Harrisburg) when I said the Middletown station would be the only one served with a center platform. In Lancaster the "center platforms" are "center" in name only, since the opposite side tracks are no longer used. The platforms are not between the two tracks used by Amtrak trains. That is, you cannot access both eastbound and westbound trains from the same platform, as you will apparently be able to do at the new Middletown station.
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Old Jun 30, 2015, 8:25 pm
  #33  
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Originally Posted by fairviewroad
Well, I guess I wasn't really thinking about the end terminals (Philly/Harrisburg) when I said the Middletown station would be the only one served with a center platform. In Lancaster the "center platforms" are "center" in name only, since the opposite side tracks are no longer used. The platforms are not between the two tracks used by Amtrak trains. That is, you cannot access both eastbound and westbound trains from the same platform, as you will apparently be able to do at the new Middletown station.
So they'll be tearing up the tracks and moving them farther apart to put a center platform? I don't recall the tracks being far enough apart to put a platform between them. I'd think that infill stations like this would take advantage of whatever the existing trackage offers, so I'd expect this station to be two outside platforms.

Odd.
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Old Jul 1, 2015, 11:59 am
  #34  
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Originally Posted by jackal
So they'll be tearing up the tracks and moving them farther apart to put a center platform? I don't recall the tracks being far enough apart to put a platform between them. I'd think that infill stations like this would take advantage of whatever the existing trackage offers, so I'd expect this station to be two outside platforms.

Odd.
You are correct. The tracks are being shifted, for reasons that aren't really explained in the above article. You have to think this will impact the Keystones schedule during the construction phase as this will likely require single-track operations through the area for an extended period of time.
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Old Jul 1, 2015, 3:31 pm
  #35  
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Originally Posted by fairviewroad
You are correct. The tracks are being shifted, for reasons that aren't really explained in the above article. You have to think this will impact the Keystones schedule during the construction phase as this will likely require single-track operations through the area for an extended period of time.
That is odd. Seems way more expensive to move tracks than to pour some extra concrete, but what do I know.

There isn't a ton of traffic on the part of the line between HAR and COT (once out of SEPTA territory), so single-track running shouldn't be an issue. That said, the schedule right now does have several trains meeting in the MID area, as the eastbounds out of HAR leave about 10-15 minutes before the westbounds are scheduled to arrive at HAR, so this is actually a spot where many meets occur. There are also several other places in the schedule where the westbound arrives a few minutes before the eastbound departs, but in the not-unusual event that the westbound is late, they cross paths in/around MID.

That all said, there are crossovers (obviously) at HAR and I believe there are crossovers not far from the current MID station (a Google Maps satellite view review shows one just south of the Burd Street bridge just on the other side of Swatara Creek from the current station), so potential single-track delays should only be a few minutes at most. I would not be surprised to see some tweaks to the schedule, though, to prevent this from happening.

I miss hopping off the train at MID, walking under the tracks, and enjoying a burger and $3 lager at the Blue Room, though.

(Why do I know so much about MID and HAR train departures? I spent a lot of time point-running in that area, so I had to know what the most efficient HAR turns were. )
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Old Jul 2, 2015, 11:00 am
  #36  
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Originally Posted by jackal


(Why do I know so much about MID and HAR train departures? I spent a lot of time point-running in that area, so I had to know what the most efficient HAR turns were. )
Well, once this project is done, someone could do a HAR-MID-HAR point run and execute a true cross-platform transfer...off one train, across the platform, and into the other train. It's bound to happen at some point!
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