CLOSING THE GAP!
--------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
nyskies@nyskies.org
www.nyskies.org
1996 October 7
[The electrification of the Amtrak railline between New Haven CT
and Boston MA is among the most severely neglected weapons against
luminous graffiti, ignored and even debunked by some darksky
advocates. Below this piece is a dialog with one debunker.]
New England's massive light abatement scheme passed a meterstone
on 3 July 1996. First catenary pole was placed at Providence station,
about midway between Boston and New Haven. The work will spread in
both directions to these two cities, followed by catenary stringing.
When complete in summer 1999 the project will slash automobile and
airplane light -- and other! -- pollution in southern New England by
as much as 1/3!
The project is the fulfillment of a generations-old plan to fully
electrify the railline along the south New England coast from New
Haven CT to Boston MA via Providence RI. This, the former New York,
Bew Haven, & Hartford road, is the northern arm of Amtrak's Northeast
Corridor service.
The railroad was electrified in 1914 as part of its link into the
new Grand Central Terminal. The wires stopped at New Haven with intent
to finish the job by 1918. Various factors intervened and the line
from New Haven to Boston was worked until today by coal or Diesel
trains. Riders from the City must wait in New Haven while the electric
engine is uncoupled and a Diesel one hooked on.
In the late 1980s, as an unrelated exercise, Boston's Logan Airport
hatched expansion plans. These were vigorously opposed and the airport
studied its future needs to justify the plans.
To its horror it found that fully 1/4 of its customers came from
New York City! There was no way Massachusetts will enlarge Logan to
accommodate New York!! If somehow these New Yorkers could be shoved out
of Logan onto other transport to Boston, Logan could postpone enlarging
the airport for several decades.
Of all the alternative routes into Boston from the City only one
had any hope of draining off New Yorkers in any substantial numbers.
This is the Amtrak railline. In its present condition the line does
convey about a hundred planeloads per day to Boston, but can it carry
more? Logan and Amtrak got together and conceived the 'Closing the
Gap' project.
Logan would partly support the upgrading of the railline to cut the
running time from the current 5 hours to 3 or 3-1/2. The rehabbed line
can carry 30 or 40 daily trains to Boston, up from today's 15. This puts
Boston within a one-day business or commuter trip from the City.
The scheme got underway in 1990 with rebuilt trackbeds, new signals,
realignments, second-tracking, and refurbished stations. All these
improvements do make the ride quite comfortable and pleasant. But the
run still takes at best 4-1/2 hours mainly due to the engine change in
New Haven and the slower speed of the Diesel trains. This is actually
the first of a three stage manifesto for the line.
The second is the electrification itself. Catenary will soon string
along the 240Km gap from New Haven to propel trains in one continuous run.
It is the nation's biggest electric rail project since the 1930s!
Because there is no more swopping of engines and the electrics get to
higher speeds, the trip is a welcome alternative to cars or planes.
The final step is already is progress. All new supertrains to work
the City-Boston line are abuilding right now in upstate New York, Vermont,
and Quebec. These, the American Flyer, are based on the French TGV. They'll
scoot along at 220Km/h, a mite slower than the TGV yet swift enough for the
Northeast Corridor.
The removal of an other hundred daily airplanes from the skies, and
thousands of daily cars from the roads, of southern New England is no
longer some idiotic dream for astronomy. It's happening before the century
turns over. No more will New England stargazers suffer from turbulence,
smog, smoke and aerosols, noise, noxious fumes, lights in their sky, In the
stead they will hear the soft whoosh! of American Flyer.
= = = = =
1996 October 8
From mcdon...@aries.scs.uiuc.edu Mon Oct 7 16:56:36 1996
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 1996 18:53:15 -0600
From: "J. D. McDonald" <mcdon...@aries.scs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: UIUC SCS To: JOHN PAZMINO <john.pazm...moondog.com>
Subject: Re: Closing the gap
I'm posting this publicly because your questions are valued and
can be the foundation of some good discussion on the betterment of
astronomy in this country.
For starts, let's be honest. The entire Closing the Gap project,
all $2 billion dollars of it, has no prime motivation for astronomy.
There is nothing in the acts of the airport or the railroad that
says, 'Let's darken the skies so stargazers can have more fun'. The
benefit for astronomy is a colossal spinoff, a collateral boon, that
comes embedded with the air-to-rail displacement. What happened is a
delayed derivative of the Sixties Revolution. It is plain socially
ridiculous to use planes for the short run of some 400Km. I do grant
that the situation in New England is peculiar in that the railline
already exists and is in regular use. It's not like a whole new route
has to be cut or an abandoned one has to be resusicated. Also the
traffic density is, by middle American norms, stupendous, swamping the
airlines but handily digestible by the railline.
Apart from the 'obvious' amelioration of the skies, the Closing
the Gap project overall makes life in the City and southern New
england more pleasant, enjoyable, and gentler all around. Astronomers
are, despite what some may think, people. So any program that improves
the lot for the regular folk will make for better astronomers, too. If
I were not an astronomer I would welcome this project for the simple
reason that it makes good horse sense to go to Boston by train than by
airplane.
JOHN PAZMINO wrote:
> The removal of an other hundred daily airplanes from the skies,
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT? lOGAN IS SATURATED. NEW YORK WILL JUST
ALLOW MORE FROM ELSEWHERE.
This is exactly the instigation for the expansion plans. Logan is
full to the brim with airplanes. I abbreviated the account. The idea
was that Logan should accommodate more overseas flights being that
Boston is a major East Coast town. This is impossible in the present
airport. Either enlarge it into Massachusetts Bay or build an allnew
airport west of Cambridge. Both options are glatt nonos. The solution
is in deed to remove the New York flights, these being so huge a
portion of all flights, so the gates are free to bring in overseas
flights. The airport may end up just as full but with a new mix of
traffic.
> and
> thousands of daily cars from the roads,
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT WILL DO THAT?
A car travelling from the City to Boston invariably has but a
single person, the driver. The portion of multirider cars is obscenely
small. Hence, a train, with 300 riders, can displace 300 cars. The
trick is to make the rails as attractive and convenient as the
automobile. With the circulation between the City and Boston, this is
a thoroly viable goal.
> of southern New England is no
> longer some idiotic dream for astronomy. It's happening before the
century
> turns over. No more will New England stargazers suffer from
turbulence,
HOW SO? REMEMBER, IT WON'T CUT TOTAL FLIGHTS.
This may be true; the Logan traffic is redistributed. However, the
present pattern brings planes from the City right over southern New
England on a line along US1, I95 and the NYNHH railline. They fly
directly over the fields of Connecticut and Rhode Island, where the
greater percent of New England stargazers practice. The replacement
planes would come from across the Atlantic Ocean over water and fly
into Logan from offshore. Except for some localized circling over
Logan, they will not impede stargazing over the 400Km reach between
Boston and the City.
> smog, smoke and aerosols,
HOW SO? WILL ALL THAT ELECTRIC POWER COME FROM NUCLEAR, OR FROM COAL
OR OIL, WHICH ARE GENERALLY MUCH DIRTIER THAN CARS AND NO DIFFERENT
FROM DIESEL TRAINS.
Airplanes spew their wastes directly into the sky with no cleanup
or collection. These ingredients sift thru the air and disrupt
stargazing, filter into people's lungs and skin, and cut the
concentration and attention to the observing. The electricity for
American Flyer will demand no new power plants. The present ones have
sufficient excess capacity to provide the additional power. And New
England is a mass purchaser of hydroelectric power from Quebec and
Canada. Moreover, the pollution from plants in New England is under
control and can be further reduced. It is vastly easier to stifle
emissions from a few major sources, the power plants, than from a
zillion ones, cars and planes. > noise,
PERHAPS.
Go live in an airport motel for a week. I promise to sign out your
body from the morgue. The noise in and around Logan will probably
remain the same after American Flyer starts flitting to Boston. The
noise along that City-Boston route will decrease because the planes
flying that route are displaced by the trains.
> noxious fumes,
SO THE ELECTRICITY COMES FROM NUCLEAR?
See above. The combustion gases from planes are dumped into the
sky over the entire path of the plane. There is utterly no attempt to
clean or collect them or otherwise neutralize their effects. Power
plant gases can be, and are, trapped, scrubbed, reduced at the plant
site. And, yes, New England does have substantial nuclear generation.
If you speak with any advocate of outer space life, even science
fiction writers, every alien civilization is presumptively based on
electricity, however many centuries advanced beyond ours it may be.
> lights in their sky,
POLLYANNA!
You'll scream other words when your arduously exposed sky photo
has airplane streaks all over it. There is an intriguing case history
about the effects of roadbased traffic on stargazing. The Winter Star
Party, in February in Florida, convenes on a Girl Scout camp alongside
of US1. The site is simply the one the party's operator can obtain and
is not at all an ideal site. US1 in this area is the one and only road
connecting the keys and has very heavy traffic at all hours of the
night. The highway is litterally adjacent to the grounds with a tree
row between the two. The upthrow of light, noise, smoke, vibration,
fumes, turbulence, is awesome. When I go I deliberately pick a viewing
spot as far from the road as possible (near the breach). While this
gives an open prospect on the southern skies, it also distances me
from the assault from the highway. Doug McDonald, you actually enjoy a
whole nation of company in your doubts about light abatement for
stargazing. The notion sure as hell looks like some star freak's
whining and bitching. When you consider that in any town, even quite
large ones, there may be but a dozen people who really exploit the
skies for astronomy, the chants for light abatement can be extremely
annoying. Oh, you want that thirty thousand homeowners should turn
their lights off so you can go and stare at the stars for an hour a
week? Boy, have we got a special place for you. It's nice and dark.