Newport, Rhode Island and lack of rail service. - Trains Magazine

Overmod

If I remember correctly, Providence and Worcester still has a 'paper hold' on the line all the way from Fall River to Newport, which means that there would be no issue with the STB about restoring rail service.  Whether that is true for the 'buttonhook' west to Providence I don't know, but it might be highly interesting to see what would happen if the Sakonnet River bridge were repaired and passenger service coordinated with this, which seems much more likely overall as a practical passenger operation: Of course the ringer is that any practical rail service from Fall River south or west isn't going to be track class 1 or 2, and I think for the type of service you'd need to be competitive with trucks (especially electric semiautonomous trucks) you'd pretty much want a TLM pass from end-to-end of the 'freight' mileage.

How likely is that project going to go through?     I was going to suggest a link via MBTA from Boston to Newport. RI but to me that seemed like overkill and I had doubts that would ever work.

You said earlier you thought the bridge route was faster?   How did you arrive at that conclusion because looking over the former ROW Fall River to Providence and Fall River South, seems the time would be competitive or shorter for rail, than the toll bridge.   Took me 50-60 min to get from TF Green to downtown Newport, RI using that toll bridge.     Given the crow flies distance I consider that pretty slow.   I wonder how the rail route would do if it could average 40-50 mph in comparison.

Proposed Rail Route Providence - Fall River - Newport, RI:  38 miles.

Current road distance over toll bridge:     34 miles.

Shuttle Bus to Kingston NEC station which allegedly is closer than Providence, RI........1 hour transit time.    It amazes me there is a stop at Kingston.   I guess 146,000 arrivals and departures is not a small number BUT it is for the amount of trains that stop there.    But then Warwick another stop I think is a measly 50k a year.   In my view for the NEC, Amtrak needs a higher ridership bar than to delay the folks on the train for these small numbers.

Anyways, the train on the proposed routing would only need to average about 40 mph to be competitive with the car in my view.    What track speed would that be with stops?     Maybe 55-60 mph?     So it really does not appear we even need a high speed solution here.    Providence to Newport.