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Originally Posted by ardecila
The Baltimore tunnel to Charles Center might be worth it because the existing tunnels need replacement and Baltimore Penn is in bumblef*ck, but why the hell does this thing run to Long Island? Solely for the JFK connection? There's a reason LI Sound has no rail or road crossings - it's just too damn expensive for the limited benefit it provides. They could get much of the same benefit with a shorter detour to JFK (or LGA) and then a crossing at Whitestone or Throgs Neck, rejoining the Northeast Corridor in Pelham Bay Park.
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This proposal by UPenn was discussed on Transport Politic a month or 2 back.
The reason for the Long Island part of the proposal has little to do with JFK, but instead points out that the population of LI is not well served by the current NEC configuration. LI, if Queens and Brooklyn are included, has a population of around 7.5 million people which is a sizable number.
If you live out in Suffolk county and want to take Amtrak to DC, you can take LIRR to Penn Station and then south. Not super fast, but ok. But if you want to head to Boston or other points beyond New Haven, you take LIRR to Penn Station and then Amtrak all the way back through the East River tunnels and then north across the Hell Gate bridge. Rather slow. When the East Side Access to Grand Central is finally finished, there will be the option of taking LIRR to Grand Central, then the New Haven line to Stamford and then Amtrak from there to Boston. Still not very fast.
The other reason for their LI proposal is that it bypasses the entire slow CDOT owned New Haven line. But the idea of running the HSR line all the way to mid LI and then north under the sound to New Haven is mind boggedly expensive and getting the ROW for HSR alongside the existing LIRR route is as close to a nonstarter as it gets.
An alternate approach that might make some sense is to run the HSR line underground pass LaGuardia Airport with a intermodal station and then under the sound to rejoin the current NEC somewhere in the Bronx. That could be combined with a airtrain connection to LaGuardia. But that would not offer enough a speed improvement for the NYP to BOS run to be worthwhile. Amtrak has plans to speed up the NEC from Hell Gate Bridge to New Rochelle because they do own that part of the NEC. A new Amtrak/LIRR access to Grand Central station somewhere around Woodside on LI might be a better compromise to provide better service for those on LI heading north to New England on the NEC.