SHORE LINE EAST

'Shore Line East' (SLE) is a commuter rail service operating in southern Connecticut, USA. A fully owned subsidiary of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), SLE provides weekday service along the Northeast Corridor from New London west to New Haven, with continuing service to Bridgeport and Stamford, and connecting service to New York, New York via the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line. It operates along tracks owned by Amtrak (New London to New Haven) and Metro-North (New Haven to Stamford).

Contents

History

Current service

Rolling stock

Growth of the System

Station stops

See also

Sources

External links

History

The section of the Northeast Corridor SLE operates on was once the New York-Boston mainline of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. This line (northeast of the junction with the New York and Harlem Railroad in Woodlawn) was referred to as the ''Shore Line'', to distinguish it from the ''Main Line'' to Springfield, Massachusetts.
In recognition of the large role played by the New Haven in the history and heritage of the state of Connecticut, ConnDOT paints SLE's diesel-powered locomotives in the New Haven's colors and "NH" markings.
Shore Line East was not the first commuter train after the New Haven Railroad to run this route. In the 1970s Penn Central operated a train from New London to New York in the morning and back to New London in the evening. The train was continued under Amtrak for years. It made all the stops that SLE uses today, but at the older platforms and station buildings. The train made its last run in 1981. SLE was established as a temporary service to newly-reopened local stations between Union Station in New Haven and Old Saybrook, to alleviate traffic congestion that arose from scheduled construction work on the parallel Interstate 95.

The service began in May 1990 with four trains each way during the morning and evening. The train was threatened to be cut in 1991 by then Gov. John Rowland. But that was not to be as the restored service proved more popular than expected, and the service was made permanent, and extended one station east to New London in February 1996. To attract more riders, some peak hour trains were extended to provide one seat rides via SLE to employment centers in Bridgeport and Stamford beginning in December 2001.

Current service

Most SLE trains run local westbound from Old Saybrook to New Haven in the morning, with some nonstop eastbound service. This traffic pattern is reversed in the afternoon and evening rush. A handful operate through New Haven to or from Stamford.
Service to the New London Station has been cut down to a single train in each direction every day, the result of Amtrak being forced by the United States Coast Guard to curtail traffic over a moveable bridge across the Connecticut River. The Coast Guard has jurisdiction over marine traffic, and thus over how often the bridge can be closed to allow a train to pass. To make it up to SLE customers, Amtrak allows New London SLE monthly pass holders to board selected ''Regional'' trains.
All trains that do not operate west of New Haven make a connection to a Metro-North Railroad train at New Haven, for service to and from points in Connecticut, Westchester County, New York, and New York City.
Although SLE service is funded by ConnDOT, it is operated under contract by Amtrak. Amtrak owns and dispatches the Northeast Corridor east of New Haven. West of New Haven, the Corridor is owned by Metro North.

Rolling stock

In contrast to Metro-North's New Haven Line, whose rolling stock is also purchased in part by the state of Connecticut (a portion of the fleet is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Metro-North's parent organization), SLE trains are diesel push-pull trains, as opposed to Metro North's electric multiple units. SLE runs diesel service because, when it was purchasing motive power, Amtrak had not yet electrified the Northeast Corridor between New Haven and Boston. In the 1970s the Amtrak train operated with Amfleets and E-8s and F40PH locos, and occasionally FL-9s. The original SLE service operated with 2 F-7s and 10 Pullman-Standard coaches purchased from Pittsburgh's PA Train. In 1991, the CDOT purchased 10 Bombardier coaches and leased 2 GP-38s and one GP-7W. In 1994, CDOT purchased 11 rebuilt SPV-2000 railcars from Amtrak. In 1996, SLE took delivery of six GP40-2H diesels, one of them purchased for use on the New London train. While the purchase of electric motive power is a long term goal, there are as of 2006 no immediate plans to do so, although Metro-North's new M8 EMUs will be ''capable'' of running the service when delivered in 2009. When the conversion to electric power happens, though, it is expected that ConnDOT will reassign the locomotives to a new proposed commuter line along Amtrak's New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line, which is expected to imitate SLE's operating model.
In late 2004, SLE has purchased 33 single level Mafersa coaches from Virginia Railway Express (VRE), to increase its fleet size to accommodate higher ridership, as well as to provide a critical reserve in case of mechanical breakdown. Mindful of the weather-related equipment failures that plagued both Connecticut commuter railroads in the winter of 2003-2004, Governor Jodi Rell directed that the new cars be put into service immediately, without even taking time to paint them in SLE livery. As of 2007, while some of the ex-VRE coaches still are in their original VRE livery, most have recently been repainted in SLE colors (actually New Haven Railroad colors), as shown in the above picture.

Growth of the System

Shore Line East has been in growing in recent years as state officials seek to improve service and reduce traffic congestion. Recent improvements include:

★ November 28, 2005: New station with high-level platforms and 176 parking spaces opens at Guilford, replacing an earlier station with low-level platforms.^[1]

★ August 2005: New stations with high-level platforms open at Branford and Clinton, replacing stations with low-level platforms.^[1]

★ 2003: State Street Station opens in New Haven, closer to downtown than Union Station.^[1]

Station stops

★ Stamford (shared with Amtrak and Metro-North)

★ Bridgeport (shared with Amtrak and Metro-North)

★ Union Station (New Haven) (shared with Amtrak and Metro-North)

★ State Street Station (New Haven) (shared with Metro-North)

★ Branford

★ Guilford

★ Madison

★ Clinton

★ Westbrook

★ Old Saybrook (shared with Amtrak)

★ New London (shared with Amtrak)

See also

★ Connecticut Rail Commuter Council is the official state advocate for commuters. It brings station and rail line problems to the attention of officials.

Sources

1. Connecticut DOT Press Release 11/29/05
2. Connecticut DOT Press Release 11/29/05
3. Connecticut DOT Press Release 11/29/05

External links

★ Shore Line East, commuter rail service between New Haven and New London

★ Shore Line East Riders' Association

★ [1]

★ [2]