The 144-year-old B&P Tunnel, owned by Amtrak, is a major chokepoint on the Northeast Corridor that sees 140 Amtrak and Maryland Area Regional Commuter trains daily.
That may change.
The Federal Railroad Administration has selected a new route that bypasses the two-track B&P and threads a new four-track line under Baltimore to Baltimore Penn Station.
The FRA estimates the new route could be in service by 2025, but the $4.5-billion project has received no funding.
The FRA’s “record of decision” is the final report of a $61 million environmental impact study that has been under way since 2014. The agency chose an alignment that starts near the West Baltimore MARC station and swings in a 3.67-mile semi-circle more than 2,000 feet north of the B&P. Two miles of the route will be underground, in four parallel tunnels. The plan also calls for two ventilation and access points for first responders in an emergency.
In a prepared statement, Amtrak officials say they were excited that the FRA, Maryland Department of Transportation, and city of Baltimore had completed the the preliminary environmental and engineering work.
“The replacement of the B&P Tunnel is an economic imperative to attain the speed, frequency and reliability befitting a world-class rail system,” the statment said. The B&P Tunnel is “a major impediment to high-speed rail service along the NEC. This Record of Decision begins the hard work of bringing all stakeholders together to identify funding with which to continue final design and advance construction.”
Good news, of course. Now, who decides on the priorities re the NEC–Hudson River tunnels, Portal bridge, 5 other bridges in Maryland, or the B&P tunnel?
And if the national system of long distance routes is disassembled, the B&P tunnels replacement might as well become a bike/walking trail for the lack of support it will receive west of the Potomac.
Note the yellow horizontal profile below the map/plan – depicting about 100′ vertical height of the tunnel at one point underground, because two of the tubes cross underground(?!) What’s going on here? Can’t be accomplished by switches at either end? I don’t believe it. Why would they rebuild this tunnel with four tubes when, according to their own plans, it’s to be handed over to the freight and local carriers when the new NEC Future ROW through Baltimore is completed? (For a more appropriate thru-Baltimore scheme, with new stations at Camden Yards and the airport, see: “NEC Future? or Backwardation” at rail-nyc-access.com)
It will never happen. Between the NIMBYS and the current administration’s push to privatize everything and users pay a toll to pay for it nothing will get done. We need another big train wreck that has an explosion the kills some people and then something might get done. The key operative word in “Might”
I hear you Mr. Pack. I hate NIMBYs as well.
There are many maps of the proposed tunnel alignment in the Record of Decision, which is available at the project’s web site (linked at the bottom of this Newswire article). The diagram on page 16 has horizontal and vertical alignment profiles, which are interesting because it shows how there is going to be an internal crossover, where two of the bores jump up while another dips down to cross underneath them. This is being done to align the outermost southbound track with the MARC platforms at Penn Station.
The map of the existing tunnel is all that’s available at the Overview Map link at the FRA page – http://bptunnel.com/ (hardly reassuring !).
Go here instead for the “B&P Tunnel December 2016 PowerPoint Presentation”
http://bptunnel.com/images/PDFs/Dec2016-CommunityInfoMeetings/2016_12-8BPTCommunityMtgs.pdf
from http://bptunnel.com/index.php/public-involvement/meeting-materials
Getting a Second Tunnel under the East River in NY would help
It appears someone posted the “present tunnel alignment” map; can we please get the proposed alignment map instead, or additionally?
Stop foreign aid for the next 5 years and let the third-world countries languish on their own, and put that money into rebuilding America.
Don’t look for any WORLD CLASS PASSENGER RAIL SYSTEM in this country ! We took to the skies for travel while other countries developed rail travel . Now the cost is astronomical and we can’t keep our roads in good shape let alone upgrade or build new right of ways for rail travel . And don’t forget the NIMBY folks who don’t want anything that might be for the good of the community, the country , or anything in general !!!
Looks like the Trains staff posted the project overview map from the Record of Decision website.
A map (actual satellite photo with diagrams overlaid) showing both proposed and current tunnel as well as the vertical alignment profile of the proposed tunnel is in the Final Environmental Impact Statement Chapter 4 page 2. (Breath)