High Speed Rail (HSR) is being developed incrementally in the United States. Existing railroad lines, with substantial capital upgrades, will accommodate the new HSR services with the present freight and commuter operations on the same right-of-way. The Northeast Corridor Highspeed Rail Improvement Project (NEHRIP) involves upgrading the existing line between Boston and Washington, D.C. for a maximum authorized speed (MAS) of 150 mph. Particular emphasis will be made to the New Haven-Boston segment, where full electrification has not existed prior to this project.In the segment between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, high-speed operations will share the alignment with commuter trains of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Unlike NJT, Metro-North and SEPTA operations further south along the Northeast Corridor, no four-track alignment exists for the joint operation by MBTA and Amtrak. The capital program underway on the Corridor envisions only a slight expansion of the triple track on the innermost Boston segment, with passing sidings along the outer 31 miles.In addition to an increase in the number of trains on existing services planned for the joint- operation segment, the MBTA is considering an additional commuter service to Fall River and New Bedford that might also use this part of the Corridor. LS Transit Systems, Inc. (LSTS) was asked by the MBTA to analyze this with RAILSIM®. RAILSIM is a simulation tool that can analyze complicated rail operations like that planned for the Corridor. The development of the simulation provided the first look at the blending of rail services with widely disparate speeds onto a two-track right-of-way; an arrangement that will resemble most near-term future applications of HSR in the United States.
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