Hartford Line (Amtrak)
's Hartford Line—known prior to September 2019 as the New Haven–Springfield Shuttle, or simply, the Shuttle—is a train service run by Amtrak primarily between Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, along Amtrak's New Haven–Springfield Line. As part of a new pilot program, two daily round trip trains continue north of Springfield to Greenfield, Massachusetts on the Connecticut River Line under the Valley Flyer designation, other trains on the line carry the Hartford Line designation. Hartford Line and Valley Flyer trains connect with Northeast Regional and Acela Express services at New Haven's Union Station, usually via a cross-platform transfer. The Hartford Line program also includes a single Northeast Regional round trip through train between Washington, DC and Springfield daily and additional through trains on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
During fiscal year 2016, the Shuttle service carried 270,353 passengers, a decrease of 23.0% from FY2015. The service had a total revenue of $9,504,113 in FY2016, an 18.0% decrease from FY2015. The drop in both ridership and revenue was primarily due to bus substitutions of trains to accommodate track work for the new Hartford Line commuter rail service.
Amtrak's Hartford Line service as well as the Northeast Regional through trains that terminate in Springfield are state-supported routes within Amtrak's system. Amtrak receives funding from the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Massachusetts Department of Transportation to operate these trains. Massachusetts provides additional funding for the Valley Flyer service to stations north of Springfield.
The service is a component of and shares its name with the Hartford Line commuter rail service operated by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
History
As inherited from Penn Central in 1971, most service on the Springfield Line consisted of unnamed Budd Rail Diesel Car shuttles that connected with Northeast Corridor trains at New Haven, with limited through service to New York City. In 1980, Connecticut invested $12 million to improve service on the line. North Haven station was opened on October 25, 1980, and other stations were renovated. A new fleet of 12 Budd SPV-2000 diesel railcars allowed an increase to 12 daily round trips under the Connecticut Valley Service name at that time. However, service was cut in half in 1981 after ridership failed to increase.On January 12, 1986, Amtrak pulled the unreliable SPVs from the line and replaced them with Amfleet coaches pulled by diesel locomotives. North Haven and Enfield stations were closed on October 25, 1986 due to low ridership. As New Haven was the northern limit of electrification on the Northeast Corridor, New York–Boston trains changed between electric and diesel locomotives at the station. The passenger coaches of Springfield shuttle trains were attached to southbound trains during the engine change, and detached from northbound trains; this eliminated the need for passengers to change trains. The Connecticut Valley Service name was soon dropped, and shuttle trains were named in timetables as sections of their connecting trains. The elimination of the second track on the line beginning in 1990 sharply reduced capacity, limiting frequencies to four daily shuttle round trips plus several through trips.
On October 28, 1995, most Northeast Corridor service including the shuttle trains were consolidated under the NortheastDirect brand. Electrification was extended to Boston in 2000, and engine changes were eliminated over the next two years. The cumbersome split/merge procedure was abandoned in favor of dedicated shuttle trains with cross-platform connections to through trains. The shuttle trains began to use Former Metroliner cab cars, which had become available when replaced by new equipment on West Coast routes. This allowed them to operate in push–pull format, eliminating the need to wye or loop the trainsets at New Haven and Springfield. The NortheastDirect name was dropped in September 2001; Northeast Corridor trains became the Acela Regional, while the shuttle trains became unnamed. They remained unnamed until 2019 when they received the Hartford Line and Valley Flyer names
Mail service
Until Amtrak discontinued all mail-hauling operations in 2005, the postal distribution center in Springfield, MA, was a significant customer. Up until about the year 2000, Springfield was served by a dedicated mail train which would run overnight up the Inland Route to Springfield. After this train was canceled, mail cars were instead added to the early morning Train 190, to make pickups at large cities along the Northeast Corridor. At New Haven these mail cars would be removed from the rear of Train 190 and added to Shuttle Train 490, sometimes sandwiching the locomotive in the middle of the train.Hartford Line expansion
Until August 2015, daily service in each direction on the Springfield Line consisted of four Shuttles, the Vermonter, and one or two Northeast Regional trains. Between August 3, 2015 and December 31, 2017, several round trips on weekdays were replaced by buses to accommodate double track construction for the ConnDOT Hartford Line commuter rail service. On June 9, 2018, three additional weekday Shuttle round trips were added as part of the startup of Hartford Line service. This change also added connections with some Amtrak Acela Express service in New HavenHartford Line began on June 16, 2018. Initial Hartford Line service consisted of eight weekday round trips and nine weekend round trips. On September 10, 2018, as part of a schedule change made to Hartford Line trains, all Amtrak Shuttles and Northeast Regionals started stopping at New Haven's State Street station.
Amtrak adopted the Hartford Line name for use on the trains it operates on the corridor and retired the Shuttle designation in September of 2019.
Valley Flyer pilot program
On June 12, 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced that two daily round trips would be extended to in 2019 as a pilot program. By February 2019, the two-year pilot was expected to begin in June 2019; however, by that May it was delayed to later in the year. On August 30, 2019, the Valley Flyer program began. Two round trips are offered on weekdays and one on weekends with southbound trains in the morning and northbound in the evening which complement Amtrak's existing daily service on the Vermonter. Additionally a reverse round trip operates between Springfield and Greenfield on weekends only.Operation
The local Hartford Line trains are numbered in the 400 series, usually denoting by the last two digits which Northeast Regional train the Hartford Line train is connecting with. Trains terminating in Springfield carry the Hartford Line name, while trains terminating in Greenfield carry the Valley Flyer designation. Typical consists run in push-pull configuration with a General Electric P42DC locomotive pulling an Amfleet coach and a 9600-series ex-Metroliner cab car. Normally the ex-Budd Metroliner leads northbound trains, while the GE Genesis usually leads most southbound trains. Crew bases are at Springfield and New Haven, with diesel locomotive servicing taking place at New Haven.The Valley Flyer trains account for two weekday round trips and one weekend round trip. Southbound Valley Flyer trains require an equipment move from the crew base and equipment layover yard at Springfield Union Station to the Olver Transit Center in Greenfield prior to the Greenfield departure as Amtrak does not have any crew or turnaround facilities in the area. Likewise, equipment and crews on northbound trips must dead head back to Springfield after unloading all Greenfield passengers. For the weekend Valley Flyer, tickets are available for these moves On weekdays, these trips are dead head moves and are not open to passengers. Another unique operational aspect of the Valley Flyer is the need for the push pull trains to reverse directions twice at Springfield during the trip due to the station’s location just to the east of the intersection between the Amtrak Springfield Line, MassDOT Connecticut River Line, and CSX Berkshire Subdivison.
The New Haven–Springfield corridor is served by all Northeast Regional trains in the 140 series as well as trains 136 and 157. These trains run from Springfield to or Virginia without the need to change trains. The corridor is also served by Amtrak's Vermonter.