Devon Transfer Reopens as Metro North Track Work Resumes

MILFORD, CONNECTICUT — The temporary Devon Transfer point on Metro North’s New Haven Line trains will go back into service.

Work to the overhead catenary lines and the metal bridge over the Housatonic River is resuming, requiring that the transfer point be reopened, Metro North officials said.

The Y-shaped wooden platform on the Milford shore of the river was closed in mid-November when the bridge rehabilitation work was stopped for the season. Waterbury branch trains that had been using the Devon stop to transfer onto the main New Haven Line went back to making that transfer in Bridgeport.

“The temporary station at Devon Transfer will be reactivated until October,’’ Metro North spokeswoman Nancy Gamerman said. “It’s a planned continuation of last year’s bridge and track work.’’

Work on the project began last April and continued seven days a week, weather permitting, Metro North officials said. The state Department of Transportation is a partner on the project that involves steel repairs, a new wooden deck and new miter rails on the Track 3 span.

The northbound side of the Devon bridge spanning the Housatonic River in Stratford became stuck in the open position, delaying traffic for days in July. The incident occurred during a routine bridge test and was not related to the repair project.

The work on Devon’s Track 3, known as the inbound local track, is part of a $5.8 million project the railroad calls a “priority repair project on Devon Bridge, ” that is designed to keep the span operating.

Timber and rails are being replaced on the section of Track 3 on the bridge itself; some minor steel repairs are also being done.

During this construction season, the following changes will be in effect:

—Southbound customers who usually transfer to main line trains at Bridgeport will instead get off at the Devon Transfer Station.

—Customers who travel to New Haven will transfer again at Bridgeport for a main line train to New Haven.

—Northbound customers will be dropped off main line trains at Devon Transfer Station and board a waiting train for Waterbury.

Devon Transfer features a walkway connecting two four-car length platforms. The temporary location has lights and a public address system and will solely provide train-to-train transfers.

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Day 1213: Intent

The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally

Yesterday, my intent was to write about “Purpose.”

Today, my purpose is to write about “Intent.”

Where did this purposeful intent come from? From a discussion, yesterday, in a therapy session.

It was my intent to  suggest, there, that people ask that intentional question when somebody has said something confusing, confounding, or hurtful.

Here are all the other photos I took yesterday, with intent.

Can you guess my intent in taking any of those photos?  I hope the intent of this post tells you that you can always intentionally ask.

What music do I intend to include here?

I am intentionally inspired by my own photos to include this …

… and this:

Is it your intent to leave a comment today?

It is my intent to thank all who helped me create this post and you — of course! — no matter what your intent for visiting here…

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Is Hillary Stealing the Nomination? Will Bernie Birth a Long-Term Movement?

t this delicate moment in the primary season, we all need to take a deep breath and evaluate what comes next.

Bernie Sanders has a mathematical chance to win. But Hillary seems the likely Democratic nominee.

Donald Trump has an army of delegates. But if he doesn’t win on the first ballot, Paul Ryan could be the Republican nominee.

Oy!

For a wide variety of reasons, we believe Hillary and Bernie could beat Trump. But we’re not sure about Ryan, who we find absolutely terrifying.

Key is the stripping of our voter rolls. Millions of Democrats have already been disenfranchised. In a close race, that could make the difference.

Also key is the flipping of the electronic vote count, which few on the left seem to be willing to face in all its depressing finality.

As Greens, we believe this election’s most critical imperative is that Bernie convert the HUGE upwelling of mostly young grassroots discontent he has ignited into a long-term multi-issue movement. His success won’t be measured by whether he wins the nomination or presidency. Miles Mogulescu has written nicely about this at The Huffington Post.

It matters most that those he’s energized emerge after November full of commitment and heart. We’ve seen too many electoral campaigns feed into a general “disillusionment” when they don’t win the vote count. We’ve seen too many youthful uprisings too quickly dissipate.

As geezer vets of the civil rights, anti-war, No Nukes, social justice, election protection and other campaigns, we desperately want all these brilliant folks of all ages to take on the issues nearest to their hearts with renewed ferocity in the coming months, years, decades.

Having awakened this glorious beast, we need Professor Sanders to teach this class of ‘16 the ultimate lessons in staying power (of which he is such a sterling example).

So whatever happens with the nomination, we respectfully request that Bernie soon organize a broad series of grassroots gatherings where those who have worked so hard for him will get the best possible training and inspiration toward becoming lifelong activists who’ll make a tangible difference in the day-to-day business of saving this planet.

We all know that some meaningful changes can be made by putting better people in office. But in in the long run it’s the nitty-gritty grind of facing down the corporations issue by issue, place by place, nuke by nuke, that will save us.

Along the way there’s the collapse of our electoral system. From Jimmy Carter to Harvard to the UN and so many others who’ve studied it, it’s patently obvious the mechanisms by which we conduct elections in this country are ridiculously decrepit and corrupt.

As a partial solution, we’ve concocted the “Ohio Plan,” which demands: universal automatic voter registration at age 18; a four-day national holiday for voting; voter ID based on a signature that matches the registration form with stiff felony penalties for cheating; universal hand-counted paper ballots.

We also want money out of politics, public-funded campaigns, an end to gerrymandering, and abolition of the Electoral College.

In 2016, the first thing to face is the massive disenfranchisement of millions of voters, mostly citizens of color and youth. We are heartened to see Bernie and Hillary joined together in an Arizona lawsuit.

But the long lines and urban registration stripping that we saw in Phoenix, Madison, and elsewhere this spring will spell doom for the Democrats if they cannot guarantee their constituencies’ the right to vote in November.

At this point, we’re not optimistic. The efforts at re-enfranchisement are little and late. Among those doing superb work on this stripping of our voter rolls are the great Greg Palast (www.gregpalast.com), Ari Berman ofThe Nation, and others.

But the electronic flipping of the alleged vote count remains a demon black box. The 2000 election was turned from Gore to Bush by electronic manipulations in Volusia County, Florida. The 2004 election was turned from Kerry to Bush in a Chattanooga basement which transformed a 4.2% Democratic lead into a 2.5% GOP victory in 90 dark minutes.

All that could happen again in 2016.

By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News

“DOODLE BUG” Service on the New Haven Railroad

Was just wondering with all the talk about the rdcs from rapido. What was the history of doodle bug service on the New haven rr?

The map is from Pavlucik’s “The New Haven Railroad – A Fond Look Back”.  Date of map not given specifically but it seems to be 1930.  All runs were listed, totalling  2,529 miles each day.

 

 

Nicole Jo: live at JazzAhead! 2016

Jazz You Too

Prepare for a great surprise: Nicole Jo at JazzAhead! 2016 was really awesome, a true pleasure to watch and listen!

Watch the showcase at: http://tinyurl.com/z8hk3wr

Line-up: Nicole Johänntgen (sax), Stefan Johänntgen (key), Philipp Rehm (b), Elmar Federkeil (dr, perc, blue point steelharp)

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Bernie Should Drop Out? Baloney.

 

ere’s what I say to all those who are telling me Bernie should leave the race: Baloney. He should – and will – fight on, despite the worsening odds of his winning the nomination.

His campaign isn’t and has never been mainly about Bernie Sanders. It’s about a movement to reclaim our democracy from the moneyed interests, and thereby have an economy that’s working for the many rather than the few.

That movement has attracted unprecedented support in this election — from millions of young people, from a record number of small donors, from an upsurge of progressives determined to change the system.

That movement should have every opportunity to be heard and to continue to grow – not just through the upcoming Indiana, Oregon, District of Columbia, and California primaries, but also in the Democratic Party’s platform.

And beyond. Real change takes years to achieve. This movement has just begun.

What do you think?

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Facebook Page

All Hail To The Cloud

To say that software is moving to the cloud would be like coming late to the party. Yes, there is still software on your desktop machines and on your servers. But even the most ardent and heavyweight applications have found their way to cloud based platforms. For the supply chain this is particularly good news (and good practice) since the essence of supply chain business is distributed around the globe.

Picking an email system like gmail or even Yahoo mail is an obvious choice because of the nature of email – the content moves from one computer to another over the Internet. When online connections were more temporary, expensive, and less reliable it made sense to use a local application like Microsoft Outlook to handle the sending and receiving of the mail as well as editing the messages. But those limitations are long gone for most of us.

Simply downloading the interface at the same time as the message works surprisingly well, and the software we use is updated as frequently as needed to add features, remove bugs, and generally make our experience better – without requiring us to do anything about the software itself other than to use it.

The concept of perpetual updates is moving beyond applications too. Microsoft recently gave hints about moving its Windows operating system to a service model. That’s surprising news for many because Windows continues to be a significant source of revenue. Of course that move doesn’t necessarily mean Windows will be free. But it does indicate a transition in thinking.

Read more: http://ec-bp.com/index.php/articles/editors-blog/11540-all-hail-to-the-cloud#ixzz4762hGtBi

OmniTRAX Logistics to expand service territory in 2016

OmniTRAX Logistics Services LLC (OLS) will expand its service territory this year and has launched a new website to assist customers with their shipping needs, the company announced yesterday.

OLS plans to expand its operating locations in 2016 to the Chicago region, California’s Central Valley and the Southeast United States. Each new location will be served by an OmniTRAX Inc.-affiliated railroad, company officials said in a press release.

OLS currently operates transload and terminal facilities on OmniTRAX-affiliated railroads in Windsor, Colo.; Sand Springs, Okla.; Brownsville, Texas; and Peru, Ill. OLS operates a transload facility in Buffalo, N.Y., on the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad.

“We’re seeing strong demand for turn-key transloading and logistics services across the network of OmniTRAX–affiliated railroads,” said Tim Eklund, who serves as vice president-transload and logistics at OmniTRAX and president of OLS.

Eklund added that while the company is focusing on key regions for expansion, “we will look to establish a transload terminal facility wherever we can help our customers grow.”

The new “My Shipping Made Easy” website includes a listing of locations, serving information, and a catalog of products handled, which include dry and liquid bulk, metal products, consumer products, building products and project cargo.