The Northeast Corridor's Curviest Stretches, and Amtrak's Plans for Safety and Speed.

The site of a deadly crash last month is the most curved stretch
between Washington and New York, excluding areas near stations.

Just west of a creek and just behind a Walmart in Philadelphia lies one of the curviest stretches of railroad on the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak’s heavily traveled route from Washington to Boston.

That stretch of track, called Frankford Junction, is where a northbound Amtrak train derailed last month while going over 100 miles per hour, leading to eight deaths. Here — by splitting the corridor into mile-long segments of track and ranking each stretch for straightness — we identify the eight sharpest curves on the Northeast Corridor (excluding entrances to stations). Frankford Junction emerges as the most curved stretch between Washington and New York. . .

One of the two sharpest curves on the Northeast Corridor is in New York City: a nearly 90 degree turn on Randalls Island near the Hell Gate Bridge. A curve in Queens, north of the Sunnyside yard, is a bit less curvy, the sixth-most curved.

New England hosts some of the most tortuous sections of track. Three of the top eight curves are along the coast in New London County, Conn., where the snaking railroad crosses several rivers over aging bridges and sometimes runs right along the shoreline. The curve in Stonington, Conn., is the sharpest on the corridor. Two other sharp curves (not shown) are in New Haven and Pawtucket, R.I. . .

Cheaper and quicker than new routes is a plan to straighten the curves, which is also on Amtrak’s 2010 master plan wish list of proposed capital projects. “We view curve improvements as a trip time strategy,” said Stephen Gardner, Amtrak’s vice president for Northeast Corridor infrastructure and investment development. One of the sites to be realigned is the Frankford Junction curve.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/24/upshot/amtrak-crash-was-on-one-of-curviest-stretches.html?

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