On Tuesday, December 18th, I made my way to Springfield, Massachusetts for the first East-West Passenger Rail Advisory Committee Meeting. This meeting is the first step in exploring passenger rail service between Boston and Pittsfield, MA a total of 151 miles. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the committee will discuss 6 alternatives and then narrow it down to 3. Various ideas will be floated about station stops along the line, electric vs diesel power, track upgrades, and even route alignments. The committee includes state representatives, mayors, town managers, Amtrak/MBTA/MassDOT officials, and other transit experts.
This new service would run on existing Worcester Commuter Rail Line continuing west on CSX’s Boston and Berkshire Subdivisions. There will be a lot of challenges on this route with the curves, steep grades, road crossing, and dealing with current corridor rail traffic. Along with exploring the current corridor, alternatives will be study to align or even change the current route all together. Going off this corridor will drive up cost substantially along with delaying the project even longer. With the current corridor the planned stops would be Pittsfield, Springfield, Palmer, and Worcester.
This is the first meeting I’ve attended where the Department of Transportation Secretary, Stephanie Pollack, was in attendance. She added a lot of great points to the meeting. Everyone on the committee wants to see passenger rail service in Western Mass sooner rather than later. City and town official see the great opportunities to bringing rail service to their communities. Amtrak representative Bill Hollister brought up several good points; most millennials are highly dependent on public transit and passenger train stops bring economic growth to the communities they are in. He also suggested an option to connect Albany, NY since there is already layover facilities and other benefits.
During the public comment/question part of the presentation, there were several people from the town of Palmer expressing interest in getting a station stop in their town. They don’t want the train to pass them by. Residents express the importances of the stop being a future connection with points north and south to Vermont and Connecticut (New London Northern Railroad Line). A few people from Chester expressed interest in having a station stop there. Overall, the pubic was very positive for passenger train service along this corridor.
My Thoughts…
I think the study is a step in the right direction for bringing passenger rail service to Western Massachusetts. I think the current corridor would need improvements, but it would be the ideal and most affordable option. I’m really looking forward to hearing some of the alternative ideas. The next public meeting should be sometime in the spring of 2019.
