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Date: 2/12/2020
ENFIELD, CT – While east-west rail service connecting Springfield to Worcester and Boston is being heavily debated in Massachusetts, another critical transportation connection is in the planning stages just miles south.
As part of his recently unveiled transportation bill dubbed CT2030, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont proposed the construction of a $50 million rail station in the Thompsonville Village section of Enfield, which officials hope will be a major component of the neighborhood’s revitalization efforts.
Enfield Deputy Director of Community Development Nelson Tereso said the town’s vision is to transform the area into a “walkable, sustainable, vibrant, and livable community with the goal of attracting young professionals and entrepreneurs.”
In the proposal, the new station would be located in an area the town has identified for transit-oriented development, Judd Everhart, director of communications for the Connecticut Department of Public Transportation, explained.
That station would service the Hartford Line, for which a $90 million additional investment has been allocated for additional double tracking. The Hartford Line currently connects New Haven and Hartford with Springfield’s Union Station with additional stops in Windsor Locks, Windsor, Berlin, Meriden and Wallingford. Everhart said a construction schedule has not yet been developed.
“The town of Enfield is the largest municipality north of Hartford without a train stop,” Tereso said. “The most crucial task that Enfield faces in transforming Thompsonville Village into a transit-oriented development is obtaining the State’s support on constructing a much-needed train station along the Hartford Line.”
Tereso and Everhart both also noted the town has plans to repurpose the former Casket Hardware Building at 33 N. River St. into a full-service transit center integrated with the station. In addition to the state’s planned investments, the town also set aside approximately $3.5 million in local and federal transit funding to support the necessary improvements to expand bus service at the train station. Tereso said these improvements would make the station “a true multimodal transportation center.”
Aligning local bus and passenger rail operations, the transit center would also serve bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers and the upper floors would be retrofitted for mixed-use development, Everhart said. According to Tereso, the town is working to acquire five parcels on the west side of the Hartford Line currently owned by Eversource Energy, which would make it possible to market and develop the mixed-use space.
The rail station would also be in close proximity to the recently developed Bigelow Commons apartment complex, once the location of one of the nation’s largest carpeting manufacturers and recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
“Today, the Commons are home to over 700 Enfield residents, who would find great use out of a train station right in their own backyard. This project is crucial in improving the mobility of all our Enfield residents,” Tereso said, adding Enfield is also working with the Department of Transportation on several other related projects.
Everhart confirmed efforts to develop a multipurpose pedestrian and bike access path from Freshwater Pond along Pearl and Main streets, under the Asnuntuck Street archway, to a turnaround and viewing point at the Connecticut River. There are also plans to replace the South River Street Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over Freshwater Brook.
Thompsonville’s transition has been in the works for the better part of the past decade, Tereso said, adding the most recent effort was the Midtown Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District, which allows the town to freeze present property values in the district and use up to 50 percent of the newly captured increased tax value for projects in the downtown area.
“By freezing the values and using revenue that is above the current value for downtown-related projects, it creates a fund to offset those project costs in lieu of raising the funds through increased property taxes,” he explained. “The investments will spur other economic development in the area.”