IMPACT: East West passenger rail project chugs forwardDate: 8/21/2023 While it might be hard to believe, there was passenger rail service between Boston and Pittsfield for more years than not.
In fact, the first service began in 1841 and continued in various iterations until 1971 when Amtrak discontinued passenger service between Worcester and Albany, New York.
And for decades, other than a single, round trip, passenger train operated by CSX between Boston and Albany, there were no substantive discussions by state officials to provide a daily rail service between Boston and Pittsfield.
That changed in 2018, when the state Department of Transportation commissioned the East-West Passenger Rail Study to examine the potential benefits, cost and investments needed to establish daily rail service.
To establish a road map for the study, MassDOT and an advisory committee made up of residents and other stakeholder and asked them to address one question, “How can we connect people in Western Massachusetts with central and eastern Massachusetts using a passenger rail service that provides, fast, frequent, attractive service in a cost-effective and achievable manner?”
To start the process, six choices, or alternatives, were created that MassDOT and the advisory committee could consider.
Each was developed from a “broad set of potential concepts,” according to the report.
The alternatives took different approaches to providing improvements, and achieved different levels of speed increases, travel time, frequency, service quality, costs and impacts, according to the report.
After two years, in January 2021, MassDOT and the advisory committee issued its report and of the six alternatives, chose two of the alternatives, and created a “hybrid” alternative.
The first alternative
It would provide direct passenger rail service between Pittsfield and Boston along shared track between CSX and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, according to the report.
It would provide seven new east-west round trips daily with an average travel time of three hours and nine minutes between Pittsfield and Boston and one hour and 57 minutes between Springfield and Boston, according to the report.
The second alternative
It would provide direct passenger rail service between Pittsfield and Springfield along a shared track with CSX, along an independent passenger track between Springfield and Worcester, and along a shared track and MBTA corridor between Worcester and Boston, according to the report.
It would have up to nine daily round trips with a travel time of three hours and 59 minutes between Pittsfield and Boston, and one hour and 47 minutes between Springfield and Boston, according to the report.
The hybrid alternative
It would provide rail service between Pittsfield and Boston along a shared track on an CSX corridor, along an independent passenger track with high-speed shortcuts between Springfield and Worcester, and along a shared track with the MBTA between Worcester and Boston, according to the report.
It would have up to nine daily round trips with an average travel time of two hours and 49 minutes between Pittsfield and Boston and one hour and 37 minutes between Worcester and Boston.
The report also estimated ridership for the three alternatives.
Ridership for the first alternative is projected to be between 922 and 1,188 passengers each day.
For the second alternative, projected ridership is between 1,157 and 1,379 per day, and for the third, 1,296 to 1,554 per day.
According to the report, the capital cost estimate is the “key determinate of the challenge of implementation for a given alternative,” and reflects one-time investments in new infrastructure like new or upgraded stations, tracks, bridges, yards, utility relocations, signals, property acquisition, vehicle purchases and professional services.
The projected cost of the first alternative, in 2020 dollars, is $2.4 billion, $3.9 billion for the second, and $4.6 billion for the hybrid alternative, according to the report.
Included in the report were additional costs for the proposed rail line between Springfield and Pittsfield, which would be new track that must meet CSX standards and its right-of-way and would add an estimated $1.5 billion to the overall cost, according to the study.
The report also identified stops in Palmer, Springfield and Chester.
For nearly eight years, the Palmer-based nonprofit Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop were advocating not only to resume passenger rail service between Boston and Pittsfield, but for trains to stop in the town that calls itself the “town of seven railroads.”
“We advocated for the line and a stop in Palmer, and it ended successfully [when the East-West Passenger Rail Study was issued],” said Ben Hood, who founded the group with his wife Ann.
Hood, who also served on the Palmer Rail Stop Steering Committee, said his group had two functions: to make the case for the proposed passenger rail to stop in Palmer while advocating for the economic benefits for the central and western areas of the state.
“We don’t see this as about getting to the cities [along the line], but as an economic development driver,” Hood said.
As referenced in the report as to the cost of the line, Hood said, “Federal money is the key ingredient.”
He believes the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act adopted by Congress in 2021 and signed by President Joe Biden is part of the mix.
According to a press release from President Joe Biden’s administration in April, the state has already been allocated $585 million to improve public transportation options across the state.
Hood also said the revenues generated by the Fair Share Amendment adopted by state voters in 2022 is the “perfect vehicle” to help fund the project.
Gov. Maura Healey, in fact, proposed in her budget submitted to the state Legislature earlier this year allocating $12.5 million from revenues anticipated to be generated by the FSA.
However, when the Legislature approved her budget, the $12.5 million was omitted.
“The governor said, ‘We’re going to do this’ and the Legislature didn’t come through,” Hood said.
After the Legislature’s snub, Healey and MassDOT restored it in the department’s Capital Investment Plan.
Of the $12.5 million, $8.5 million will be used for track improvements in Pittsfield around its intermodal bus and train station.
The remaining $4 million is being used to study and design a new station for Palmer or use the former Union Station in Palmer that is now the Steaming Tender restaurant.
Hood said there are several options being studied now for the best location of the station. Most are within a couple of hundred yards of the restaurant, which is located at the end of Depot Road in Palmer.
The other stop proposed along the rail line is in Chester.
For Richard Holzman, the former superintendent of the Gateway Regional School Distict and a board member of the nonprofit Chester Foundation Inc., which maintains the former Chester Railway Station and Museum, the passenger line is an opportunity to reestablish Chester as a “hub of the Hilltowns.”
“We’ve been the hub for about 21 Hilltowns. It was the central place in the 19th century,” Holzman said of Chester, adding that for decades it had five gas stations, three restaurants, and several hotels.
As for infrastructure, unlike Palmer, the station and its platforms have been maintained since the stop was discontinued in the 1970’s.
But some renovations would still be needed.
For those projects, like building new parking areas, Holzman said they are “shovel ready.”
He said the infrastructure needed could be completed in a “matter of months.”
In the short term, the current infrastructure is “more than adequate,” Holzman said.
For decades there has been grumbling from the western part of the state about the lack of attention is gets from leaders in Boston.
Holzman acknowledged the perceived imbalance because of the larger population and number of legislators who represent the eastern part of the state.
“It’s always been a problem here,” he said.
But Holzman said he’s been encouraged by Healey’s focus on the west.
“Healey is focused on this part of the state … and we just compliment her view,” he said.
He also sees the rail line as a “relief valve” for the eastern part of the state.
As population densities increase in the east, he thinks individuals and families would begin to consider moving west for its less hectic lifestyle if they can be connected by the rail line.
“The east has to see the impact of its relationship with us,” Holzman said.
“It’s in their enlightened self-interest to do it,” he said of state officials.
While state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D-Lenox) is cautiously optimistic the project will be completed, he still has concerns.
His primary concern is that because the line is now referred to as the East-West Rail, the focus of the project will be on the eastern part of the state – the line between Springfield and Boston.
That is the reason prefers to call the East-West Rail, the “West-East Rail.”
“We need to make sure the focus [of the project] stays in the west,” he said, adding that the rail line is important not only for the Hilltowns but also the Berkshires.
He said if the focus of the line is on the east, he is concerned the funding needed for the project will be spent primarily on the MBTA and renovating Boston’s South Station.
“If [the rail project] starts in Springfield, I’m afraid it will run out of money,” Pignatelli said.
To avoid that from happening, he has suggested “earmarking” or targeting the funds infrastructure improvements between Springfield and Pittsfield.
To make commuting by rail more convenient, he said, once the trains are rolling, they must have features that allow for those using the trains to “live here and work there” like ensuring the trains have high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity for commuters to be productive.
Pignatelli, like Hood and Holzman, said line would also help fight climate change.
“It will help get cars off the road,” he said.
And he also sees the rail line as an “endless economic development opportunity for the long term.”
Pignatelli, Hood, and Holzman agreed getting the project moving is important for the future of the state.
“This is a generational, once-in-a-lifetime investment,” Pignatelli said.
Holzman summed it up and said, “We’re at a crossroads. There’s not any choice. We can’t afford to not do it.”
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