In the News

Springfield’s rail lines were once the crossroad of New England and for two hours yesterday — from Boston’s South Station to Union Station here — Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal and the head of Amtrak got a mile-by-mile look at what needs to be done to bring those rail connections back.

“All tracks lead through Springfield,” said Neal, D-Springfield, said following a news conference at Union Station.

Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner expressed optimism pointing to the state’s efforts — and to cooperation from New York and Connecticut — as well as to federal funding he expects to be available early in 2023.

He also placed Springfield’s plans in the larger picture of a passenger-rail revival. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill that Neal, as chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, helped to pass has $9 billion for Massachusetts and $66 billion for Amtrak.

“We need to rediscover the power of passenger rail to make our nation mobile and sustainable for the future,” Gardner said. “Let me tell you, we are well on our way to making this a national intersection again.”

He said Amtrak is considering taking some trains that terminate in Springfield and continuing them to the east, to Boston, as step toward improved service while working toward the larger goal of commuter-level service.

The state has asked Amtrak to add two new trains on the Boston-Springfield-Albany, New York, service stopping in Pittsfield.

But to add even that level of service, the state and CSX must add double tracks, station platforms and other improvements. Freight hauler CSX owns the east-west tracks Amtrak uses through Springfield. But it’s pledged to cooperate with passenger improvements as a condition of its merger earlier this year with Pan Am Railways.

And that’s what Baker, Neal, Gardner and Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler and others saw on their trip from a special Amtrak observation car, a theater car, added to yesterday’s westbound run of the Lake Shore limited.

A theater car is what it sounds like, rows of raked seating looking out through a huge rear-facing window that affords panoramic views of the track, stations, crossings, bridges and the like.

Baker said it gave Neal, Gardner and himself a chance to discuss projects in real time as they traveled.

“To literally be looking at different parts of the system as we were going over them and talking about what it would take, ho to to do the work that is required,” Baker said.

The two-term Republican leaves office at the end of December. But he said he plans to get Massachusetts’s applications for rail grants under the bipartisan infrastructure bill ready and summitted by the end of his term.

Neal said it’s something he and Baker have already talked about.

“That’s our plan,” he said.

Last week, Democratic candidate for governor Maura Healey, now the attorney general, said she wants an east-west rail director focused on the issue.

Neal said he’s discussed the issue with Healey and that her plans work with what he and Baker are doing.

Neal, cajoled a once-reluctant Baker into supporting east-west rail over a period of years. That bridge-building culminated in April when Baker and Neal called for a Western Massachusetts passenger rail authority that would apply for federal funds and eventually administer expanded east-west commuter rail.

State lawmakers didn’t create the authority, but they passed a $275 million bond authorization for the project.

That goes with a $50 million bond authorization passed in 2020 and the federal money.

And the legislature appointed a commission in the waning days of its session to shape the authority, with instructions to flesh out details of the authority by March 2023, after a new governor has taken office.

Amtrak has long targeted the Boston-Springfield-Albany route — now served by just one train a day, the Lake Shore Limited overnight to Chicago — as an opportunity for expansion.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul supports plans to add two additional Amtrak trains on the Boston-Springfield-Albany run, stopping also in Pittsfield.

In July, the state formally told U.S Department of Transportation officials the state would like to develop the Boston-Albany corridor and the Boston-Springfield-New York City route via Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut.

Neal welcomed Gardner to Springfield’s Union Station. Neal spearheaded the 40-year, $103 million rehab of historic Union Station. It’s now an intermodal facility with Peter Pan, Greyhound and PVTA buses, Amtrak, the north-south CTrail commuter service and the Amtrak’s Valley Flyer to Holyoke, Northampton and Greenfield.

Gardner cited those routes along wit the success of Amtrak’s Berkshire Flyer train, new this year, from New York City to Pittsfield. The Berkshire Flyer runs weekends this summer and will run next summer as a demonstration project.

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said east-west rail, like the Valley Flyer and CTrail’s trips to Hartford and New Haven mean more than transportation .

“They bring trackside economic development with jobs and housing,” Sarno said.

Yesterday was a busy day at Union Station with the grand concourse waiting room nearly full. More than 20 travelers got on the Lake Shore Limited westbound as Neal, Baker and their entourage got off. Others waited for Amtrak’s Vermonter to depart.

Link to article HERE.