In the News

The state Department of Transportation has selected the south side of the Palmer rail yard as the site of a new passenger rail station.

The new rail stop is intended for west-east rail, the planned expansion of a passenger rail line connecting Pittsfield and Springfield with Boston.

The site is large enough, offers the right track configurations and can be built economically, MassDOT said Monday in its announcement.

But it’s about a half-mile from Palmer’s historic downtown, disappointing those who’d pulled for a stop at the town’s historic depot.

MassDOT eliminated that site early on, saying it wouldn’t be economically feasible. Of the final locations in consideration, the rail yard sites were the closest to downtown.

“We’re thrilled to have reached another milestone for West-East Rail and our efforts to expand rail service across the state with the selection of a preferred site for Palmer Station,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “This is going to be a major boost for Western Mass and for our state’s economy. We’re grateful for all of the input we received from community members that helped us choose the best site for the station.”

Healey’s proposed budget allows for projects advancing west-east rail to continue to move forward, including capacity improvements near Pittsfield, trackwork and accessibility improvements in Springfield, and station planning in Palmer.

The state will now begin to develop a conceptual design, which will allow MassDOT to work with railway owner CSX and proposed service operator, Amtrak, on the feasibility of constructing a future station.

State officials see the Palmer rail stop as a park-and-ride that could offer bus service to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“It is a good location,” said Ben Hood, a member of the municipal stakeholders committee working with MassDOT and an advocate for passenger rail service to Palmer over the last 10 years. “This one, assuming that the funding comes through, feels real.”

MassDOT’s plans call for construction to break ground in two years and for trains to start arriving there in four years.

But it’ll be the town’s responsibility to link the station both physically and in terms of visitor signs and wayfinding to the downtown.

“We are not just trying to get people to get on trains and go to Boston to work,” Hood said. “We are trying to get people to give Palmer a boost.”

The town dreamed of a site closer to downtown, he said. But freight railway CSX, which owns the tracks, and Amtrak, which will operate the passenger trains, needed to keep the station away from the busy “diamond” rail intersection where tracks running north-south and east-west converge.

That ruled out the Steaming Tender restaurant site — located in the historic train station.

A site in the Palmer Department of Public Works yard is closer to downtown than the selected site and further away from the diamond. But track layout still posed problems and the DPW site has wetlands issues along the Quaboag River.

The chosen site is on South Main Street. It’s an open field owned by wire brush manufacturer Sanderson MacLeod and adjacent to Sanderson MacLeod’s factory at 1199 South Main St.

It’s got room for parking, a side track now used by CSX that could be repurposed for passenger trains, and it would alleviate the need for a bridge over the tracks.

The lot is in a mixed neighborhood of residential and industrial properties. Amenities like restaurants and the Seven Railroads Brewing Co. sit across the tracks, Hood said. The town of Palmer is considering a walkway and pedestrian access over the tracks along Stone Street.

The state has set aside $3.5 million in its capital plan for preliminary engineering and design at the Palmer Station.

“Now that we have a site, we are going to start the conceptual design process,” said Andy Koziol, the state’s director of west-east rail.

It should take into the summer and result in a more fleshed-out idea of the possible station. Ridership estimates place Palmer as one of Amtrak’s Category 4 stations, which means parking, a handicapped accessible platform with a canopy, no enclosed waiting room, no restroom or amenities and no staff.

“We are going to start laying out some engineering,” Koziol said in an interview. “And getting into the planning access, looking at things like how you drive onto the site, how you walk on to it. And that lets us get serious talking with CSX.”

It’s CSX’s concerns about congestion and signaling in a busy freight yard that made locations close to downtown non-starters, according to MassDOT documents.

MassDOT will have another public meeting to glean feedback on the site and its conceptual plan.

“Can we fit this infrastructure on the site?” Koziol said. ”And can we do it with any negative effect on freight rail operations?"

Monday‘s announcement keeps west-east rail on track for those first two new daily round trips from Springfield to Boston and back to begin in 2029 or early 2030.

That’ll take a lot of projects, not just a Palmer station but improving tracks, signals and adding capacity for more trains.

It’ll also take federal money.

In November, MassDOT received $36.8 million from the federal government to finish design work on the Springfield Area Track Reconfiguration Project, increasing its transit potential and reducing congestion at Union Station.

In 2023, Massachusetts received a $108 million federal grant, also from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements funding, known as a CRISI grant, for track improvements between Springfield and Worcester.

But that money came under the Biden administration.

Koziol said Monday that there is new guidance coming from the Trump administration. But plans for Palmer seem to meet with the new guidelines.

“Right now I think there is still reason to be optimistic. The programs we would have applied to, they still exist today” Koziol said. “We score pretty well on the merits for where the station is.”

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, has worked to secure federal funding for the project. Monday he praised the governor for her efforts.

“After years of advocacy by the residents of Palmer, they are one step closer to realizing their goal of a Palmer train station,” Neal said in a statement about the Palmer location. “This announcement follows a fair and thorough review by MassDOT, one that has been transparent throughout the decision-making process.”

Palmer is, as of now, the only new Amtrak station that would be part of west-east rail expansion. Other stations served would be places that have train stops already like Springfield, Worcester and Pittsfield.