Despite funding uncertainty under President Trump, Gov. Healey says ‘full steam’ for west-east railBy Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
Springfield, MA,
March 20, 2025
Design work for track and station projects needed to make Pittsfield-to-Springfield-to-Boston passenger rail work proceeds despite worries that the Biden-era federal funding might not last in the Trump administration.
“Well, I tell you this, I’m going full steam on east-west rail,” Gov. Maura T. Healey told reporters this week following her speech to more than 400 people at the Governor’s Conference on Travel and Tourism in Springfield. “I’m glad to see we’ve got designs going for the Palmer station. We’ve got funding now for Springfield.”
Healey spoke at the tail end of a series of stops for her “Transforming Transportation Roadshow” in Lenox and in Becket for a culvert replacement at Bonny Rigg Hill Road over Walker Brook. She’s building support for a proposed $8 billion transportation plan and Chapter 90 bill.
The Republican minority leader in the state Senate, Sen. Peter Durant of Spencer, told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that he’s “not a huge fan” of west-east rail. His office didn’t respond to calls Wednesday.
Appearing on a Boston television station Sunday, Durant said he’ll make the call on a 2026 Republican bid for governor “relatively shortly,” but there are some people he needs to talk to first, including his wife.
The Trump administration has already announced an investigation and possible withdrawal of about $4 billion in federal funding from California’s high speed rail project. And it has talked about tying transportation funding to birth and marriage rates.
“I’m always concerned again about what the Trump administration might do with basic funding for infrastructure and transportation.,” Healey said. “But we are going to continue moving forward in Massachusetts. It’s important to me.”
The plan is, after necessary track and station repairs, for Amtrak to add the first two new daily round trips from Springfield to Boston and back beginning in 2029 or early 2030.
“We are going to use the funds that we have,” Healey said.
For west-east passenger rail, those funds include CRISI — Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements — of $108 million in federal funding announced two years ago and another $37 million for rail improvements reliving a “chokepoint” at Springfield Union Station announced in October.
MassDOT also previously received a $1.75 million CRISI grant for preliminary engineering for the Springfield Area Track Reconfiguration Project.
The federal government has a contractual obligation to reimburse those expenses, said U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield.
“Well, it’s the law. It was passed by Congress,” Neal said.
Neal said the state was in contact with transportation officials in the closing day of the Biden administration, safeguarding funds.
And projects from the state’s $6 billion share of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding are beginning this construction season.
Tying spending to birth and marriage rates is unlikely, Neal said.
“I don’t think that stands up in court, never mind any other place,” he said.
He said the Massachusetts population is increasing.
As for capturing additional funding?
“I intend to stay with it,” Neal said “Republicans like infrastructure as much as Democrats do. I think these are achievable goals,”
Amtrak, the national rail carrier, had bipartisan support serving GOP districts.
Speaking last month, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, sound less optimistic when discussing the possibility of federal funds for increased passenger service across the state’s northern tier.
“It is going to be challenging here, with the Trump administration,” McGovern said. |