By Gabrielle Gurley
Bay State transportation officials continue to throw everything they’ve got into South Coast Rail , but the feds took a pass, deciding that three western New England intercity rail projects were more worthy.
Connecticut landed $40 million to build a second set of tracks between New Haven, Hartford and through to Springfield . Along with speeding up Amtrak’s Vermonter route, that fistful of dollars helps advance a commuter rail project overshadowed by state officials’ preoccupation with the New Bedford-Fall River-Boston line. Springfield area commuter rail advocates have long argued that dialing up service way out west, especially through the “ Knowledge Corridor ,” would be just as vital and cost much less, tens of millions versus more than a billion for South Coast Rail.
Massachusetts did reel in $70 million for stations, rails, and signals on a more direct Connecticut River Valley route. Back on track is train service to Holyoke and Northampton. Greenfield is a big winner, gaining its first ever station stop. But Amherst is the bigger loser. Its station will shut down, since the stop had only been set up as a way around the crumbling original route. Vermont also gets $50 million to beef up its bridges and tracks. (A complete list of high speed rail grant winners is here. )
For a region that fights to get attention and dollars from Beacon Hill, the economic boost and psychological lift from Washington can’t be understated. “It looks like somebody really paid attention to the connectivity of these projects,” Allan Blair, president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council told me. Along with passengers, Blair sees freight rail-dependent business coming out on top, since trains that now chug along at 10 miles per hour could triple their speeds. There’s employment benies, too, with an estimated 626 construction jobs and 155 permanent ones.
Why did Western Massachusetts prevail over the South Coast? Two words: Shovel ready. As far as commuter rail was concerned, Bay State officials and US Rep. John Olver convinced their Connecticut compadres more than five years ago that Springfield, not Harford, was the natural terminus, according to Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Timothy Brennan.
Massachusetts Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Durrant admits that the western New England projects were “a lot further along in the design and engineering phases.” South Coast Rail was “never dependent on this grant,” he said, adding that the application was “symbolic” of the administration’s approach of “leave no stone unturned” in aggressively seeking out funding sources.
Exactly what’s under those stones remains a mystery. With the Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental study and preferred route choice delayed, the South Coast Rail finance plan announcement has been pushed out until later this year.
