Massachusetts East-West Rail vision gets $108M federal boost
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Editor’s note: This can only help ORH
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has secured $108 million in federal funding to begin the process of implementing an East-West passenger rail service, by improving connections between Springfield, Worcester and Boston.
The grant, awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration and announced on Friday, will go toward the total project cost of approximately $135 million. MassDOT and Amtrak plan to cover the remaining amount, at $18 million and $9 million, respectively.
The two entities, with the support of CSX, applied for the grant last December.
“I am thrilled we were able to secure this critical funding for central and western Massachusetts, which will lay the foundation for West-East Rail,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Healey credited the Biden administration for making the investment, and the federal delegation for helping to secure the funds.
The funding will add two new daily round trips on the Amtrak Inland Route, to improve connections between Boston, Worcester and Springfield, and to communities beyond the commonwealth, in Connecticut and New York City, according to MassDOT’s December 2022 grant application.
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3 thoughts on “Massachusetts East-West Rail vision gets $108M federal boost”
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It’s getting so expensive to live between Boston and Worcester soon people will have to live out west and commute to Worcester for work. Sad! 100,000 a year salary in Boston is nothing.
The only way this will benefit ORH is if there a convenient connection between the rail and the airport. This may sound outlandish, but hear me out. The intended rail line to Springfield runs right along Stanford St. at the bottom of airport hill. Create a mini transportation hub around James St and Ludlow St. take the lumber yard on James st and other delapated buildings for a commuter parking lot. Have a train station there, and a Logan Express lot. Use autonomous buses for courtesy runs up Goddard Memorial Dr. That area is less than 10 minutes from the pike, making it reasonable for a Logan express, which will now tie BOS and ORH. It also ties the commuter rail to ORH, and offers another general commuter parking option. Now, one MINOR issue. That neighborhood between Stafford and Goddard Memorial. There has to be a solution to improve things between St. James and Goddard Memorial for those who want to drive from the pike to ORH, and to improve shuttle service between the train stop and ORH. Solution? A mini Big Dig and build a tunnel under the neighborhood to resolve the NIMBY issue (ok, that part is outlandish). But if anything can be done to fix that one part of the drive between the Pike and ORH, it go a long way for the perception of getting to and from the airport.
IRWT.
This sounds like it’ll benefit ORH but how remains the question. Other than the stops in Boston (Lanesdowne, Back Bay, and South Station) the only other stops it’ll make is Palmer and Framingham. I really don’t see how this will benefit ORH in any way. The biggest thing that sucks about ORH and its location isn’t the fog and high elevation (hence why the airport got the CAT III landing system), it’s how far away it is from a highway. Clark makes a good point with the train that if there was a stop on James street to bring people to the airport it would work but here’s the thing, we already have that with route 2 that goes on Pleasant street to the airport from Union Station. I live less than 2 minutes away from ORH (it takes me 6 minutes to go from my house to the gate at the airport), when I come from Marlborough or anywhere on 290, it usually takes me 15-20 minutes to go from the exit all the way to the airport essentially. Plus, in the afternoon when most flights take off from ORH, there’s always traffic whether it’s Park Ave, going through WPI, Salisbury Street and Flagg Street, etc. there’s always traffic. James street would eliminate that, but you’d need to promote the fact that you’d have a bus that would go from there to the airport and there’s no promoting of it from union station (or any promoting of anything from ORH) to the airport so what would change now? Plus it’s FREE to take the bus anywhere on the WRTA system. The pleasant street bus is the fastest way to go from downtown to the airport as well, when I have to work in downtown, it’s always the route I take because it has the least amount of traffic compared to chandler street or any other route.
I just don’t see how what Bradley has to offer is going to be getting people from Springfield to come here instead. Bradley has everything ORH has on a more frequent scale (more flights to Orlando, to NYC hubs, etc.) and would people from Springfield really spend money on a train to go from Springfield to Worcester then the airport when they can go 30 minutes down the road from Springfield union station to Bradley? Plus, Bradley has a lot that’s the same price as ORH and has a shuttle every 3-4 minutes to bring you to the terminal. What ORH needs is more parking. Yes it’s part of future plans but I’m very interested to see how full the lots will be when they have 3 flights to Florida daily. Hopefully it happens sooner than later when we see more parking at the airport with more flights but not feeling confident in that.