Leaders of the Federal Railroad Administration launched an effort to give the public a say over a planned environmental report for improving the 457-mile line between Washington and Boston.
BOSTON – The train line from Washington to Boston, the nation’s busiest rail corridor, is hampered by major congestion and capacity limits and will need significant upgrades in the coming years that could affect a couple of connecting lines in Western Massachusetts, federal officials said.
Leaders of the Federal Railroad Administration launched an effort in Boston on Monday to give the public a say over a planned environmental report for improving the 457-mile line. The Environmental Impact Statement will focus on the Washington to Boston line but it would also include a look at two connecting corridors near Springfield including the re-routing of the Vermonter service and high-speed rail between New Haven and Springfield.
“This is your chance to help shape the process and its outcome,” Rebecca Reyes-Alicea , project manager for the Federal Railroad Administration, told a group that attended a meeting in Boston, the first in a series of nine public meetings on the effort, called the “Northeast Corridor Future” rail investment plan.
Reyes-Alicea said two “great projects” are planned in Western Massachusetts.
Under a $73 million federal stimulus grant, the Vermonter, an Amtrak service that offers a single daily round trip between Washington and St. Albans, Vt., is being realigned back to its original route in Western Massachusetts.
The line is proposed to be re-routed to the Connecticut River line between Springfield and East Northfield. The new alignment would speed the trip to Vermont and include stops at a former Amtrak station off Railroad Avenue in Northampton, a new $15.1 million inter modal transit center in Greenfield and possibly a future station in Holyoke.
The new alignment, called the “Knowledge Corridor-Restore Vermonter Project,” would reduce overall travel time by 25 minutes. It would also provide faster and more cost effective freight transportation, improve on-time performance and increase ridership by 24 percent, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
Am existing stop in Amherst would no longer be offered on the line. Riders from Amherst would need to travel to Northampton.
Timothy Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said work has begun on restoring the Vermonter and should be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Also, federal and state leaders are planning improvements that would provide high-speed passenger rail service between key cities on the existing New Haven, Hartford and Springfield line.
The railroad administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation,, has awarded three grants to Connecticut, totaling $190.9 million, toward the cost of designing and constructing the project.
The corridor includes 62 miles of existing rail line, including six miles in Massachusetts, owned and operated by Amtrak.
Additional federal funding would be needed to complete the remaining improvements between Windsor and Springfield, according to a preliminary environmental report released earlier this year by the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
Currently, passenger service consists of no more than the six to eight daily round-trip passenger trains between New Haven and Springfield, the report said.
The high-speed rail project calls for up to 25 daily round-trip trains, or up to 50 one-way trips per day, by 2030. Officials are planning work that seeks to increase the capacity of the line to accommodate additional trains, including a hike from a maximum of 80 miles per hour train speed to 110 miles per hour, service to new regional train stations, and reduced scheduled travel times, the report said.
Work on the line is scheduled to take place between 2013 and 2015 and initial service would begin in 2016.
In a complement to this project, the renovation of Springfield's Union Station Transportation Center will begin this fall and is slated for completion in 2014.
Brennan said Connecticut and Massachusetts are also working on commuter rail service that would include more stops and more frequent stops along the Hartford to Springfield line.
“We have been championing these projects for a long, long time,” Brennan said.
People can comment on line at www.necfuture.com or e-mails can be sent to info@necfuture.com. People can also write to Rebecca Reyes-Alicea, Federal Railroad Administration, Mail Stop 20, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, D.C. 20590.