The project is expected to create 200 jobs and will involve the use of American-made rails, according to the news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
File photo: an Amtrak train pulls into Springfield.SPRINGFIELD – Work should begin later this summer on the $72.8 million upgrade of train tracks from Springfield to the Vermont state line.
“I’m hoping that they won’t miss this construction season, which is under way,” said Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and a longtime booster of rail improvements in the region.
Late last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Pan Am Southern Railways, which owns the 50 miles of track paralleling the Connecticut River, has reached an agreement with the state of Massachusetts and the federal government to upgrade the line.
The project is expected to create 200 jobs and will involve the use of American-made rails, according to the news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Vermont received $50 million and that state signed an agreement with the Railroad Administration and Pan Am earlier this year. Construction has already started in Vermont.
Connecticut has already received $40 million for a 10-mile section of track in the first round of funding and $121 million for further work in the second round.
Taken together, all three states are hoping to improve rail service from New Haven, Conn. on Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor, as far north as Montreal.
“This agreement means that the money can flow and the work can begin from here to Vermont ,” Brennan said. “This is a huge win for the Valley. A game changer.”
It is expected to take two years to complete. The Massachusetts portion of the project will run from just north of Springfield’s downtown north through Holyoke and Northampton then on to the Vermont.
“This is all about the condition of the rail itself, the ties, the switches and the grade crossings,” Brennan said. “All of those things it takes to run a railroad have deteriorated.”
While much of the talk surrounding the project has focused on passenger rail improvements, Brennan said it will also speed the flow of freight trains at a time when more and more companies are looking to rail as a more fuel-efficient and cost-effective way of moving freight.
“As fuel gets more expensive, everything you can move from a truck to a train, or a combination of trains and trucks is a good thing,” Brennan said.
According to a recent independent study produced for the Federal Railroad Administration, railroads on average are four times more fuel-efficient than trucks. According to U.S. Department of Commerce economic models, every dollar spent on investments in freight railroads yields $3 in economic output. Each $1 billion of rail investment creates more than 17,000 jobs, according to the association.
But this project’s primary focus is on improving passenger service in the Connecticut River Valley, Brennan said.
In the 1980s, Amtrak reacted to deteriorating track conditions on the riverside line by rerouting its trains on a long detour through Monson. Once completed, these track improvements will shave 30 minutes off the trip north. Work from the Vermont state line north to St. Albans will save another half-hour, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Amtrak will be able to travel 65 to 70 mph on the rebuilt tracks.
Brennan said it’s not just about saving time.
“This project gets passenger service closer to the population centers of Holyoke and Northampton where more people are likely to use it,”
Amtrak service on the line has gone up 16 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In June, the federal government announced a $400,000 grant for the cleanup and preservation of Springfield’s Union Station.
Brennan said there is also talk of restoring the “inland route” of passenger rail service from Albany through Springfield to Boston.