Massachusetts Northern Tier Rail Study

[jis]

Here is the latest version of the Massachusetts Northern Tier Rail Study...

https://trainsinthevalley.org/northern-tier-rail-study/

They are soliciting comments, so feel free to submit such as you see fit. Meanwhile we can also discuss it here.

 

[Tlcooper44]

Here is the latest version of the Massachusetts Northern Tier Rail Study...

https://trainsinthevalley.org/northern-tier-rail-study/

They are soliciting comments, so feel free to submit such as you see fit. Meanwhile we can also discuss it here.

At this point, there seems to always be a 'good' reason not to spend money and build rail.
This would be a very long, slow service, through a sparsely populated area. As far as ROI, its not exactly great.

But we build massive, expensive, urban-level density highway projects through sparsely populated places all the time.

I'd rather see more rail than less rail, and it gives people more options for travel.

Curious: Will the Greenfield stop share the station with Amtrak? Or is it an entirely separate place? What does "reconfiguration" mean in this case.

 

[John Santos]

I'm in favor because I live within walking distance of a station on the existing Fitchburg branch and the track is immediately adjacent to my sister's property in Charlemont. If I could just convince them to build a station where the tracks cross Route 2!

 

[Willbridge]

Curious: Will the Greenfield stop share the station with Amtrak? Or is it an entirely separate place? What does "reconfiguration" mean in this case.

I'm not familiar with the current status, but Greenfield was 100% Boston & Maine in all four directions from one station.

 

[BlackDiamond]

I'm not sure what the market for this train is. Once you get past Gardner, you are past the Boston Metro commuting area (I used to live near Gardner and commuted part time into Metro Boston) although I suppose if you were mostly WFH and only went in once a week or so it might be tolerable from further out. There might be some traffic outbound to vacation spots in the Berkshires although last mile transportation might be an issue.

I would rather see the emphasis put on the much more viable Boston - Springfield - Albany corridor.

 

[Tlcooper44]

I'm not sure what the market for this train is. Once you get past Gardner, you are past the Boston Metro commuting area (I used to live near Gardner and commuted part time into Metro Boston) although I suppose if you were mostly WFH and only went in once a week or so it might be tolerable from further out. There might be some traffic outbound to vacation spots in the Berkshires although last mile transportation might be an issue.

I would rather see the emphasis put on the much more viable Boston - Springfield - Albany corridor.

I don't think this takes the emphasis away - this is so far a glorified study, and East-West rail is a fully fledged project with actual funding.

As stated above, we somehow only ask these questions of ridership and market viability for rail, but never for the sprawling highways...

On the note of ridership, induced demand applies to rail as well. My two cents is the train would be better off turning north towards Brattleboro. A train connecting there and Boston is a no-brainer in my opinion, but is probably more difficult to pull of.

If the train exists however, people will ride it.

 

[fdaley]

I'm not familiar with the current status, but Greenfield was 100% Boston & Maine in all four directions from one station.

I think I recall from a visit there that the current Greenfield platform is in the area where both the north-south (Connecticut Valley) and east-west (Fitchburg/Hoosac Tunnel) lines run parallel, but it is on the far north (Conn. Valley) side. So trains coming from the west on the Hoosac Tunnel line would need either a new island platform between the two sets of tracks or, if space permits, a new crossover track to be able to reach the current platform.

And as someone just across the New York state line who now regularly drives nearly three hours to reach the commuter rail terminal in Wachusett, I would much rather have the trains run through to North Adams than turn north at Greenfield. It would save us a couple of hours of driving each way on our regular summer/fall trips to Maine. More and better service on the east-west line through Springfield would be good too, but that line is farther from us at the west end and also would still require the dreaded North-South station transfer in Boston to get to the Downeaster. I don't see this route as somehow taking resources from the Springfield route; it serves a different geographic area where there also are lots of people traveling to metro Boston with some frequency -- and the potential for trains to support more travel to sports/cultural events and the educational and medical hubs in the Boston area, just as the Downeaster provides for people in NH and Maine.