PALMER — Ben Hood and Anne Miller of Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop have announced to the group’s members the likelihood of Palmer receiving a new rail platform are “increasingly likely” with a public meeting in the fall that will share the results of the site location and design analysis and seek public input.
Their email noted, “[The Massachusetts Department of Transportation], consulting firm VHB, and Palmer officials are currently evaluating eleven potential passenger rail platform locations.” Those officials will make the decision based on three major conditions:
- Is the site on the Compass Rail corridor?
- Does sufficient space exist to accommodate a high-level platform on a siding track with signal infrastructure meeting minimum standards?
- Does the site interfere with freight operation at the diamond junction — where CSX and NECR tracks cross — or the CSX Palmer Yard?
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, the couple said the East-West Rail effort will not be the high-speed service as advocated by former state Sen. Eric Lesser, but will be increased passenger service on renovated tracks between Springfield and Worcester that will result in “higher speed” than at this time.
“It was never going to happen like Eric Lesser envisioned it,” Hood said.
Hood stated the idea of having an actual high-speed rail line linking the ends of the state has been rejected because of the cost involved — billions of dollars, he said. “The land-taking would be extremely expensive,” Miller said.
Also, Hood noted that high speed rail systems in other countries usually link two major populations centers, which the proposed Massachusetts one would not.
Hood and Miller also noted the additional service will be operated by Amtrak, as that service is the only passenger rail service in the nation that is allowed to run trains on freight tracks. In this case the tracks are owned by rail freight company CSX.
The commonwealth will have to negotiate with CSX, Miller said.
Hood explained that Palmer, also known as “the town of seven railroads,” has not had passenger service since 1971 or 1972 when the Boston & Albany rail company ran trains between those two cities. Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited train, which travels between Boston and Chicago, goes through Palmer but doesn’t stop.
Rail and Transit Administrator Meredith Slesinger told the MassDOT Board of Directors at a meeting last year a “new vision ‘Compass Rail’ — a vision for new intercity passenger rail routes that connect north-south routes through the Connecticut River Valley with east-west routes that connect Albany to Boston, with Springfield as the hub of the compass,” according to StreetBlogsMASS.
Union Station in Springfield would be at the center of that compass.
Hood and Miller said that former Gov. Charlie Baker was slow to warm to the idea of investing money in improved rail connections but the Healey Administration and federal money — $108 million — received a year ago will “upgrade key bottlenecks on the 54-mile section of railroad that connects Worcester and Springfield,” according to reporting by Christian MilNeil.
“The federal money is very good,” Miller said.
At this time, Hood and Miller said, train officials plan to add two trips daily between Albany, New York, and Boston in 2029.
“There’s just a lot of pieces to fall in place,” Hood said.
The evolution of the project should have been anticipated, as Hood said, “It’s absolutely natural it would shift.”
The improved tracks will allow trains to reach speed of up to 80 miles an hour and MassDOT predicted such improvements would result in a trip time of two hour and 10 minutes, which is what MassDOT estimates is the same time for auto travel.
“We consider this a win,” Hood said.
