G. MICHAEL DOBBS
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
With the latest presentation from the East-West Passenger Rail Study from Mass DOT, the rubber started hitting the road. Sorry, for mixing my metaphors. Yes, I know that’s a phrase that is taken from automobiles and not trains. I mean that now things are getting serious with the presentation of six different plans to link the west and the east together by rail.
They range in scenarios that would result in a nearly four-hour travel time between Pittsfield to Boston to several in which the commuter trains don’t go to Pittsfield – which is linked to the system by bus – to another in which a new set of tracks are built in the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor resulting in a true high speed rail service that would give riders a maximum travel time from Boston to Pittsfield of less than three hours.
There are no costs associated yet with any of the plans, but it’s clear the sixth alternative – the new rails – would be the most expensive – billions of dollars. So, I know there are some readers who see this all as an expensive experiment in the worst tradition of government: well intentioned discussions about a project that is beyond the financial capacity of the state undertaken to provide some sort of satisfaction to a small number of elected officials and citizens.
The report will eventually come out and there could be no political will to propel it forward.
Remember there was a state study about replacing the I-91 viaduct with a tunnel? That didn’t go anywhere, did it?
The cynic in me believes that is what will happen. I don’t want it to happen because I do believe a passenger rail link can make a positive impact on a number of issues: reducing traffic on the ‘Pike, cleaning up the environment by reducing the number of cars, allowing people from the over-crowded and over-priced east to live out year and
spurring economic development.
There are several challenges.
First, there is money and political will. The Commonwealth as a whole must be committed to this project. Will people in the east care enough about it to support it?
The second concern is the topography between Pittsfield and Boston. We have mountains and steep grades. There is a limit to what physically can be done with the existing route. The condition and ownership of the tracks is a major consideration as well.
Third is the marketing to get people to change their lifestyles and think about taking a train. Now, a guy like me is easy, as I hate driving into Boston and would gladly take a train that could whisk me into that city. To build real ridership it may take a generation to do so. Can we afford to eat the costs of service until ridership catches up? I have no answers about any of this. No one does at this point. To be frank when the ‘Pike was built in the 1950s, that’s when a rail line should have built as part of that development.
At the time though no one was thinking about trains. Trains were on the way out. Cars were the American dream. That’s why the ‘Pike was built. The ‘Pike was the modern solution to link the east with the west in 1957. The trains at that time from Springfield could not take you into Boston as quickly as your own car on the new ‘Pike. Fast-forward 62 years and everything is different. The ‘Pike cannot accommodate the amount of traffic in and out of Boston. It is a potential parking lot, as you get closer to Bean Town.
Trains make sense. We need a radical and expensive re-tooling of attitude and infrastructure to make it happen though.
Speaking of trains, my friend of whom I’ve written before, had to take the late train to Hartford last week. When she did this a couple of months ago, there were no services in our bright and shiny Union Station. You could not buy anything to eat or drink as all of the shops were closed and there are not, by contract with those vendors, any vending machines.
My friend took the Hartford commuter train once more and this time she could not find anyone willing to answer a question about schedules. She did manage to get home, but I doubt she will want to try it again.
So, with all of the millions spent on the station, we need services for travelers to be in place as long ass there are trains and busses coming in or out of the terminal and we need information about schedules to be easy to obtain.
Let’s make this easier for people. Wouldn’t that make sense?
