Pollock: it’s not a choice between north/south and east/west rail

Sept. 18, 2019 | G. Michael Dobbs and Danielle Eaton
news@thereminder.com

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Mayor Domenic Sarno, Sen. Eric Lesser, MassDOT Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollock, MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathon Gulliver, and Springfield DPW Chief Engineer Chris Cignoli announced the latest round of Complete Streets funding in Springfield on Sept. 6.
Reminder Publishing photo by Danielle Eaton

SPRINGFIELD – The recent MassInc report on traffic congestion focused on traffic issues in the greater Boston area, but failed to address transportation issues in the western part of the Commonwealth.

Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollock, while appearing in Springfield to announce Complete Street Funding on Sept. 6, told Reminder Publishing, “Yeah, so we have a study going to look at a rail from at least from Springfield to Boston and possibly even beyond up to Pittsfield. There’s an advisory committee that a lot of folks from the region are participating in. At the last meeting we presented a range of six alternatives and we’re going to continue to work with the advisory committee to refine those and then to come up with what the ridership would be, how much it would cost to operate, and what the capital cost to build them would be.

“So by the time we’re done with the study next year we’ll have a really good base of information to talk about the cost and benefits and whether it makes sense.

“To be fair to MassInc, I think they were really focused on Gateway Cities that currently have MBTA commuter rail service for that particular study. But we’re certainly focused on rail throughout the state. We’re really delighted with the new service that just started last week on the knowledge corridor that’s allowing people to connect down from Greenfield and Northampton and get into Springfield and continue on down to New York City with two extra trains each way, each day.

“So, we think that North South rail can be, and that connection into New York can be as important as the East West rail and the connection to Boston.

“It’s not an either or, so we’re pursuing the service on North South because that was really ready to go without a lot of additional investment on East West.

“So, certainly for us, we’re very aware. MassDOT is actually responsible for rail outside of the MBTA district and so for Western Massachusetts we have a rail administrator, she’s out here all the time, and we’re very aware of the interest in this part of the state of good rail connections into Boston and down to New York and we’re going to continue working on those.”

Reminder Publishing also spoke to state Sen. Eric Lesser about the report, who said, “I’m glad they did they did the study but it was more of the same. I would have liked to have seen how to solve it [congestion and transportation issues] for everyone in the state.”

Lesser has been spearheading an effort to bring east-west commuter rail service that would link communities such as Pittsfield and Springfield to Boston.

Lesser noted the Commonwealth has spent millions of dollars on both The Big Dig project and the improvements to the MBTA, a use of tax money from which Western Massachusetts residents gain little benefit.

Lesser noted that the congestion problem has come about due to the shifts in the economy during the past 20 years. He noted that law firms, banks and other businesses have relocated to Boston, which has had the negative effect of increased traffic and gentrification.

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