Service Alternatives
At Tuesday’s MassDOT East-West Passenger Rail Study Advisory Committee meeting in Springfield, the MassDOT project managers and consultants gave all attendees large format plans showing the existing conditions (Lake Shore Limited service not stopping in Palmer), the 6 “preliminary” alternative service plans, and a summary chart comparing elements of the existing conditions & 6 alternatives.
We have taken photos of these and uploaded them to Dropbox to view and/or download —
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/
MassDOT has posted the complete PowerPoint presentation, including the slides showing the 6 alternative service plans — https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2019/07/30/EWPR_Adv_Comm_Mtg2_Jul2319_Pres..pdf
Focus Springfield Community Access Television has released a video of the meeting with embedded PowerPoint — https://youtu.be/-H_JMXxm9-E. Thanks to Ben Heckscher of Trains in the Valley for alerting Focus Springfield to record the meeting!
Trains in the Valley shared Sen. Eric Lesser’s video in which he discusses the alternative service plans. Watch the video on Sen. Lesser’s Facebook page — Sen. Eric Lesser Explains the Preliminary Service Alternatives.
MassDOT and the consultants have altered the configuration of elements in some alternatives to show, for example, differences in travel times by including or not including a stop in Palmer (Alternative 5). Ultimately these choices will also be reflected in cost differences during the next phase of the study when 3 alternatives are chosen to be more fully evaluated including the cost to build them.
Alternative 6 is the consultants’ high speed rail option, requiring an entirely new railroad right-of-way along the Mass Pike. It achieves high speeds of 150mph (not as fast as some trains in European and Asian countries), but no doubt this will also be a high cost option.
We were concerned about Palmer being optional in some alternatives — three advisory committee members spoke up loud & clear for Palmer: Rep. Todd Smola (R-Warren), Palmer Town Planner & Economic Development Director Linda Leduc, and Sen. Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow). Please thank them for advocating strongly for Palmer!
There were 11 Quaboag area people in the audience, some of whom spoke during the public comment period. We made a good case for Palmer & the region, including the Amherst connection through Palmer to Boston thanks to Palmer Town Councilor Jessica Sizer and her fellow UMass graduate student Keith Benoit.
Thanks to EmmaLadd Shepherd of Monson, and Donald Blais for also speaking up.
Thank you to members of Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop Heidi Bara, Tanya Neslusan of Sturbridge, and Paul Wisnewski who attended in support.
Palmer officials did their part too, as our new Town Manager Ryan McNutt and Planning Board Chair Mike Marciniec were also in attendance.
