Moving Forward

Palmer’s passenger rail future remains on track! A stop in Palmer is included in all three final alternative plans that will be subject to further analysis during the last stage of MassDOT’s East-West Passenger Rail Study.

On June 25 Astrid Glynn, MassDOT Rail & Transit Administrator, notified members of the East-West Study’s Advisory Committee that a “significant majority” of them supported further analysis of Alternatives 3, 4, and a hybrid of Alternatives 4 and 5.

In addition to including Palmer as a stop, all three final alternatives follow the existing rail right-of-way across Massachusetts. This guarantees that the return of train service will benefit Palmer’s largest central business district in Depot Village. The goal of our campaign has always been to bring transit-oriented development to Main Street.

More Good News

At the June 10 Advisory Committee meeting, Stephanie Pollack, Secretary of Transportation, announced that MassDOT intends to conclude the study as quickly as possible and make east-west rail a project.

At the same meeting the study team announced that use of two new proxy scenarios to forecast ridership resulted in “increased ridership estimates by a factor of 3.85 to 4.96.” Using an ‘Enhanced Hartford Line Proxy,’ annual ridership was estimated at 278,300; using a Downeaster Proxy, annual ridership was projected to be 358,500.

Other slides from the June 10 presentation to the Advisory Committee present more information about the ridership modeling to be used in the final analysis, and the presentation includes a brief review of key factors affecting cost estimates for the east-west rail plans. The full presentation is available here — https://bit.ly/3ehfOZh

Initial estimates of capital costs for the three final alternative plans range from $3-5 billion. This would be a large but worthwhile investment in the future of rail across the Commonwealth. CSX’s freight trains and Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited currently run on the track from Worcester to Pittsfield. Projected costs include double-tracking and straightening parts of the line to achieve shorter ride times than are possible now.

Work to Be Done

While so much of the news is good, it’s premature to celebrate while there’s still work to be done.

MassDOT will hold an Advisory Committee and a public meeting in late July or early August, presenting revised data on ridership and costs and additional analysis as outlined in the June 25 memo (see above).

At the June Advisory Committee meeting MassDOT announced that only the catchment area surrounding the Springfield station would be adjusted to be larger, and that this would “better account for student populations in Amherst and surrounding area.”

However, Palmer is the UMass exit on the Mass Pike with route 181 connecting Palmer and Amherst. Similarly, a Palmer station would be the main connection to future bus or train service to Amherst and UMass.

Linda Leduc, Palmer Town Planner & Economic Development Director, is a member of the Advisory Committee. At the June 10 meeting she argued that the catchment area for a stop in Palmer should include Amherst and UMass with all the residents, workers, and students living and working in the town or at the university.

In a May 13, 2019 letter to MassDOT, Paul Bockelman, Amherst Town Manager, said, “I am writing to you in support of a passenger rail stop in Palmer. This stop would benefit the Town of Amherst and the large number of college students who live in Amherst as the home of three major institutions of higher education. It would also benefit the year-round residents of the Town who travel to Boston with great frequency, whether it be for work, recreation, or medical services.”

A study prepared for the Town of Palmer by the UMass Amherst Center for Economic Development places a future Palmer station in an even larger context that includes Amherst: “The Lower Quabbin Region is a significant market for potential rail ridership. There are just over 175,000 residents in the 21-community region. The population is also heavily auto-dependent, with over 85% of the labor force commuting by car.”

The full study is available here — https://bit.ly/38NCM9h

During the final months of the East-West Passenger Rail Study, we will continue to reach out to Town of Amherst officials to bolster our arguments for a Palmer stop. We will also reach out to leaders at UMass Amherst to discuss the many ways that train service between Boston, Worcester, and Amherst will serve the large population of students, faculty, and staff at the Flagship Campus of our state university.

Thanks to All Supporters

We thank all our supporters from throughout the towns of the Lower Quabbin region whose efforts during the past five years have gotten us to the point where the return of train service to Palmer looks more likely than at any time in the past 50 years. Please stay engaged as we continue to make the case for Palmer pending conclusion of the MassDOT study and the subsequent campaign to fund and implement train service at a Palmer station!