Station Design & Track Work

Thanks to Governor Healey and MassDOT, a Palmer station is now on the leading edge of East-West rail planning, and positioned to be at the heart of the work to be done in the next few years.

$4 million for study and design of a Palmer station

On July 19 the MassDOT Board of Directors approved an FY2024-FY2028 Capital Investment Plan (CIP) that includes $4 million to study and design a Palmer passenger rail station. According to the CIP listing, MassDOT plans to spend $1.5 million on this Palmer design work in FY2024, and the remaining $2.5 million in FY2025-FY2028.

 

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WMRC completes a Hail Mary pass

After the legislature slashed the Governor’s proposed Palmer and Pittsfield station project funding from the state budget, we, together with the Western Mass Rail Coalition, and with the help of Western Massachusetts legislators, lobbied the Governor and MassDOT to add the projects to MassDOT’s Capital Investment Plan instead. This would commit the state to the projects without having to specify the funding source. In a very unusual move, and acknowledging our advocacy, MassDOT in June announced that the Palmer/Pittsfield projects had been added to the new CIP at the last minute. For more details of this story, please see our earlier website post — $4 million for Palmer station design in MassDOT CIP.

Money for Track Work

Design work at Palmer is well-timed because last December MassDOT applied for Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) grant funding to begin track work on the section of East-West Rail between Worcester and Springfield, including work on the tracks through Palmer (see graphic from MassDOT’s CRISI grant application below). MassDOT has applied for this money in two separate grants that will be awarded in August-September 2023 and November-December 2023. Having submitted overlapping applications, they are confident they will succeed.

 

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Trains to Stop in Palmer on Both Inland Route and Boston-Albany Corridors

MassDOT has also submitted applications to establish two corridors for new passenger rail service:

• an Inland Route corridor with trains running between Boston-Worcester-Palmer-Springfield-Hartford-New Haven;
• and a Boston-Albany corridor with trains running between Boston-Worcester-Palmer-Springfield-Pittsfield-Albany.

Importance of Advocacy

It’s important to keep in mind that our advocacy has been essential to get to this point, and therefore we will need to continue to advocate throughout the planning, construction, and implementation phases of Inland Route service. To paraphrase our friend Ben Heckscher of Trains in the Valley, nothing is certain until you see the train on the track.

Thanks to all of our supporters throughout the Quaboag towns and beyond for your hard work and strong support. We are finally on the verge of success!