Passenger rail for Palmer!

Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop was founded in 2015 to advocate for passenger rail service to Palmer, Massachusetts, the Town of Seven Railroads.

Please sign our petition:
https://bit.ly/1NYNzja

Palmer is a hub of freight rail traffic, located at the junction of the east-west Inland Route, owned by CSX, the Central Corridor Rail Line, owned by the New England Central Railroad, and the Massachusetts Central Railroad’s Ware River Branch line to Barre.

Passenger trains traveling on the Inland Route stopped at Palmer until the 1970s. Union Station, designed by H. H. Richardson, has been renovated and is now a popular restaurant, the Steaming Tender. The restaurant owners have excavated the adjacent grotto designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Join our campaign to make Palmer a hub of passenger rail once again. During 2019 the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is studying east-west rail service between Boston and Pittsfield, and we continue to advocate for Palmer as the suburban stop serving the greater Quaboag area between Worcester and Springfield.

Palmer is also on the Central Corridor Rail Line, running from New London, Connecticut to Brattleboro, Vermont. Restored passenger service on the Central Corridor would connect students at both the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and at the University of Connecticut in Storrs to east-west trains through Palmer.

Train service in Palmer would provide a backbone for improved transportation among Central Massachusetts towns currently served by little of no public transit. The Quaboag Connector van service, created by local and regional officials, has demonstrated the great need for transportation alternatives to enable residents of our region to travel to work and pursue educational opportunities.

The 2016 Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative (NNEIRI) determined the feasibility of passenger rail service on the Inland Route, and recommended a level of service including 8 round-trip trains per day from Boston to New Haven, and one round-trip per day from Boston to Montreal, all stopping in Palmer. During the course of the current east-west study, MassDOT and its consultants will focus on the findings of the NNEIRI plan.

We support frequent service, as recommended in the NNEIRI, and at the highest speeds possible, in order to provide 21st century train service along the corridor serving residents of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield – the three largest cities in Massachusetts.