Palmer, Pittsfield rail money in state budget demonstrates Healey’s commitment to east-west rail

© Don Treeger | dtreeger/masslive.com/TNS An Amtrak train picks up passengers at Union Station in Springfield. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 3/2/2023

The Palmer rail stop — which could get a $4 million boost under Gov. Maura T. Healey’s proposed state budget — would be an east-west rail park-and-ride stop for the region, boosters say.

© Don Treeger | dtreeger/masslive.com/TNS A traveller gets information at the Amtrak desk inside Union Station in Springfield. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 3/2/2023

“It’s a Palmer stop,” said Ben Hood, chair of the Palmer Station Steering Committee. “But it’s also a UMass stop. It’s an east side of Springfield stop. We expect people from Sixteen Acres to come here.”

The budget item is the first official acknowledgement that east-west rail would have a stop in Palmer.

East-west rail is the planned implementation of fast and frequent train service from Boston to Springfield, Pittsfield and possibly as far west as Albany, N.Y.

Today, only the Chicago-bound Lake Shore Limited makes the east-west trip once a day and it doesn’t stop in Palmer.

Hood’s wife, Anne Miller, co-founder of the group Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop, said the station could draw Boston- or Albany-bound passengers from as far south as Stafford Springs, Connecticut.

And the center of the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus is just 20 minutes away with The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority eager to run shuttle buses from a Palmer rail station to the Haigis Mall at UMass.

© Don Treeger | dtreeger/masslive.com/TNS Amtrak train #475 to Meriden, Ct. leaves from Union Station in Springfield. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 3/2/2023

Hood said: “A UMass student will have the choice of going to Northampton to get on the Valley Flyer to Springfield or going to Palmer to get a train to Boston.”

The town of Palmer is also preparing a request for proposals seeking consultants to that study and design work, Hood said.

Palmer touts itself as the “town of seven railroads” and is still a hub for east-west and north-south freight traffic. But it hasn’t had passenger service since 1971, shortly after the old Penn Central went bankrupt. When Amtrak took over, it eliminated the stop.

Hood said the stop would be near the town’s historic train depot, now the Steaming Tender restaurant, an H.H. Richardson design built in 1883.

But Miller said a new station would be built to modern Amtrak standards with a longer platform raised to allow wheelchair access. It would have a small building for restrooms and cleaning equipment but plenty of parking.

The cost of a Palmer station, per the “capital costs” appendix of the East-West Rail Passenger Study in January 2021, was $12.4 million.

The east-west project money is coming from revenues created from the Fair Share Amendment, Miller said.

Healey included $4 million for the study and design of a Palmer station as well as $8.5 million for track improvements in Pittsfield in her proposed budget released Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said the budget proposal demonstrates Healey’s commitment to the east-west rail project he’s backing, and has backed, on the federal level.

“It’s a commitment she related when she was my guest at the State of the Union and it’s a commitment she reiterated the next day when she met with the delegation,” said Neal, dean of the state’s congressional delegation.

“I think the biggest task before us now is track improvements,” Neal said Thursday. “Once we do that, everything else will fall into place.”

State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox, said the Pittsfield work would create a side track, allowing passenger trains stopped at the Pittsfield station to get serviced, replenished or to wait overnight for another run to get off CSX’s main east-west rail line and out of the way.

“To me, it shows that she is committed to making the kind of investments we need in Pittsfield and Palmer to kick this thing off,” he said.

The budget is also an official acknowledgement that east-west rail will extend to Pittsfield, or possibly as far west as Albany as Amtrak would like.

Amtrak, which would run east-west rail trains and sell the tickets, wants to link busy stations on Boston and Albany-Rensselaer and has identified improvements it wants to see on a route which is owned by freight railway CSX.

“Three cheers for Gov. Healey and Lt. Gov. (Kim) Driscoll,” said state Rep. Todd M. Smola, R-Warren, whose district includes Palmer. “Very early on they have seen the value of a project we have been working on for some time.”

Smola said the budget still has to go to the state House of Representatives and the State Senate. But, as ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, he’ll be part of the conference committee that’ll have final say.

The state legislature last year set up an east-west rail commission charged with hearing public input, with coming up with a governance system and applying for federal funds. But the commission has only had two of its six required meetings and its report is due March 31.

Smola said the supplementary budget now winding its way through Beacon Hill would extend the deadline for that state commission.

Pignatelli said he’s worried that the commission is losing focus.

“It’s up to commission members to keep their foot on the pedal. We can’t let any delays happen,” he said.

In December, the state Department of Transportation and rail companies Amtrak and CSX Corp. applied this week for $108 million in federal transportation money to help fund improvements along the 53 miles of railroad between Springfield and Worcester. It’s through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program.

In June, Springfield Union Station received $1.75 million from the CRISI program for track upgrades including additional platforms, additional crossover tracks, storage tracks, a new layover facility,

Neal said he expects to hear word on the $108 million CRISI grant at about the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the federal commitment to the project remains strong.

“The president is very excited about the infrastructure program,” Neal said. “I was just with the president (Wednesday night) in Baltimore where he spoke very enthusiastically about the infrastructure law.”

Speaking with the U.S. House Democratic Conference, President Joe Biden cited a rail project in Baltimore, especially the rebuilding of a 100-year-old rail tunnel.

“It’s going to change transportation not only on the Northeast Corridor. But instead of 30 miles an hour, it’s going through there at 100 miles an hour. And it’s a $4 billion investment. And guess what? We’re going to let everybody know you did it. These are the signs we’re going to put up,” Biden said. “We’re renaming it the Frederick Douglass Tunnel.”

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