Opinion: Finally, a rail plan for New England

Written by admin

(The following opinion, published Aug. 24, 2009, by the Boston Globe, was written by former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis [also a former vice chairman of Amtrak] and Robert O'Brien, who is executive director of the Downtown North Association and chairman of the North-South Rail Link Citizens Advisory Committee.)

ALL ABOARD! The New England
Rail Train is at long last leaving the station.

Earlier this month top
transportation officials of the six New England states endorsed an ambitious
regional rail plan that will give New England the opportunity to compete for
federal stimulus funds as well as the $8 billion the president and Congress
already have committed to intercity high speed rail.

The plan includes a series of
projects that will connect the region’s states to one another and the region to
the rest of the country. It will put thousands of people to work, revive some
key urban communities, and build a more secure foundation for the region’s
economic and environmental future.

The projects include:

•New Inland Route high
speed service from Boston to New York City via Worcester, Springfield,
Hartford, and New Haven, which will link and revitalize some of the region’s
oldest cities and most affordable and promising economic enterprise zones – as
will proposed new rail service to Fall River and New Bedford. The Inland Route
will also provide connecting service along a new Knowledge Corridor from
Springfield north to Montpelier, Burlington, and Montreal, connecting the
five-college area in and around Amherst with universities such as Dartmouth and
the University of Vermont. This would encourage the kind of academic and
technological excellence that is the key to New England’s future.

•New Capital Corridor
service between Concord and Boston – via Manchester, Nashua, and Lowell – which
will strengthen another important group of residential and employment centers
and ease the burden on a seriously overcrowded I-93 and highway system north of
Boston.

•Extension north along the
Maine Coast to Freeport and Brunswick of the already successful Amtrak
Downeaster service between Boston and Portland, with connections to the Maine
State Ferry Service. This will support the all-season tourism industry that has
long been a major element of the regional economy and quality of life.

•Completion of
environmental review and preliminary engineering for the North Station/South
Station Rail Link – for which federal funds have already been requested by
Governor Patrick. This project would link North and South Stations by an
underground rail tunnel, thereby extending the Amtrak Northeast Rail Corridor
north of Boston and finally connecting all the pieces of the commuter rail
system in a way that will make it possible for people to leave their cars at
home and get to Logan Airport.

The regional rail plan came
none too soon. The region is already behind the Midwest and California, both of
which have been working on regional rail plans for at least the past decade;
other parts of the country are racing to catch up. New England is even behind
the rest of the Northeast Corridor, where our partner states to the south have
been hard at work, with new rail tunnels between New York and New Jersey
already approved, along with roadbed improvements between New York and
Washington that will reduce Acela running times to about two hours.

But now that there is a
rail plan for New England, it is time to act. The Obama administration has
already received over $100 billion in state applications for the $8 billion on
the table. The New England governors working our congressional delegations need
to push – and push hard – to join California and the Midwest at the front of
the federal line. And Massachusetts has a special role to play in this effort:
We are the biggest state in New England, and virtually every element of the new
regional rail plan is connected to or through us.

Working together, we have a
not-to-be-missed opportunity to set the stage for a vibrant and expanding New
England economy of the future.

Tags: