This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
07/18/2017 12:00 AMTo the relief of local and state elected officials, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced that its final plan for improving the Northeast Rail Corridor now will not include construction of a new high-speed rail bypass line.
That earlier plan, announced early in 2016, was universally opposed by local and state elected officials: To achieve an estimated 30-45 minutes savings in travel time from New York to Boston, the inland bypass route would have added two parallel tracks along the current rail right-of-way as far as Old Saybrook and then turned inland to end at Kenyon, Rhode Island. Officials argued this plan would have bypassed local train stations and destroyed shoreline communities’ character, yet yield only a minimal benefit at great cost.
The shift was announced by FRA in its Record of Decision (ROD) on the Preferred Alternative for improving the rail corridor; the ROD was released on July 12. The new strategy will focus instead on improving the northeast rail corridor’s reliability and capacity through infrastructure upgrades, targeted work on fixing choke-points in the rail line, scheduling management, and other changes.
“This is a big win for southeastern Connecticut and the shoreline towns. I’m happy for Old Saybrook,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr. “My understanding is that the [rail] bypass to Rhode Island has been removed from the FRA ROD—no new bridge, no new tunnel. I’m hopeful this means that the town of Old Saybrook’s train station remains where it is and that Amtrak service will continue.
“We are making the train station a center of our town. If that is now staying, we have the ability to plan,” continued Fortuna.
The FRA’s earlier high-speed rail bypass route proposal unveiled in 2016 could have posed a threat to this outcome.
Shoreline lawmakers praised the FRA’s shift away from construction of a high-speed rail bypass to focus on improving the infrastructure of the existing rail corridor. State Senator Paul Formica (R-20), State Representative Devin Carney (R-23), and State Senator Art Linares, Jr. (R-33) all made public statements last week in favor of the FRA’s July 12 announcement.
“This fight has been going on for over a year and a half and I am thrilled that the thousands of voices within the 23rd District and beyond were heard loud and clear,” said Carney. “I want to thank all of the federal and state lawmakers, municipal leaders, non-profit groups, and, most importantly, my constituents who worked with me and others to express our collective opposition to this proposal.”
The ROD released last week is just one milestone in the long federal planning process that will lead to actual on-the-ground fixes to what ails the Northeast Rail Corridor (NEC). The ROD summarizes the environmental impact of the chosen alternative, that is, making improvements to the existing rail line corridor. Another environmental impact assessment (EIA) will be required to review the impacts of specific rail corridor improvement projects such as bridge or track replacements, once finalized.
The new FRA rail corridor plan has these four elements: 1. Improve rail service; 2. Modernize NEC infrastructure through “corridor-wide repair, replacement and rehabilitation of the existing NEC to bring the corridor into a state of good repair and reliability”; 3. Expand rail capacity to “add infrastructure to achieve service and performance through investments that add capacity, increase speeds, [and] eliminate choke-points.” 4. A study of the New Haven to Providence line capacity.
In Connecticut, the EIA states the planned improvements include upgrades to Connecticut River bridges,the New Haven line bridges, and development of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield rail project.
Not yet identified in this first phase EIA are the specific infrastructure projects needed to increase the capacity of the rail corridor from New Haven to Providence, now that the high-speed bypass line has been rejected. These specific projects and their potential impact would be described in FRA’s Tier II EIA for rail corridor upgrades.
The improvements that the FRA report and studies envision are elements in FRA’s long-term plan to improve the capacity and reliability for passenger rail within the Northeast Corridor through the year 2040. The FRA ROD for the Northeast Corridor Future is posted at www.necfuture.com.