Project awards announced through the Federal State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program will advance two high-speed rail corridors (in California and Nevada) and fund improvements to eight existing rail corridors.

At the same time, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced 69(!) corridor selections across 44 states — as shown in detail on the map above — through the Corridor Identification and Development (Corridor ID) Program.

The Corridor ID awards aim to upgrade 15 existing rail routes, add or extend service on 47 new routes, and advance 7 new high-speed rail projects.

Corridor ID awards in our region include:
Boston & Albany Corridor | proposed new corridor
Hartford Line Corridor | improvements
Vermonter Corridor | improvements

Created by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Corridor ID program is an intercity passenger rail planning and development program that will help guide intercity passenger rail development throughout the country and create a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects ready for implementation.

Bottom Line — the Corridor ID program provides the funding to complete necessary planning work in advance of applying for federal grants to fund project design, permitting and construction.

Further reading

Takeaways From a Blockbuster Week for Trains Across America
High Speed Rail Alliance | December 8, 2023

Corridor Identification and Development Program Selections
Federal Railroad Administration | December 8, 2023

U.S. DOT Gives East-West Rail a Green Light

FRA Designates New “Boston & Albany Corridor”

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Friday announced a $500,000 grant from its Corridor Identification and Development program (Corridor ID) for a proposed intercity passenger rail corridor between Boston, Springfield, Pittsfield, and Albany, NY.

With the announcement of this award, the Boston & Albany Corridor (as it is now called) will be eligible to proceed to Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.

MassDOT and Amtrak’s announced intention is to establish two new round trip trains between Boston and Albany NY as a first step towards expanded service along the existing alignment that is currently being used by Amtrak’s long distance Lake Shore Limited service.

This announcement compliments the FRA’s recent grant award to fund planning, design and construction of early action projects for the Boston, Springfield, New Haven corridor — the Inland Route Corridor — as detailed in the post below.

# # #

FRA awards MassDOT $108 million for “Inland Route” Project

In late September the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded MassDOT $108 million in grant funding to support a major early action project in support of East-West Rail.

Press Conference | Springfield Union Station | September 22, 2023

The grant funding, which MassDOT applied for in partnership with Amtrak, and with support from CSX, was awarded from the FRA’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program.

The CRISI grant funding will go toward corridor infrastructure projects planned under the “Connecting the Commonwealth: Early Actions for the Inland Route Project” grant application, which was submitted in December 2022.

The FRAs award of funding for this project, in advance of approving the Corridor ID awards last week show the maturity of the planning work to-date for the Inland Route, under both the 2016 NNEIRI Study and the 2021 East-West Rail Study.

The Early Actions for the Inland Route project includes the following major elements:

Infrastructure improvements (as detailed in the diagram below) that will result in increased train speeds and additional corridor capacity along the 53-mile section of the CSX-owned Boston & Albany Line between Worcester and Springfield.
The extension of existing passing siding capacity and other track improvements to increase the Maximum Authorized Speed for passenger trains to 80 mph (where track geometry allows) and minimize train delays along the 44-mile single-track segment.
Increased operational efficiency and flexibility by reducing passenger and freight train conflicts and reducing travel times along the remaining single-track segments on the segment between Worcester and Springfield.

MassDOT Early Actions for the Inland Route Grant Application, Figure 1 | December 2022

This grant application was accompanied by a great many letters of support including a letter that was submitted by Trains In The Valley at the request of Amtrak. A copy of our letter of support can be found linked below.

Further information

Video: Announcement of Inland Route Funding Grant (27m)
Springfield Union Station | September 22, 2023

Inland Route CRISI Grant Letter of Support (PDF)
Trains In The Valley | November 29, 2023

MassDOT Announces “Compass Rail”

In October MassDOT Rail and Transit Administrator Meredith Slesinger delivered a presentation to the MassDOT Board of Directors that outlined MassDOT’s vision for a network of intercity passenger rail services through Springfield Union Station — with services running east, west, north and south from Union Station.

This new vision, as announced at the board meeting, will be known as Compass Rail.

Compass Rail presentation | October 18, 2023

With these major announcements there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that East-West Rail — or Compass Rail as MassDOT now calls the overall project — is moving forward, after years of dogged effort by our elected officials, regional planners planners, and rail advocates.

Further reading

“MassDOT Outlines ‘Compass Rail’ Vision for New Passenger Services in Western Mass”
By Christian MilNeil | StreetsBlog Mass | September 22, 2023

East-West Rail in Massachusetts
Trains In The Valley

Western Mass Rail Commission Report Released

Western Mass Passenger Rail Commission Meeting in Northampton | March 21, 2023

The Western Massachusetts Passenger Rail Commission quietly released its final report on November 21, 2023 — two days before Thanksgiving — and many months after it was due.

The legislature established this commission to, “investigate and receive public testimony concerning potential public entities with the ability to design, permit, construct, operate and maintain passenger rail service proposals from the East-West Passenger Rail Study Final Report.”

The Commission hosted six public hybrid meetings during late 2022 and 2023.

In a nutshell, the 117-page report did not recommend that the legislature create a new passenger rail authority to manage and oversee passenger rail in western Mass, as MassDOT said was necessary back in November 2021 during the Baker administration.

Instead the Commission’s report said that MassDOT should continue to be responsible for the build-out and execution of the state-supported intercity passenger rail program across the Commonwealth.

Further information

Report of the Western Massachusetts Passenger Rail Commission (PDF)
November 21, 2023

Western Mass. Passenger Rail Commission Overview
Trains In The Valley

Corridor ID Grant for the “Vermonter Corridor”

Amtrak Vermonter train 55 | By Elijah Lemay | Greenfield, Ma. | December 12, 2022

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Friday announced a $500,000 Corridor ID grant to the Vermont Agency of Transportation for proposed improvements to the Vermonter Corridor between Washington DC and St. Albans, VT.

The proposed improvement include:

adding frequencies (starting with an additional daily round trip between New York NY, and White River Junction VT)
reducing travel time (by 90 minutes between Springfield MA, and St. Albans VT), and
extending service north to Montreal (with the completion of a new U.S. Customs Preclearance facility at Montreal’s Central Station.)

VTrans would enter Step 1 of the FRA’s Corridor ID program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.

Its useful to note that a service development plan was prepared for the improvements to the Vermonter route between Springfield and St. Albans back in 2016. (a link to the plan can be found below.)

Much of this work would surely be used as a basis for an updated service development for this corridor in advance of a federal funding request to move one or more of these projects forward.

At this hour VTrans has not publicly commented on the award of this Corridor ID grant. Its safe to say though that some of what is envisioned here will take many years to accomplish.

Further reading

Boston-to-Montreal Route Service Development Plan
VTrans and MassDOT | June 2016

Valley Flyer Deep Drive

Amtrak train sets on Platform C at Springfield Union Station
January 28, 2023 | By Scott Ornstein

With this post we’re pleased to share a copy of freelance writer Scott Ornstein’s detailed article, “Western Massachusetts’ Valley Flyer,” which was published in Railpace Newsmagazine a few months ago.

Scott has been writing about transportation (mostly rail) for the past 40 years and has spent his career in the rail industry, including 30 years working for Metro-North Railroad in New York.

The full article can be found on the link below.

Western Massachusetts’ Valley Flyer (PDF)
By Scott Ornstein | Railpace Newsmagazine | July 2023
(Reprinted here with permission of the publisher)

We have three news worthy updates on the Valley Flyer service to pass along since Scott’s article was published.

The annual ridership for the Valley Flyer, at stations north of Springfield, came in at about 19,000 riders for Amtrak’s FY2023 fiscal year (which runs from October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2023.)

This level of ridership is a 36% increase above the FY2022 ridership which was about 14,000 riders.

Also, the fare structure and the fares for the Valley Flyer (to/from stations north of Springfield) seems to have been improved.

The fares apparently are now set at fixed rates for travel between all station pairs between Greenfield and New Haven CT — not just between the Hartford Line stations.

For example, the fare for travel between Northampton and New Haven is now fixed at $26 one-way no matter which day you travel or which Valley Flyer train you are on.

Before this change, Amtrak adjusted the fares for travel to/from stations north of Springfield based on demand or anticipated demand, with fares as high as $50 (Northampton to New Haven) at peak times.

And, fares for travel on the Valley Flyer within the Pioneer Valley have been reduced a bit.

Sample fares for one-way travel include: Springfield–Holyoke $8, Springfield–Northampton $10, Springfield–Greenfield $13. Clearly more expensive than the PVTA bus but far less expensive than a taxi or Uber.

We’re hopeful that in time the fares on the Valley Flyer will be integrated with the Hartford Line fares. As the fares stand today, a one-way trip on the Valley Flyer from Holyoke to New Haven costs $26, while a trip (on the same train) from Springfield is just $13.25.

Further reading

Ridership by station (Valley Flyer and Vermonter)
Trains In The Valley

Amtrak Cross Border Operations Report Released

Efforts to extend Amtrak’s Vermonter service to Montreal continue, at a snails pace.

Fourteen years has passed since Amtrak created a preliminary design for a preclearance facility inside Montreal Central Station, and a decade has gone by since the freight rail corridor between St. Albans Vermont and the international border was upgraded for future passenger service.

And four years has passed since the the Government of Canada announced that Canada and the U.S. brought into force the Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine, and Air Transport Preclearance between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America — that allows for a Preclearance facility to be created at Central Station.

From the little that we know, all of the parties involved have been meeting in earnest over the past few years to try to move this project forward, but real progress clearly remains limited.

We recently discover a report that Amtrak provided to Congress about a year ago detailed most of the issues that have delayed this effort.

The most challenging issues seems to be that there are so many parties — governmental, railroad, and other private parties in two countries — involved with the project, and that these parties sometimes, according to the report, have disparate interests.

Another challenging issues that apparently has yet to be resolved is who will actually pay for the preclearance facility in Central Station, and the required improvements to the 48-mile Canadian National Railway corridor between the international border and Montreal, which today limits passenger train speeds to 30 miles per hour over most of the route.

A promising new development came this past Friday when the Federal Railroad Administration awarded a $500,00 Corridor ID grant to the New York State Department of Transportation planning work related to the Adirondack Corridor.

The proposed improvements include the construction of a U.S. Customs Preclearance facility in Montreal.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) also received $500,000 grant under the Corridor ID program for improvements to the Vermonter Corridor. The proposed improvements include the extension of the Vermonter service north to Montreal (with the completion of a new U.S. Customs Preclearance facility at Montreal’s Central Station) which remains VTrans highest passenger rail priority at this time.

Further reading

Report on Cross Border Operations (PDF)
Amtrak | November 15, 2022

Vermonter Extension to Montreal
Trains In The Valley

New Hartford Line Coaches, On the Way

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) announced earlier this year that they are purchasing 60 brand-new rail cars for the Hartford Line and the the state’s other commuter rail lines.

External rending of new rail car | ALSTOM

The order calls for 41 trailer and 19 cab cars.

Interestingly the order includes an option for up to 313 additional cars. Where these additional cars would be used us not clear at the moment.

The new cars will replace secondhand coaches that were built by the Brazilian manufacturer Mafersta in 1991 and 1992. The Mafersta coaches were acquired from the Virginia Railway Express in 2004.

The new rail cars will have a two-by-two seating configuration, foldable workstation tables, onboard WiFi, power outlets, USB ports, a bicycle storage area and “panoramic balcony-style windows allowing for the flow of natural sunlight through the car’s interior, giving riders great site views,” according to CTDOT.

The new car order is not without some controversy.

The transit writer Alon Levy, who is a Fellow in the Transportation and Land Use program of the NYU Marron Institute, panned the cost of the CTDOT purchase.

In a piece that Levy penned for his well read transit blog Pedestrian Observations back in August he argued that each un-powered cars that CTDOT’s had ordered was about twice as much as the norm for an electric powered car purchased in Europe.

In late August a reporter for the CT Mirror wrote a story about Levy’s critique of the cost. The story said the reporter asked CTDOT to respond to six specific questions based on Levy’s analysis, and that CTDOT instead provided a general written statement and did not address the concerns.

As far as we are aware the new cars on the way, with the first deliveries in 2026.

Further reading

“Alstom to supply 60 single-level coach cars to the Connecticut Department of Transportation for its statewide rail system“
Press Release | Alstom | August 9, 2023

“Connecticut Pays Double for Substandard Trains”
By Alon Levy | Pedestrian Observations | August 12, 2023

Hartford Line | New coaches and cab cars
Trains In The Valley

Enfield CT Station Project Moves Forward

Artist rendering of proposed new train station in Enfield CT | CTDOT

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) hosted a public information meeting in October for the proposed new railroad station in Enfield.

The meeting was held to provide the public and local community the opportunity to offer comments and ask questions as CTDOT works to complete environmental and design work before the project is put out to bid.

Construction of the Enfield station was anticipated to begin in the spring of 2025, depending on the acquisition of rights of way and approval of permits.

But in November 2023 the Northeast Corridor Commission indicated in its FY2024-2028 Capital Investment Plan that the Enfield station project might be pushed back to a later date.

Further reading

Video | State Project 320-0005 Proposed Railroad Station in Enfield (1hr 27m)
Connecticut Department of Transportation | October 4, 2023

“Proposed Thompsonville train station would restore rail service to Enfield for first time since 1986”
By Susan Danseyar | Journal Inquirer | September 29, 2023

Pioneer Valley Railroad to be Acquired

Gulf & Atlantic Railways Ltd. is acquiring the 18-mile Pioneer Valley Railroad (PVRR) from its current owner, the Pinsly Railroad Co.

The PVRR is a short line railroad that serves numerous industries, warehouse operations and transloading facilities in the cities of Holyoke and Westfield.

Customers of the PVRR include propane suppliers, lumber yards, waste haulers and paper mills, as example.

PVRR operates a sister company in Westfield called Railroad Distribution Services which owns and manages logistics facilities with rail access.

Further reading

“G&AR to Expand Short Line Railroad Portfolio”
By Marybeth Luczak | Railway Age | September 13, 2023

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