CSXT deal will add Boston commuter trains

Written by jrood

Central Massachusetts commuters may have more rail options in about two years when CSX Corp. completes its expansion project in Worcester and the state is able to add more passenger trains, The Telegram & Gazette reports.

Rather than ending at South
Station in Boston, some of those new trains may end at North Station, by way of
Cambridge, "linking the Worcester biotech hub with the MIT-Cambridge
biotech hub," said Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray.

State transportation
officials are planning to add trains between Worcester and Boston in 2012 so
there will be at least 20 trains in and 20 trains out of Worcester each
weekday. Currently, 13 trains leave Union Station in Worcester each weekday and
12 arrive there. Some of the new trains — perhaps half — could end at North
Station, Murray said. A final schedule would be approved after public input.

"We’re giving
Worcester and MetroWest additional transportation options," Murray told
the Telegram & Gazette.

The new option is possible
because the state is close to closing the first part of a major deal with CSX,
which will allow the state to control track along Massachusetts’s south coast,
as well as the Grand Junction track in Boston.

The 7.9-mile Grand Junction
track begins in Allston and travels through Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea and
across Chelsea Creek into East Boston. The track needs $5 million to $10
million in improvements before it can accommodate passenger trains, Murray
said. Once those improvements are complete, trains from Worcester could use the
Grand Junction track to get to Cambridge and East Boston. All trains from
Worcester to Boston would travel the same route until reaching Allston, where
some would divert northeast and others would continue east.

Murray said the new
rail connection could help boost economic development in Worcester and link the
city to "the biotech hub of the world."

But the new trains won’t be
available for a couple years. Commuters must wait for CSX to relocate its
freight operations from Allston to Worcester and Westboro. In Worcester, CSX is
enlarging its rail yards, located between Shrewsbury and Franklin streets, from
28 acres to 51 acres.

When CSX’s move is
complete, the state will close the next, crucial part of its deal with CSX, and
the track between Central Massachusetts and Boston will be freed up for more
commuter trains.

Through a deal announced in
2008, the state will pay CSX $40 million for track serving New Bedford, Fall
River and Taunton, as well as smaller pieces of track in Boston. After CSX’s
freight expansion in Central Massachusetts is complete, the state will spend
$50 million to buy a key stretch of track between Worcester and Framingham.

Meanwhile, the state is
raising several road bridges over railroad tracks between Interstate 495 and
the New York State line, and CSX is lowering track in several places so the
track can accommodate double-stacked freight trains.

CSX’s plan to make
Worcester a hub of freight operations has drawn some critics — especially
those upset about the planned closing of Putnam Lane — but the lieutenant governor
says residents have much to look forward to.

Additional trains, he said,
"will raise real estate values to homeowners and existing businesses.
Investment will accelerate dramatically. We’ll see significant and dramatic
private-sector investment that increases the tax base in the city."

The rail project will help
strengthen Worcester’s education- and biotech-based economy and create new
warehouse distribution and packaging jobs.

Murray said the state will
have enough cars and locomotives to serve Worcester-area passengers once new
trains are added to the schedule. Earlier this month, the Department of
Transportation’s Board of Directors approved the purchase or lease of up to
nine new commuter rail locomotives.

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