Massachusetts state senator urges White House to consider Springfield to Boston HSR line

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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A state senator from Massachusetts is requesting the Trump Administration to include a proposed high-speed rail line between Boston and Springfield on future infrastructure priority lists.

State Sen. Eric Lesser (D- 1st Hampden & Hampshire) sent a letter to the White House urging the president to include the high-speed line as a priority following reports that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Green Line was included on a list of priority infrastructure projects.

“Upgrading our existing tracks to accommodate high-speed rail, and building the trains to travel them, would create thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — the very jobs you promised on the campaign trail you would bring back to the United States,” Sen. Lesser’s letter reads, in part.

In the letter, Lesser points to the fact that bringing back manufacturing jobs was a core tenet of Trump’s campaign for president, and notes that “Western Massachusetts is a region which has a lot in common with the regions of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin that delivered [Trump’s] victory.”

Lesser has reintroduced a bill to pass a feasibility study of east-west rail in the Massachusetts State Senate after the same bill passed the legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016.

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