Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 4, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 9 West-East Rail With $108M, the new leader of the state's biggest passenger rail initiative seeks to get long-awaited project on track BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Staff Writer T hanks to a $108-million fed- eral grant, the Massachusetts Department of Transpor- tation is preparing to make progress on the long-awaited West-East Rail, a project expected to see an increase in passenger train service and designed to strengthen the link between the Eastern and Western Massachusetts. e first step in this process is enabling two daily Amtrak round trips between Boston and New Haven via Springfield, referred to as the Inland Route. On Feb. 6, Gov. Maura Healey an- nounced the appointment of Andy Koziol as the state's West-East Rail director. Koziol joined the department in June 2023 as director of rail & transit, follow- ing a 12-year stint at the Rhode Island Department of Transportation. WBJ sat down with Kozoil to discuss what needs to happen in order to make frequent west- east service through Worcester a reality. Let's start with the name. We've seen it referred to as East-West Rail, but now it seems that West-East Rail is the pre- ferred lingo. Is that intentional? Yes, it was certainly intentional. You'll still hear it both ways going forward. In 2021, the premier study on this topic was the East-West Passenger Rail Study, but it's a nod to putting west first. The idea of West-East Rail has evolved over the years, and the goal posts have shifted a bit as administrations and policy priorities change. How would you describe to the average resident what this project is at this moment? So West-East Rail is a component of our overall compass rail vision, the commonwealth-wide vision for intercity, passenger rail. e west-east component of this – opposed to the north-south, which is the largely existing line from New Haven to Springfield to Greenfield – is proposed to run from Boston to Springfield. We are moving forward to advance the outcomes of that study. However, it's going to be done incre- mentally, and the scope of it is going to be a little bit different. So incrementally, there's a program of projects. We'll start with the Inland Route, which will bring two passenger rail round trips from Boston to Springfield to New Haven. We are going to be evaluating Boston to Albany as a separate corridor. e reason we're extending the geograph- ic extent out to Albany really has to do with that characterization of the intercity, passenger rail rather than a commuter rail, which is a more city, business-focused. is is a different type of service to connect different metro areas. Albany, for example, has a lot of different options once you get there, as opposed to Pittsfield. How will this project lead to an improve- ment in the local economy? Mobility is a kind of foundational aspect of where people choose to live, where they choose to work, what sort of institutions they can reach, and what sort of services they can access. is added mobility as another option is really quite beneficial to the business community and local leaders. The current legislatively-mandated service area for the MBTA only reaches as far west as Leicester. How does this impact this project? I can't think of any particular impacts because this is a different type of service. It's not going to be operated by the MBTA. It's most likely going to be Am- trak-operated, much like our existing services on the north-south line. So any sort of service areas or legislation related to MBTA would not be relevant to this. After increasing daily Amtrak ser- vice between Boston and Springfield, what's the next immediate step toward West-East Rail travelers will notice?this project? A goal we have together with Amtrak is to increase frequencies in the future. But once those two roundtrips are add- ed, it gives us a lot of abilities to rework north-south services. We can have more transfers and meets at Springfield to make the service more usable. So if you want to travel from Greenfield to Bos- ton, you'll have that option of making a transfer at Springfield. It looks like Amtrak diesel trains are going to be the main focus here. How about electrifying the line? It's certainly something that's top of mind for us. Of course, there are some challenges. For one, these tracks are not wired, so that's a whole other aspect if you're going to electrify. en, there are other options as far as new technologies in locomotives coming up like bat- tery-electric, which are really not as well adopted in systems across the country. On top of that, since we do use Amtrak as our operator, it's almost like a turnkey operation. Working a brand new type of locomotive into their fleet and their mechanical staff is a big challenge. So it's something we've had put under consid- eration, but it's not an active project. What is the biggest infrastructure issue needing to be addressed? We see capacity as our biggest issue right now. Much of the line from Worcester going out to Springfield is single track. Even prior to executing funds for this recent inland award, we've already begun modeling – along with CSX and Amtrak – which will help us identify how to get those extra passenger round trips. Our early insight right now is adding areas of double tracking and some passing sidings. CSX owns the line west of Worcester. It seems like problems with freight traffic are a major cause of passenger rail delays across the country. Is the state actively looking to acquire this part of the line? Acquisition has not come up at this point. CSX does own the line from Worcester all the way into New York and beyond. So it's going to be a factor. It's something we're aware of and we've been working quite closely with CSX and quite amicably. rough funding we've received and some of the infrastructure proposals, we can really have it be a win-win for both where we can upgrade tracks to increase the capacity for pas- senger trains, but at the same time, there will be newer tracks for CSX. A bus trip from Springfield to Boston costs $10-$15. Travel time seems to be a main concern, but are there concerns the cost of the project will lead to ticket prices only the wealthy can afford? ere hasn't really been any sort of planning as far as what the fares would be. e fares we can anticipate are going to be pretty consistent with what you see on Amtrak for similar distances. How do you balance giving access to smaller cities and rural areas while decreasing overall travel times? It is an intercity service, so it's kind of unlike the MBTA Commuter Rail, which has frequent local stops. In general, we would seek to have limited new stops, but Palmer makes sense, considering its proximity to UMass Amherst. is interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Eric Casey. Andy Koziol, Massachusetts director of West-East Rail W PHOTO | EDD COTE

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