We are citizens of Palmer, Massachusetts and surrounding towns who support the restoration of passenger rail service to our historic downtown.
We are thrilled and grateful that Governor Healey has proposed $4 million to prioritize a Palmer Station rail project in her FY2024 budget, demonstrating that her administration understands the value of trains stopping in Palmer and serving residents of the 21 towns of the Lower Quabbin Region. This would be a suburban station, attracting riders […]
We can’t help but take a victory lap now that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has finally decided to design and build East-West passenger rail and revive train service on the Inland Route between Worcester and Springfield. The money tells the story: Last August [2022] the state legislature passed, and Governor Baker later signed, a transportation […]
We were middle-aged and lifelong residents of the Boston area when we moved to the Pioneer Valley in 2002 in search of more affordable housing. The smaller towns and cities in Central and Western Massachusetts have long attracted people like us with their abundance of reasonably-priced homes and a less hectic lifestyle. What’s missing from […]
Connecticut’s Capitol Region Council of Governments has released a study detailing the enormous economic benefit of revitalizing the Metro Hartford-Springfield passenger rail corridor between New York City and Boston. “The proposed [Inland Route] rail improvements would bring 20,000 to 40,000 professional services jobs, extensive transit-oriented development, and $47 to $84 billion in new regional GDP […]
Letter urging Governor Baker & Secretary Pollack to make Springfield-Palmer-Worcester the 1st phase of East-West train service
Comment to MassDOT on [DRAFT] East-West Passenger Rail Study Submitted by Citizens for a Palmer Rail Stop 11/19/20 In June 2020, Secretary Pollack expressed the hope that the East-West Passenger Rail Study would lay the groundwork for moving the idea of higher speed rail between western Massachusetts and Boston by way of Worcester from a […]
Take action to make East-West rail a reality: Submit your comment on the draft report through Thursday, November 19, using the East-West Rail Study Comment Form on the MassDOT website — https://bit.ly/3m8TipX [DRAFT] East-West Passenger Rail Study Final Report — https://www.mass.gov/lists/east-west-passenger-rail-study-documents [the 5-chapter draft report is the first document on this web page]
MassDOT’s draft East-West Passenger Rail Study Final Report begs the question of how easily our state government can waste $1 million of taxpayers’ money on a misguided, flawed, and ultimately useless study. Rather than become mired in cynicism at the perfidy of state officials, let’s tell them we’re mad as hell & we aren’t going […]
In their analysis of the final three East-West passenger rail alternatives, MassDOT and its study consultants have greatly underestimated the social, environmental, and economic benefits of expanded train service between Boston and Western Mass. Is this another attempt, similar to the original low ridership estimates issued in February, to derail east-west train service across the […]
Palmer’s passenger rail future remains on track! A stop in Palmer is included in all three final alternative plans that will be subject to further analysis during the last stage of MassDOT’s East-West Passenger Rail Study. On June 25 Astrid Glynn, MassDOT Rail & Transit Administrator, notified members of the East-West Study’s Advisory Committee that […]
