An Oct. 20 groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of the next step in upgrading passenger service on Amtrak's Vermonter.
Vermont Transportation Secretary Brian Searles joined officials from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - including Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, Congressman John Olver, D-Mass., and Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Richard A. Davey - and U.S. Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo to kick off reconstruction of the Pan Am Southern's rail line between East Northfield and Springfield, Mass.
The “Knowledge Corridor” project, so-called because of the number of colleges and universities near the rail line, will serve as the operating track for the Massachusetts segment of Amtrak's Vermonter passenger train when construction is completed in 2013.
Once part of the primary north-south route for trains between Montreal and New York City, this line has not seen passenger service since 1987, when track conditions deteriorated to the point that Amtrak rerouted its passenger trains through Amherst and Palmer, Mass., on the Central Vermont (now New England Central) Railroad.
This route change bypassed Greenfield, Northampton, and Holyoke, Mass., and added about 45 minutes of travel time between Brattleboro, Vt., and Springfield, Mass.
PanAm Southern freight trains currently use the track, but are not allowed to travel faster than 10 mph.
“The state of Vermont has been an ardent supporter” of the plan, Searles said. “Returning our passenger service to this line has been a goal since we first began the state-supported Vermonter service in April 1995.”
Searles said that revenue from increased ridership of the Vermonter will “aid Vermont in containing the future costs of providing this critical travel option for both residents and visitors to our state and the New England-New York region.”
This project will use a $73 million Federal Railroad Administration grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to undertake rail improvements along the right-of-way owned by PanAm Southern, a joint venture between Pan Am Railways and Norfolk Southern.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2012 and be completed in late 2013.
Included in the project are upgrades to Springfield's Union Station, and the replacement of 75,000 railroad ties and 50 miles of new rail and signaling for the right-of-way.
The project is expected to create more than 350 construction jobs.
Searles called the improvements “a key component of our effort to restore passenger rail service over the U.S.-Canada border into Montreal.”