Analysis: Slow Train of Compass Rail Coming; but Is That Sufficient?…
SPRINGFIELD—At the risk of succumbing to cliché, Compass Rail, nee East-West Rail, is on track. The money is in place to bring service into being and more is on the way. The press conference that local, state and federal officials held on April 22 projected confidence in this eventual result. Per the timelines outlined, though, this project is hardly high-speed.
There is plenty of rail work afoot, nonetheless. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is looking at reconfiguring tracks at Union Station. This would allow for some operational flexibility. Just outside the station, Amtrak, which owns the line from Springfield to New Haven, has state-of-good-repair work in store for the city. Plus, Connecticut is moving ahead with work that will further service to Springfield.
“A big reason why I joined MassDOT was just because of the ambitious plans that Massachusetts has for passenger rail,” said Andy Koziol, the state’s West-East Rail Director. “So, there's a lot on our plates right now. Things are in different phases. We have things in planning and things in design. Projects, that are in the near term, will be under construction.”