Poll: should South Coast Rail to Falls River/New Bedford be built?

[beautifulplanet]

As there was a recent thread about it, this poll is about a commuter rail project in Massachusetts, where Boston MBTA commuter rail's current Stoughton line is to be extended to Fall River and New Bedford. Though this project called "South Coast Rail" has already been intensely studied and some preliminary works already have been done, and though there are commitments to get the passenger service in place, by both the current outgoing administration and by the two main candidates for governor, there still is a significant amount of funding needed, and to some, it does not seem sure yet that the line definitely will be built.

In the following there is a map of the proposed route and station locations:

After several routes were evaluated, the Stoughton Alternative has been chosen. New Bedford (population 95,072) and Fall River (population 88,857) will be connected to Boston within 77 and 75 minutes respectively. Also several new intermediate stops, among them Taunton (population 55,874) will be served, see map.

The proposed service is supposed to be delivered by electric traction, which would be a first for MBTA commuter rail. So far, all commuter rail services in the Boston metro area are diesel-powered, even though the current Providence line is a diesel operation under a wire, so possibly the start of South Coast Rail service could also help other MBTA lines to switch to electric traction and see improvements regarding speed, passenger comfort as well as health and the environment. Up to now, MBTA possibly would go for an electric push-pull configuration, while it would be possible to use designs similar to Bombardier Twindexx EMUs that can be coupled/uncoupled within minutes, so theoretically f.e. one 4-car EMU coming from New Bedford and one 4-car EMU coming from Fall River could be coupled in Taunton, then continue as one 8-car consist towards Boston. Still even without the use of quick-accelerating EMUs like Twindexx or Stadler KISS EMUs, traditional electric push-pull consists already offer substantial time savings when compared to diesel operations.

Among the measures that have already been taken towards passenger rail service is installation of approximately 42,000 rail ties and spikes along 33 miles of right-of-way leading to Fall River and New Bedford, the purchase of 30 miles of track, Taunton to Fall River and New Bedford from CSX Transportation by the state of Massachusetts, and rebuilding of three New Bedford rail bridges.

Besides bringing rail service to a part of the state without passenger rail for decades, starting the service, construction the rail line and the stations is estimated to create 8,000 jobs, with 3,500 permanent jobs to follow after construction is finished. The cities along the route have plans to seize the economic development the rail line would bring, and made plans for transit oriented development.

More information can be found on South Coast Rail's official website:

http://www.southcoastrail.com

 

[John Bredin]

I voted yes, though hearing about it for the first time, because it's a "no-brainer" to bring rail service to three cities of that size that close to Boston.

The electrification plan surprises me. If I was cynical, I'd consider it sacrificial, a "shoot for the moon" negotiating point that planners would be fully prepared to throw first to pursuing cost-cutting wolves to ensure the service extension as a whole goes through. If the T really wanted to electrify as more than a "somewhere over the rainbow" wish, they'd begin with electric rolling stock for Providence service.

 

[neroden]

This is probably the weakest rail project proposed in the state of Massachusetts, but I still support it -- for two reasons.

(1) If they really do electrify from day one, maybe they'll finally start electrifying the rest of the system.

(2) Politically, these are the last dense conurbations without passenger rail service in Massachusetts. This is basically it. (After this, there's a few small cities along the Pan Am line, I guess.) Having this operating should kick several more counties into the consistent-votes-for-rail column. At that point Massachusetts may be able to get *serious* about rail and start upgrading the stuff closer to Boston, building interstate lines, etc.

 

[beautifulplanet]

Thank you to everyone posting here, and thank you for everyone participating in the poll.

So far the results are (not having voted in the poll myself):

0 votes for "No, should not be funded, and not be built".

8 votes for "Yes, should be funded and built".

On the subject matter, the election on November 4 resulted in Charlie Baker being the new governor-elect of Massachusetts.

The Standard-Times, a newspaper based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, that also endorsed Mr. Baker, conducted a post-election interview that also included the topic of rail:

Q: What initiatives will we see to advance South Coast Rail and when?

A: “There’s already a process going on right now that started recently that involves a series of planning and permitting, a $200 million process that started a few months ago … We’re obviously going to continue. That in some ways is a big step, and certainly something we support.”

source:

Post-election interview: Baker says he backs rail, wind projects

By Jonathan Carvalho
November 7, 2014

By Jonathan Carvalho

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20141107/NEWS/141109478

Many might be curious to see if and how this project moves forward.

 

[Anderson]

While he's a Republican, it does at least bear noting that he faces thumping Democratic majorities in both houses. In 2012 the Republicans wound up with less than 30 seats (versus over 120 for the Dems) in the House, and the Senate was a similar story (4 Republicans out of 40). Even after this year, the situation is barely improved (34 in the House and 6 in the Senate for the GOP)...

...and astoundingly, this is actually an improvement versus where things were before 2010. For a while the GOP didn't even have 20 members out of 160 in the House (though their Senate numbers have bounced around in the 4-6 range for a while).

 

[beautifulplanet]

Thank you for your post.

While he's [Charlie Baker, new governor-elect of Massachusetts] a Republican, it does at least bear noting that he faces thumping Democratic majorities in both houses.

Yes, indeed, it's worth to note that. Thank you for adding this info here.

On a side note completely irrelevant to the thread's topic itself, some might think it's really peculiar how a such a solidly blue state (which also shows looking at the party's representation in the state legislature), with interruptions in the last decades still time and time again votes a Republican governor into office. Some might think, it is as if a solidly red state like Texas voted a Democrat governor into office, despite state legislature being overwhelmingly Republican - which might be a silly comparison of course, as there might no similar state with Massachusetts' voting patterns on the other side of the political spectrum.

Getting back on-topic, at least to some it will be interesting to see how the state legislative will try work with the governor, to successfully move this project forward.