Region gets on board for passenger rail

This is an opportunity that will not avail itself again, and now is the time to move on an east-west rail project that will be transformative for all of Massachusetts.

to work every day are not in a qualified retirement plan.

My bipartisan bill “Secure 2.0” passed through the omnibus legislation in December and will make it easier for more Americans to save for a financially secure retirement. The bill expands automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans and enhances the start-up credit, making it easier for small businesses to sponsor a retirement plan. After a lifetime of hard work, Americans shouldn’t have to wonder how they’ll afford to put food on the table, pay for health care or keep a roof over their heads.

Another investment we made to lower costs while investing in Americans’ health and our future climate security was the Inflation Reduction Act. This bill lowers health care and prescription drug costs for millions as it forces Big Pharma to negotiate lower prices, caps the cost of drugs and insulin for seniors on Medicare, and locks in lower health insurance premiums that will save 13 million Americans an average of $800 a year. And the Inflation Reduction Act’s focus on clean energy, energy efficiency and clean manufacturing will generate 9 million good paying jobs.

As we begin 2023, I look forward to continuing to advance the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to fix our roads and bridges, update our water systems,

Boosters believe expanded service on cusp of reality

By JiM K iNNey jkinney@repub.com

The platform at Greenfield’s John W. Olver Transit Center is unusually busy on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

People are waiting on Amtrak’s southbound Vermonter chatting amongst themselves about destinations — New York’s Penn Station, Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station — and about what they’d been up to in Western Massachusetts: skiing, teaching, seeing family, living here but working at an employer at the other end of the rail.

It’s a scene rail boosters and economic developers believe can happen more often if there is more rail service in the area, both east-west and north-south and both on the main line from Boston west to Worcester, Springfield and Pittsfield or on the northern tier through Greenfield and North Adams.

The Western Massachusetts Passenger Rail Commission had already hosted its second meeting in the Olver center earlier that day. The body is tasked with setting up governance and funding for an expansion of rail, particularly east-west rail. The trains will likely be run by Amtrak with Amtrak selling the tickets, doing the marketing and serving the food. But the state needs an entity to do the financing, the oversight and to apply for federal money.

Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner visited Springfield in August, taking a tour of the east-west rail line with U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and thenGov. Charlie Baker in a special theater car outfitted with windows and video technology allowing a view of track that needs repair.

“We need to rediscover the power of passenger rail to make our nation mobile and sustainable for the future,” Gardner said at the time. “Let me tell you, we are well on our way to making this a national intersection again.”

As former state Sen. Eric P. Lesser, still a member of the commission, observed, what was considered a pipe dream six years ago is now, literally, on the desk of rail aficionado and President Joe Biden.

Biden, who famously commuted by Amtrak as senator, made the rounds in late January announcing federal money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for rail tunnels in New York City and Baltimore.

In December, the state Department of Transportation and Amtrak, with support from CSX, applied for $108 million in funding from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program.

The money will facilitate two Amtrak Inland Route daily round trips as a first phase of corridor improvements that improve connections within Massachusetts between Boston, Worcester, and Springfield and to communities beyond the commonwealth in Connecticut and New York City. Amtrak has said it will likely, at first, identify some of its Hartford-Springfield trains and send them on to Boston.

The $108 million could also improve speeds on CSX-owned tracks between Worcester and Springfield.

The infrastructure improvements could result in increased train speeds and additional corridor capacity along the 53-mile section of the CSX Boston & Albany, increase the maximum speed to 80 mph and minimize train delays along the 44-mile single-track segment.

In addition, a track siding