Opinion

Putting the Pioneer Valley Back on Track

A $70 million federal grant to rebuild the Pioneer Valley’s main, north-south rail line has generated excitement and anticipation across the region. Another $210 million of committed rail-corridor grants in neighboring Connecticut and Vermont underscores the strategic importance of this critical Northeast rail link connecting New York City with Montreal.
Next year, this $70 million award will begin funding the wholesale rebuilding of the rail line from Springfield north to Vermont — construction work that will take 24 months to complete. Thus, by 2013, we can look forward to rail passenger service being reintroduced and expanded to Holyoke, Northampton, and Greenfield, which all lost service in 1989 due to poor, unsafe track conditions. Rail revitalization constitutes a game changer, enabling the Valley to regain an asset that’s crucial to a prosperous and sustainable future.
The opportunity for the Valley’s 700,000 residents to access metro centers including New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, plus major Northeast Corridor mega-regions like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, is a rail benefit most area residents understand and are eager to take advantage of. Less known are the ways new and improved rail service constitutes an economic engine providing a powerful catalyst that spurs development and employment opportunities, especially around the stations that will serve thousands of train riders.
As has been demonstrated in the U.S. and around the globe, the introduction of intercity and/or commuter rail service stimulates new economic-development opportunities, which, locally, are projected to exceed $240 million in value. In the specific case of the Knowledge Corridor, a variety of economic opportunities are anticipated:
• Fostering transit-oriented developments in and around rail stations along the rail corridor that grow residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments by taking advantage of their proximity to rail; think of Springfield’s $70 million redevelopment of Union Station or Greenfield’s new Intermodal Center.
• Connecting rail-passenger services to transportation providers such as PVTA’s regional system and intercity carriers like Peter Pan Bus Lines; think PVTA and Peter Pan bus services feeding Five College students to new rail stations in Northampton and Holyoke.
• Reducing the Pioneer Valley’s overreliance on single-occupant automobile trips at a time of intensifying concerns about the cost and reliability of worldwide energy supplies and stark warnings about the urgent need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
• Linking rail service to Bradley Airport and, by so doing, boosting transit ridership while gaining air travelers from both Connecticut and Massachusetts; think affordable and congestion-free rail access to Bradley.
As we await the start of reconstruction on the region’s north-south rail corridor, no one should overlook the importance of reinvigorating the east-west rail line connecting Springfield to Palmer, Worcester, and Boston. The Mass. Department of Transportation will soon launch a long-awaited, $1.9 million planning study to address this designated high-speed rail corridor.
Passenger trains are capable of moving people quickly, efficiently, comfortably, and safely. In addition, they are environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and positively contribute to enhanced levels of national security by reducing our reliance on scarce natural resources. These benefits, coupled with the ancillary economic-development and job gains, add up to a significant and impressive return on investment that’s bolstered by a highly favorable 3-to-1 benefit-cost ratio. Given these favorable metrics, we can’t afford to forfeit these benefits nor the increased property-tax revenues generated from transit-oriented developments.
More than a century ago, as railroads emerged as a major force in growing and connecting a young nation, it was a small clique of local, private investors who used their funds to ensure that Springfield would be located adjacent to the rail lines that would connect the Commonwealth to a rapid westward expansion. These investments spurred Springfield’s growth into the region’s largest urban center.
Now, 170 years later, Pioneer Valley residents are once again confronted with the question of whether to invest in rebuilding a rail network capable of transporting the Valley into the 21st century and thereby achieve the sustainable success that will keep the Valley connected, competitive, compact … and special. v

Timothy Brennan is executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission; (413) 787-1547.