Massachusetts state Sen. Mark Montigny says he’s heard all the “hot air, promises and baloney” from former governors about a commuter rail extension long planned for New Bedford and Fall River.
As president of the Fall River Chamber of Commerce in the early 1990s, Montigny had a front-row seat for former Gov. William Weld’s promise for a commuter rail in southeastern Massachusetts by the turn of the century.
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As chairman of the state’s Ways and Means Committee, Montigny authored a law, signed by former Gov. Jane Swift in the summer of 2002, which would have had the commonwealth fund any overages of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s budget for the project. This law should have led to a completion date of this year, he said.
Now, Montigny, who represents parts of Bristol County, says he has another obstacle: Gov. Mitt Romney’s proclamation that any state funds for the rail project must be matched by federal funds, which has never been done before – even for the “$15 billion waste” on the Big Dig project, he said.
In 12 years as a member of the Massachusetts General Court, Montigny says he’s written nearly 15 pieces of legislation and allocated millions of dollars in bonds for the commuter rail expansion.
“(I’m) not giving up until this project is done,” he said.
The city of New Bedford shares his frustration.
Matt Thomas, city solicitor in New Bedford, said the city is taking steps to expedite the process of restoring the commuter rail line service that ended in the late 1950s.
The 25-acre site of the former New Bedford train station was a brownfield location that cost $5 million to clean up, said Thomas, which was paid for by the city. The process is nearly complete and the freight rail line will restart service by the end of the month, he said.
New Bedford Mayor Fredrick Kalisz Jr. met with the state’s congressional delegation to secure $20 million in federal funds in July that will be used for environmental studies that would make the state eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal aid and updates to the freight and commuter rail lines, said Thomas
John Carlilse, press secretary of the state’s executive office of transportation, said the project is on the “front burner” as part of Romney’s long-term transportation plan.
Construction at the two stations is slated to begin in 2011 and be fully functioning by 2015 as part of the plan, he said.
The whole project is expected to cost about $800 million, said Carlilse.
One of the biggest remaining obstacles, according to New Bedford officials and Carlilse, is the wetlands effects of a train passing through the Hockomock Swamp in Easton. Since the train no longer traveled through the area, the infrastructure is in disrepair along with the current environmental concerns, said Thomas.
Because of the new mandate to secure federal funds, the proposed site will have to undergo a National Environmental Policy Act study, he said.
Dave Tibbetts – a partner of Boston-based law firm Smith, Siegel and Sowalsky and facilitator for South Coast On Track, an alliance of public and private leaders looking to restore rail service to southern Massachusetts – said the MBTA is looking to choose a consultant for the environmental plan that will determine if the project is eligible for federal funds. The answer should come in early 2006, he said.
If the current route is not cleared for federal funding, the alliance and legislators will push for the state and the MBTA to pay for the commuter rail upgrade, as it does for most transportation renovation projects, said Tibbetts, noting that $425 million in state money, about half of the projected costs, was approved in 2004 by the state.
New Bedford and Fall River are the seventh- and eighth-largest cities in Massachusetts, respectively, and residents have “waited long enough” for commuter rail service, said Tibbetts.
Commuter rail service is the “last piece of the puzzle” to make New Bedford an intermodal transportation center in Massachusetts, adding to the already-existing highway access, freight train corridors and high-speed ferry service, said Thomas.
The commuter rail would bring economic development to the area and would offer people alternative forms of transportation that would allow them to leave their cars at home, said Carlilse.
