Twelve-train limit
Union Station won’t see full schedule without additional $100m
The sticking pointsState officials say there are five major obstacles to adding more commuter rail service through Union Station. In no particular order: |
* Ridership - Although the 1,000 or so people that currently commute along the 10 round trips MBTA trains are considered a healthy number, not much is known about how ridership would change if more trains are offered. More studies might be needed to better guess.
* Funding - Estimates for the improvements needed to increase the daily number of trains are pegged at $80 to $100 million. And that’s if an agreement between CSX Corp. and the state can be reached to allow it.
* Track Capacity - Without improvements to tracks, bridges and related equipment between Worcester and Boston, commuters will likely never have more than the 12 round trips a day.
* Access - CSX Corp. owns the rights of way to the rail corridor from the NY border, through Framingham and into Boston. Their cooperation - or willingness to sell some those rights - is a crucial first step toward improving commuter rail service.
* Control - Even if CSX allowed the state to run the lines, who would control dispatching of the trains? CSX does so currently and would be unlikely to yield that right. The state manages dispatch for all its other rail lines, and would want to the same power over those to and from Worcester.
Without an investment of up to $100 million, Worcester’s Union Station will never see more than 12 round-trip trains to Boston per day, a senior state transportation official says. There are 10 right now.That statement by Deputy Secretary of Transportation Thomas Cahir at a recent forum on the future of Worcester’s commuter rail service in Worcester confirmed what local leaders - and CSX Corp., the line’s owner - have been saying for some time: No additional trains can run without costly improvements to track capacity.
Cahir says he is optimistic that the state and CSX Corp. are three to six months from a definitive agreement that would add two additional round trip trains to and from Union Station. Without that money, Boston-bound commuters are unlikely to get any improvements.
No move is currently afoot to look for the money, either, Cahir says.
Even if they had it, money isn’t the only obstacle (see chart). The state and CSX Corp. - the Jacksonville, FL-based freight hauler which controls the rail lines from the NY border, through Framingham and into downtown Boston - have wrangled for years about the best way to cooperate and meet their obligations to customers.
That’s disheartening news, says Julie Jacobson, assistant city manager in Worcester. The two additional trips would bring the total from the city to 12 a day - far below the 20 daily round trips that would constitute a "full schedule" of MBTA trains ferrying people to and from the Hub.
"We’re very thankful for the efforts the state has made so far, but for the city it’s still not what we want," she says.
That leaves both commuters and local businesses in a holding pattern. Planners see the trains as key to increasing traffic to the city’s entertainment as well as making Worcester and the surrounding area a more attractive place for commuters to live.
Between the hefty price tag and the slow progress of negotiations, many see the lack of trains at Union Station as an example of the state’s Boston-centric mindset.
"I know the world is flat, but it seems to go uphill to here from Boston," says Jack Healy, director of the Manufacturing Advancement Center in Worcester and a board member of the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
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