MassDOT's Adams Rail Line Project Falling Short of Station
Selectman John Duval attended the meeting in Pittsfield to urge MassDOT officials to finish the 6/10 of a mile needed.
In 2014, taxpayers in Adams reluctantly put up funds to purchase and renovate a former Hoosac Street car wash into the Adams Station, an end point to the Berkshire Scenic Railway's Hoosac Valley Service.
The idea to run Berkshire Scenic Railway trains between Adams and North Adams was first announced in 2013 and plans were laid to fix up the Pan Am lines from Burke Construction to North Adams. An additional 6/10th of a mile of track from there to Hoosac Street in downtown Adams was to be constructed with the expansion of the Ashuwiliticook Rail Trail.
Since then, the first part of the tracks were reconstructed and the Berkshire Scenic Railway has operated on those. The train station was fully renovated with the Department of Conservation and Recreation contributing $386,820 and the town paying some $230,000. The contract for the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail expansion to Lime Street has been awarded.
But that last 6/10th of a mile of track to bring the train into the station on Hoosac Street is still unknown and local transportation planners say they can't find it anywhere in the state Department of Transportation's five-year capital plan released this week.
"We've put a lot of money in our community up front and we look like the horse's ass when we've got a half of a mile to get to a building we've already fixed up," Selectman Joseph Nowak told MassDOT Director of Planning David Mohler on Thursday when the state agency released the capital plan for the next five years.
Selectman John Duval told Mohler the town of Adams already has a high tax rate so getting citizen approval to renovate the station was a tough task. But, the townspeople believed in the project and believed that the tourism and attraction will help improve the businesses downtown.
"The taxpayers of Adams invested that kind of money into that building with the issues we have, because of the benefits that will bring us to the downtown," Duval said. "This project will have a major impact on the economic development of our downtown which is sorely in need of restaurants and businesses."
Mohler released the plan but with thousands of projects, not every project was discussed. Instead, he broke the $14.4 billion plan into departments — such as rail, highway, regional transit authorities, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and aeronautics -— and by the type, as in a repair to current infrastructure, expansion projects, or modernization.
He said the Registry of Motor Vehicles will be seeing some $120 million to upgrade computer systems. The MBTA will receive some $6.5 billion for the south coast expansion to Fall River and to extend the green line past Lechmere and into Somerville. Some $7 billion will be spent on Chapter 90 highway funds for cities and town.,
He said there is some $7 million going to the Pittsfield Municipal Airport and that bicycle trail — including the expansion of the Ashuwillticook Rail Train into Pittsfield to Crane Avenue — will see a boost in funding. There is also money eyed for the Housatonic Rail Line in south county.
Clete Kus, transportation conversations he's had with various MassDOT officials, there appears to be support for the project and there is hope that the expansion will be programmed into the plan. But that uncertainty isn't sitting well in the community that renovated the station. Nowak said $1.5 million out the $14.4 billion plan would be enough to do it.
"It paid a lot of extra money that we really didn't have in order to secure this building. It was redone and it is going to be the end stop for the train," Nowak said. "It is becoming a focal point of the economic hopes of our community."
Kus handles the planning for transportation across the county. Finishing that last 6/10th of a mile is a project he urged MassDOT to fund.
"It looks quite foolish that we have that gap," Kus said.
Tags: Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, MassDOT, scenic rail, transportation,
