Berkshire Benchmarks Releases State of the County Update

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Benchmarks data team recently released a State of the County Update for 2023. 
 
This brief report builds on the Berkshire Benchmarks State of the County Report published in May 2022 and highlights notable changes in regional indicators over the past year. The berkshirebenchmarks.org website has also been updated to reflect the most current available data. 
 
The purpose of the Benchmarks initiative and report is to highlight the region's successes and challenges.
 
The 2022 Berkshire Benchmarks State of the County report provided a comprehensive overview of our region's performance across eight sectors: Economy, Education, Environment, Government, Health, Housing, Social Environment, and Transportation.  
 
In the future, the Berkshire Benchmarks team will continue to monitor these and other indicators to aid with the regional understanding of changes in these sectors and whether the work happening throughout the region is having the intended impact. 
 
Berkshire Benchmarks is a collaborative initiative managed through Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC). Our sources are publicly available data, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the American Community Survey, various Massachusetts data sets, and periodic surveys of Berkshire County residents. 
 
Berkshire Benchmarks aims to work with the community to understand priorities and help inform the region on how we are doing and if we are improving. Berkshire Benchmarks enhances the region's access to quality data and analysis. 

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MassDOT Schedules Hearing on Passenger Rail to Albany

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — As part of the East-West Rail proposal, the state wants to see how service could expand to Albany. 

Next week, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation will hold a virtual meeting for a Service Development Plan to explore a passenger rail between Boston and Albany, N.Y. 

The Zoom event will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. 

MassDOT says this is a critical step toward advancing East-West Rail, which would connect Pittsfield and western communities to Springfield, Worcester, and Boston, and beyond. The project has been in progress for several years and was recommended in the 2018 Massachusetts State Rail Plan. 

The SDP will study how passenger rail service on the Boston and Albany Corridor would operate and how to get there. It takes about two years, and the next step is preliminary engineering and environmental review. 

In the SDP process, MassDOT will conduct stakeholder outreach, propose appropriate service levels, identify necessary infrastructure improvements, and establish a governance structure for service. 

Planned station stops include South Station and Back Bay in Boston, Framingham, Worcester, Palmer (proposed station), Springfield, and Albany-Rensselaer, according to the MassDOT website. 

Massachusetts completed the East-West Passenger Rail Study Final Report in early 2021, and in December 2023, the Boston & Albany Corridor was accepted into the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor ID Program; MassDOT was awarded $500,000 for an SDP. 

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