Local, state officials talk disproportionate impact of PILOT programs on Western Mass. communities >State Auditor Suzanne Bump met with state Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Sunderland, and Rep. Susannah Whipps I-Athol, and town officials atop Mount Sugarloaf on Friday morning. Staff Photo/Paul Franz >State Auditor Suzanne Bump met with local legislators and town officials atop Mount Sugarloaf on Friday morning. Staff Photo/Paul Franz >The view south from Mount Sugarloaf on Friday morning. State Rep. Natalie Blais said, pointing out to the valley below Mount Sugarloaf, “We are protecting these views, we are protecting this land, but at the expense of our communities.” Staff Photo/Paul Franz
East-west Rail Along Route 2 Could Reap Myriad Benefits
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‘We are hungry for rail’: Legislators hold meeting prior to Route 2 passenger service study > > >Published: 7/13/2021 4:56:34 PM
Imagine you live in Greenfield in 1956. It’s Bill Russell’s rookie year with the Boston Celtics and you’ve got tickets to a game at the Boston Garden.
You go to the local train station and at 2:55 p.m. board a car that is already half full, having connected people in Troy, N.Y., at 12:45 p.m., North Adams at 1:51 and Shelburne Falls at 2:28. You step off the train in Boston’s North Station at 5:15 p.m. and still have time for dinner before the game starts.
The yellow line on this map marks the prospective route that will be studied by the state Department of Transportation. PROVIDED BY MAINE RAIL GROUP
Three words that popped onto computer screens Tuesday seemed to capture the terrain ahead, as dozens of civic leaders gathered online to bless an effort to restore passenger rail service across the top of the state.
âOpportunities and Constraints.â
Lots of both, actually.
The phrase appeared on a slide early on, as Makaela Niles of the state Department of Transportation described her teamâs plan, over the next year-and-a-half, to gauge the feasibility of enabling people to travel by rail between North Adams and Boston. Like an earlier study of east-west passenger rail travel across the stateâs midsection, including Pittsfield, this venture was ordered up by the Legislature.