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Category Archives: transportation

Baker Road to Rail

Analysis: Baker Completes His Conversion on the Road to East-West Rail…

Whether a gentle laying on of hands or a less voluntary conversion, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is now a believer.

At a press event at Union Station in Springfield and alongside US Representative Richard Neal, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker endorsed a plan to establish a rail authority to oversee the implementation of East-West rail service.

New Eras in DC, Boston Favor East-West Rail…& Perhaps Lesser, Too…

LONGMEADOW—Some months ago, a stone-faced Senator Eric Lesser appeared on a split screen with Governor Charlie Baker during a committee hearing on the early vaccine campaign. Lesser laid into Baker, for a botched website rollout among other errors. His Excellency expressed visible frustration.

Running Low Ridership Figures out of Town on a Rail…

UPDATED 2/13/20 8:33AM: To identify one of the speakers based on another media report. SPRINGFIELD—On Wednesday night, supporters of added rail service between Western and Eastern Massachusetts packed a room at the UMass Center in downtown for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation first public hearing

Newtonville Station

The Trans-Commonwealth RR: Newton Service So Close… & yet So Far Away…

NEWTON—The same highway and rail line that divide Boston also splits Newton. In the capital city, the corridor separates neighborhoods from each other. Here, it pierces several of this city’s villages. Frothing traffic spills out into veins of streets, branching outward from the Turnpike. The Worcester Line tracks and dismal stations along I-90 provide little relief.

Editorial: On East-West Rail, the Legislature Still Must Speak…

Some time ago the Massachusetts Department of Transportation—or simply MassDOT—announced plans to replace an aging viaduct east of the former Allston Turnpike tolls in Boston. The agency will bring the Pike to ground and elevate the adjoining Soldier Fields Road. That decision was widely praised.