State leaders and transportation officials gathered at Union Station in Springfield Wednesday, to hear the latest update on Massachusetts' plans for expanded passenger rail.
The plan is called 'Compass Rail', and residents will see the earliest project materialize around 2030, with the so-called Inland Route — or what officials are calling the first phase of West -East Rail — connecting Springfield to Worcester and Boston.
Announced at this update meeting was an injection of $1.2 million in federal funding to install new technology necessary to expand service north of Springfield.
Meredith Slesigner is the state's rail administrator.
"One of the limitations we've had so far on our Compass Rail program is that we are capped in the amount of service that we can run north of Springfield on the Knowledge Corridor," she said. "That's because we need to install positive train control, a federally mandated safety technology."
State Transportation Secretary Phillip Eng said the ultimate goal is to provide "reliable, frequent, accessible solutions to foster economic growth, housing development around the entire state."
Also present in Springfield was Andrew Koziol, the West-East Rail Director at the state department of transportation. He said the state already received a $108 million grant [awarded in 2023] to be used for the Inland Route phase of West-East Rail.
"We have that funding available to build track capacity in between Worcester and Springfield. That will allow us to run two round trips per day. And that is really the first tangible West-East Rail that we're going to see here in the Commonwealth," he said.
State officials said the full passenger rail plan to link much of the Commonwealth will likely take until around 2045 — assuming they can secure more federal investment in the future.
