NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A proposed passenger rail service linking North Adams to Boston via the Pan Am Southern route through the Hoosac Tunnel would cost about $2.19 billion according to a presentation last week by Massachusetts Department of Transportation officials.
The Berkshire Eagle newspaper reports that the Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study was launched under a 2019 law. Costs, projected ridership, and potential station locations remain rough estimates, according to Makaela Niles, the study’s project manager, during a presentation in North Adams, a community of 13,000 in the far northwest corner of the state, about 130 miles from Boston.
Consultants from HNTB Corp., contracted by the state to study the project, presented two plans for the service: A $1.04 billion version would involve less upgrade to the route but result in a travel time of about four hours; the $2.19 billion version would see more upgrades and result in a travel time of about three hours, competitive with driving time.
Preliminary plans call for stations in North Adams, Greenfield, and Fitchburg en route to Boston, and up to five round trips per day. Initial ridership projections from Boston range from 20,000 to 50,000 passengers annually.
More information on the study is available at this page on the MassDOT website.
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