Transportation Agenda In The News

SPRINGFIELD - A consumer advocacy group claimed yesterday that rising gasoline prices have eaten up the economic stimulus payments the government sent out this spring.

In light of this, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group renewed its call for more public transportation, including commuter rail and a refurbished Union Station in Springfield.

The number of miles an average American drives fell last year for the first time in 30 years, said Phineas R. Baxandall, a senior analyst with the group commonly known as MassPIRG.
    
"This is a watershed moment," Baxandall said at a press conference in front of Union Station.

When Congress passed the stimulus payments back in January, gasoline averaged $3.06 a gallon, he said.

Baxandall said the average American family was spending $60 a week on gas back then, now the average American family is spending $100 a week at the pump.

Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus ridership is up 6 percent for January through May compared with the same time period in 2007, said Mary L. MacInnes, PVTA administrator.

MassPIRG plans to have teams of college students going door-to-door this summer talking about the region's need for more public transportation options.

Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, said getting commuter trains rolling on those tracks would cost $300 million, including $30 million in work in Massachusetts.

Brennan, a rail booster, said Connecticut authorities are doing an environmental review on the project that could take 15 months. Then the project will be designed, then bid out for work. It could be five years, he said.

He is also pushing for track work north of Springfield that would allow Amtrak's Vermonter train to take a direct route north. Now, the Vermonter detours through Palmer on its way north.

David B. Panagore, the Springfield's chief development officer said he expects HDR Architecture in Boston to come back with a plan for redeveloping Union Station in the next 60 to 90 days if not before. The project will cost a maximum of $44 million in public funds, he said.

Other plans to revitalize the station failed because they were too ambitious. HDR has been told to stick to $44 million.

"Don't give us a project that would cost $100 million," he said. "We don't have $100 million."

The new plan will probably call for demolishing the old baggage area and halving the 200,000-square-foot building to a more-manageable 100,000 square feet.

Union Station opened in 1926 and has been closed since 1973. Panagore said the city owns it now.

Business writer Jim Kinney can be reached at jkinney@repub.com