Planning For High Speed Rail That Avoids Charlestown
On December 16, 2016 the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released their Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to straighten the tracks of the Northeast Corridor over the next several decades. Charlestown was located within the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” section of the plan. At that stage it was a plan, not an action, but the line they drew through Charlestown, Westerly, and Old Saybrook area of Connecticut would have been harder to move as time went by, so community action and involvement were critical in removing it from the Record of Decision (ROD). The July 12, 2017 ROD calls for a study that could possibly bring back the Bypass.
That study has not yet begun, but for the last three years, another high-speed rail planning process, independent of the FRA, proposes a new route that would go inland through Connecticut instead of along the shoreline.
Called North Atlantic Rail, the plan is directed by well known planner Robert Yaro. The proposed new route would track to Long Island, cross Long Island Sound with a 16-mile tunnel to New Haven, and then north to Hartford. From Hartford it would travel east to UConn at Tolland Connecticut, and then on to Providence and Boston.
- The Connecticut Mirror has a story about the new plan.
- North Atlantic Rail has its own website promoting the plan.
- The Charlestown Citizens Alliance page on the FRA plan has the history of the Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass.
- Eco RI News has a story
We will be watching this new rail plan which has the potential to shift the damage to conservation areas from the coast to western RI. It moves the problem, but it doesn’t actually solve it.
Banner image is a photo of Virginia Lee speaking at the January 25, 2017 rally at the Rhode Island State House to drop the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” from the Federal Railroad Administration Tier 1 Final EIS. With her are Julie Carroccia, Loren Spears and others. The rally began with the announcement by then Charlestown Town Council President Virginia Lee that Governor Raimondo had just stated that she sided with South County against the Bypass.