Amtrak Launches Website For New Haven To Providence Capacity Planning Study

In 2016, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released a plan to bisect Charlestown with new high-speed track that would have crossed into Charlestown from Westerly, run from Charlestown’s western edge to its eastern edge, and finally reconnected with the existing railroad near the Great Swamp State Wildlife Management Area in South Kingstown.

Land in Charlestown and Connecticut was squarely in the middle of the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass.” The Bypass was the “preferred alternative” in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Tier 1 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

More than 16 organizations worked tirelessly against the Bypass, including Greg Stroud and his organization SECoast, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, and the Charlestown Town Council elected in 2016.

When the Federal Railroad Administration released its Record of Decision on July 12, 2017, and dropped the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” from the decision, it was great news and a big win for Charlestown. However, the Bypass was replaced by a required study that was needed to develop a new preferred alternative and that left Charlestown at risk for an alternative that would be similar to that of the Bypass.

Amtrak made an announcement on May 21, 2026, that the study required by the FRA’s 2017 Record of Decision had finally received federal government and other funding to proceed. Amtrak estimates that the study—the New Haven to Providence Capacity Planning Study—will take up to two years.

In early June, Amtrak launched a website, https://newhavenprovidencestudy.com/ that allows the public to sign up for the study’s mailing list and provide input. Included is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document. Amtrak says the website will be enlarged as the study progresses and more information becomes available.

The website includes a copy of Amtrak’s Outreach and Engagement Plan that details how stakeholders, including the general public, will be able to participate. But in a webinar for public officials on June 17, Amtrak officials were unable to specify which governments, public officials, organizations, agencies, or others have been included in their outreach. For instance, have the The Nature Conservancy and the The Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association been notified? The Carter Preserve and the National Wild and Scenic Wood and Pawcatuck Rivers were heavily impacted by the 2016 plan. The record of outreach should be made public so we can see who is being left out and work to get them notified.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more. We are committed to protecting Charlestown and the natural resources and public and private property that would be destroyed if anything like the “Old Saybrook to Kenyon Bypass” returns.